Hi Tony.

Times have changed very quickly. Printed media is even in serious trouble now and it's going to get a lot worse this year. Amazon sold more digital books than actual books this Christmas and printed media is set for even bigger trouble this year with the Apple iTable on the way in March / April.

In the past a company needed advertisement in keyboard mags and the exposure trade shows gave them in order to connect to their customers. Eveyone has been scaling down though and many have pulled out entirely. With the Internet and other digital means like Pod Casts, YouTube and so on, it's now far more effective (and WAY cheaper) to communicate with your customers online rather than trying to get to talk to the lucky few that can make it to a trade show and what a dieing keyboard mag (aka printed media) decides to publish.

Have a quick read of this for example. Native Instruments pulls out of NAMM, AES, and Musikmesse.
http://www.loopinsight.com/2009/07/07/native-instruments-pulls-out-of-namm-aes-musikmesse/

Regards
James