Day-to-day access to relevant and current information is critical for business and that information is reported to business people and other professionals by trade publications.
A trade publication is a professional journal, magazine or newspaper which is written for people who work in a specific profession (business, engineering, electronics, medicine, education, etc.).
Articles in trade (or professional) publications are usually short and to-the-point, often with jargon specific to the field.
Both illustrations and advertising (industry-specific) are likely to be included.
Articles are usually written by publication staff and are intended to alert readers about a technique, a trend, government regulation or other situation which is relevant to a reader's occupation. Often, articles in trade publications do not have a specific author cited (e.g. articles in The Economist.)
Typically, trade publications are issued on a frequent schedule (daily, weekly or monthly.) and report what happened the previous day, week or month.
Readers will want to put information found in a trade publication to use "as of yesterday!"