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LOS ANGELES—Intel does it.  So does Google and GE. As Paul Suchman, chief marketing officer for CBRE, explains, that's the company his firm wishes to keep, and what they do is brand their resident market intelligence in the form of online magazines.

And so CBRE is about to take the wraps off of Blueprint, an online magazine that, as Suchman says, “is dedicated to telling timely and insightful stories about the transformational role real estate plays in the world.”

It's a theme we've heard before, last year, in fact, when CBRE rolled out its “Build on Advantage” branding campaign and the goal of aligning itself less with the competition and more with the Fortune 500. At the time, Suchman told GlobeSt.com that “Real estate is generally considered a cost center for most corporations. We believe real estate is a strategic differentiator with the potential and power to deliver transformational business value.”

And that, he says, is the message of Blueprint, which is designed to provide viewers with quarterly, monthly and weekly updates on trends and issues. These will be “informed by urbanists, academics and leading thinkers, as well as CBRE global leaders, all unified by ideas that examine the built environment's potential impact on business, cities and people,” according to a statement obtained by GlobeSt.com.

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“Blueprint is an opportunity to share the impact of real estate with the broad business community and across our industry, by leveraging the deep institutional knowledge and intellectual capital that lives inside CBRE,” says COO Mike Lafitte in that same statement. “With Blueprint, we have a unique platform for telling our stories in today's digital landscape—stories that go beyond the day-to-day nature of our client relationships.”

While the specific editorial calendar is currently being hammered out, working titles of such content will include Real Estate in Greece: The Country's One Silver Lining?; An Ounce of Prevention: Helping Property Owners Navigate California's Historic Drought; Real Estate Should Boost Productivity, Not Thwart It; and, The Global Worth of Company Values. The editorial staff will come from inside CBRE as well as outside business leaders and select journalists.

Needless to say, there are plenty of print and online magazines catering to the commercial real estate market. Does CBRE intend to go head-to-head against the likes of GlobeSt.com sister publication Real Estate Forum?

“We're incredibly sensitive to this question,” Suchman says. “Our intent is not to compete with traditional journalism or other publishing platforms. We're neither a news aggregator nor a breaking news outlet.  We're not about publishing 'gotcha' pieces or competitive de-positioning. We're about disseminating ideas, opinion and insights about the impact of real estate on the world as told through the perspective of our intellectual capital.”

Blueprint's ultimate success will be measured in the metrics typical of online publications, an often nebulous consideration, especially since Suchman is clear that the purpose is not to drive deals. “We'll look at the traffic data and what kind of audience engagement we're getting, and obviously, we'll look to those numbers to trend upward.” Anecdotal buzz from clients and the industry will also help to shape the picture, as will “some pick-up in the general media.”

Over the past year, CBRE has ramped up its social media presence and analytics, so it's no surprise that the firm will use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to tease stories and drive eyes back to the site. “There will also be a direct feed from CBRE.com,” says Suchman, who currently reports a Fortune 500-ish “80 million-plus unique visitors a year.”

In all, says Suchman, “This is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to clients, colleagues and the general business community with nutritional content, content that is not about deals but actually has additive value, examining the built environment's potential to positively impact businesses and our culture.”