Michael McNerney, founder and publisher of Martech Record, on how he built an independent trade publication covering affiliate and commerce marketing, why he banned CEOs from his panels, and how independent media creates the trust and community that makes B2B demand generation work.
"The role of a trade publication is to grease the wheels of commerce by creating some trust between a buyer and a seller."
Why independent media builds the trust between buyers and sellers that brand marketing alone cannot, and why no CEOs are ever allowed on the panels
Michael McNerney spent his career in trade publishing at McGraw-Hill before finding his way into affiliate marketing and recognising a gap that uniquely matched his skills: an independent trade publication covering affiliate and commerce marketing, written by someone who understood both the media business and the technology. He founded Martech Record four years ago and has built a community of 9,000 marketers, publishers, and technology providers with a 4,000-person Slack community that generates daily conversations.
In this conversation McNerney makes the case for independent media as a demand generation channel that offers something brand marketing cannot: trust. His audience reads Martech Record because it is genuinely useful, not because they were paid to. That trust makes it easier to get buyers in a room, easier to make introductions, and easier to create commercial connections between buyers and sellers at a fraction of the cost of a direct sales motion. He also explains his famous no CEOs on panels policy and why the person just promoted to VP is always the better speaker.
"Martech Record is a trade publication. We cover commerce, media, and affiliate marketing. We write reviews of technology platforms, we cover how publishers build their products and go to market. And we do that in a very typical, very boring trade publication kind of way. We have newsletters, live events, a webinar every month. Our goal is how do we help people in our particular market make better decisions and quicker decisions. The role of a trade publication is grease the wheels of commerce a little bit by creating some trust between a buyer and a seller."
McNerney frames the value of a trade publication not as content marketing but as commercial infrastructure. The publication exists to reduce friction between buyers and sellers in a market by providing the information buyers need to make decisions and creating the conditions for trust that makes commercial relationships easier to form. In that framing, the publication competes not with other media but with the direct sales and marketing spend that would otherwise have to do that work.
"Every time someone sponsored a webinar, they assumed their CEO would be on the panel. CEOs say what they want to say. They are very good at taking a question and reframing it and saying whatever the hell they want to say. So I made a point of making sure anyone who spoke, the perfect person is the person who has just been promoted to Vice President."
McNerney's observation about CEOs is not unkind but it is precise. Executive communications training is specifically designed to help executives control their message in media appearances. The result is that CEO panels often sound like keynotes rather than conversations. The VP just promoted has done the work, knows the detail, has not yet been media-trained into deflection, and is genuinely excited to share what they have learned. That produces a more honest, more useful, and more engaging panel discussion.
"As you guys are a B2B marketer, at the end of the day you want to meet people. You want to get in front of your customers. I try to think of how can I just make it a little bit less expensive and more highly impactful. If I can get that person in a room at a tenth of the cost because I have an audience and I have some trust among that audience, that is the budget I am competing with."
The trade publication model is a unit economics argument about demand generation. A company that wants to get ten qualified buyers in a room has two options: send its own sales team to find, qualify, and invite those buyers, or sponsor an event where an independent publication has already assembled them because its audience trusts its judgment. The publication charges for that access but at a price that should still be lower than the alternative, and with the added benefit of the publication's credibility attaching to the introduction.
"The things that people were buying online were going to get more expensive and more complex from a sales process standpoint. Ten years ago we all bought shoes and books online. Now people are buying healthcare and mattresses. If you just follow that trend line, what is the end point? It is enterprise software. At some point people are going to read reviews of enterprise software companies, use that as a basis of their decision making."
McNerney's bet on affiliate and commerce marketing as a niche was a directional bet on where B2B buying behaviour was heading. The mechanism that has already transformed consumer purchasing, peer reviews, independent research, content-driven discovery, is progressively moving up the value chain into more complex and expensive purchases. He positioned Martech Record to be the trusted independent voice in the space where that behaviour is most advanced and where the need for trusted editorial is most acute.
"I can do better than this. And the bar was a little bit low. And my first policy was, no none of your CEOs are ever speaking on any of my panels. And the perfect person is the person who has just been promoted to Vice President. They have been promoted because they did something great. They are not trained to deflect. They will actually answer the question."
McNerney's content philosophy is built around genuine utility. The affiliate marketing conference circuit he entered had low-quality content partly because the speaking slots were being filled by people with a message to deliver rather than genuine insight to share. His investment in editorial quality, specifically in getting the right speakers and refusing to let sponsored interests override editorial judgment, is what built the trust that makes the publication commercially valuable.
"The perfect speaker is the person who has just been promoted to Vice President."
Host Tell us a little bit about Martech Record.
McNerney Martech Record is a trade publication. We cover commerce, media, and affiliate marketing. We write reviews of technology platforms that track, report, pay in the affiliate space. We cover how publishers build their products and go to market. Our goal really is how do we help people in our particular market make better decisions and quicker decisions. The role of a trade publication is grease the wheels of commerce a little bit by creating some trust between a buyer and a seller.
Host How and when did you start it?
McNerney I was working at a company called McGraw-Hill, a big publisher. I was the GM of their digital media business, really at the wrong time. The consumer and the reader were changing habits and moving online but before there were any real tools to monetise that audience. I eventually found my way to an affiliate marketing platform. The best way to learn about affiliate marketing was to go to conferences and have a few drinks with affiliate marketers. It occurred to me that affiliate or commerce or whatever you call monetising content directly through a sale was going to be a big driver of growth for publishers. So I started a trade publication that was independent, provided useful information, and helped create scale. That was about four years ago.
Host Who do you compete with and how do you differentiate?
McNerney I think of competition more in terms of where are my clients spending their money. As you guys are a B2B marketer, at the end of the day you want to meet people. You want to get in front of your customers. I try to think of how can I just make it a little bit less expensive and more highly impactful. If I can come in and say I will get you those ten meetings for a tenth of the cost, that is the budget I am competing with.
Host What makes great content in your world?
McNerney I went to the conferences and I said, I can do better than this. The bar was a little bit low. Every time someone sponsored a webinar they assumed their CEO would be on the panel. My first policy was no, none of your CEOs are ever speaking on any of my panels. And you know why? Because CEOs say what they want to say. They are very good at taking a question and reframing it. So I made a point that the perfect person is the person who has just been promoted to Vice President. They have been promoted because they did something great. They will actually answer the question.
Host What drove you to pick affiliate marketing specifically as your niche?
McNerney Four or five years ago, the drivers that were clear to me: e-commerce was going to grow no matter what happened. And the things people were buying online were going to get more expensive and more complex. Ten years ago we all bought shoes and books online. Now people are buying healthcare and mattresses. If you just follow that trend line, what is the end point? It is enterprise software. At some point people are going to read reviews of enterprise software and use that as a basis of their decision making. That is what we have done and I think we are getting to that point.
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