Before you can set the standard, you have to be honest about where you are.

The B2B publishing landscape of 2025 was the most demanding in a generation – and given how the previous few years had panned out, that is not a sentence to be taken lightly. AI overturned search behaviours overnight. Advertising budgets followed audience trust – and trust was harder to earn and faster to lose than ever. Sustainability shifted from editorial agenda to existential expectation: publishers were judged not on what they covered, but on how they operated.

The pressure was industrywide. And inside it, William Reed made an uncomfortable admission: they were not operating at the standard they were capable of.

Three moments crystalised it:

• A salesperson reached for the insight that would win the room. It wasn’t there. The moment – and the client – slipped away.
• A journalist’s landmark investigation vanished without trace – undiscoverable and unread.
• An executive in Singapore navigated four disconnected sites of a single William Reed brand, and then gave up.

Three people. Three moments. And three times that William Reed’s potential went unamplified.

The team had everything they needed to be exceptional. What they lacked was the architecture to amplify it.

That one word ‘amplify’ guided every decision they made. Not to protect, or consolidate, or survive. But to amplify every asset, person, relationship, and value that the business holds.

Brands

NutraIngredients – four disconnected regional operations – was rebuilt as a single authoritative global platform. Bounce rates fell 40% whilst registrations surged by 71% and subscriptions jumped by 78%.

People

While the industry wrestled with AI, William Reed asked the question: how do we use it to make our people extraordinary? Miso AI-powered search across three brands unlocked decade-deep archives and doubled time on site. An E-E-A-T assistant built into the CMS made editorial excellence a part of the act of creation – adoption reached 100% and organic growth hit 113%. And Sales Sidekick, William Reed’s proprietary AI consultant, transformed commercial conversations: “I’m not selling anymore, I’m consulting. Clients see me as the expert.”

Values

When sustainability became the defining measure of a publisher’s integrity, they moved from coverage to proof. The Grocer’s Green Week delivered 31,000 page views, £27,000 revenue, and 107 new subscriptions. Then the team went further: their Climate Smart Food Broadcast series became their first certified carbon neutral event.

Products

Investing in high-value commercial content drove 22% growth to nearly £2m. Premium Shorthand storytelling, launched from scratch, generated £240k in year one. New formats with real returns.

Marketing-attributed revenue grew from £1.9m to £4.7m, representing growth of 147% and beating the target by 47%.

And underpinning everything was William Reed’s people. Their annual engagement survey showed 87% feel part of a team and 88% feel their wellbeing matters – backed by a string of next gen award wins.

All this meant that in the most disruptive year B2B publishing has faced, William Reed didn’t just hold its ground. It accelerated.

Every number referenced above is a platform, a relationship, or a value operating closer to its true potential. But the result that William Reed is most proud of cannot be measured in revenue. It is the standard the brand now represents – for what a publishing business can be when it completely commits to amplifying everything is has.

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