Min's B to B articles from April 2004

Min's B to B archives from April 2004

min's b2b Exclusive Analysis: BIN Spin--January Losses Thin Hopes for Broad B2B Rebound...(Illustration)
April 5, 2004... Some media sectors feel they've turned the corner and are now on the road to recovery. Others fear they may not have hit bottom yet. January Business Information Network figures, released Wednesday (March 31) by American Business Media,...

...But Some Counts May Cloud Markets, Not Clarify Them...(Illustration)
April 5, 2004... In this year's January results, Top 10 ad pages declined at a 4.34% clip, comparable to last January's -5.35%. But that's pretty much where the similarities end. The figures above mark the debut of Toronto-based IMS/The Auditor as BIN's...

...With a Growing Breach Despite Broader Reach.(Illustration)
April 5, 2004... Despite IMS's broader reach--a principal justification for the switch--our comparison of January 2003 ad revenue figures shows that IMS's count is lower than CMR's in nine out of the top 10 ad sectors even though we are told the figures include...

B2B Boxscores (January)--Decent Results Seen in Broadcast/Video Despite Indecency Debate.(Illustration)
April 5, 2004... The media is in the limelight right now, but not in the way it wishes. Media business news in recent weeks has been full of self-imposed decency restrictions after Janet Jackson's much-hyped Super Bowl halftime show act (hamfistedly dubbed a...

M&A Mini-Monitor: Hart Gets New Start; LRP Hits the Books Via 20-Title Wolters Kluwer Newsletter Buy.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... The long-sought sale of Hart Publications finally came to an end Wednesday (March 31) when a management-led buyout group, backed by Wiegers Capital Management and Compass Advisers, took the energy data unit off the hands of VSA Communications...

New Media Report: GlobalSpec's Vertical Search Engine Demonstrates the Power of Narrowcasting...(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... As previewed recently in these pages, engineering-information provider GlobalSpec last week launched its vertical search engine. In our own pre-release peek at this new approach to business information (min's b2b, 1/26/04), we were impressed by...

...Leverages B2B Brand Identity, Enhances Use of Magazine Archives.
April 5, 2004... GlobalSpec has partnered with Information Handling Service (Englewood, CO) to provide search result links to fee-based documents on standards, and it allies with MicroPatent to include patents. Users can specify a search to bring up only...

B2B People on the Move.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... The whole top portion of the editorial masthead has shifted up a notch at CMP Media's InformationWeek and TechWeb. A series of promotions was set in motion when Bob Evans was elevated to senior VP/editorial director of both properties--a move,...

B2B Stockwatch: For Once, Job News Doesn't Induce Labor Pains.(Illustration)
April 5, 2004... Stock prices soared Friday (April 2) on word that non-farm jobs growth in March was three times the projections by the economists who study these things. But there were already indications earlier in the week of the unexpectedly good news to...

A Note from the Publisher.
April 5, 2004... Dear min's b2b subscriber, After delivering min's b2b electronically for half a decade and hearing from readers on their delivery preferences, we will begin offering this publication as a print newsletter. Beginning with the April 19th...

Magazine Category Boxscores: Ad/Marketing Sector Defies Slump, Displays Early- Season Jump.(Illustration)
April 12, 2004... Advertising/Marketing has been in a five-year slump, but, at least through the first sixth of 2004, it's shown nothing but jump, registering as the top gainer, in both ad pages and revenues, among 15 key CMR-tracked magazine advertising...

B2B Web Management: SRDS' ListingLink Aims to Deliver 24/7 'Media Micro-Site' Without Maintenance Hassles.(Standard Rate & Data Service)
April 12, 2004... B2B companies everywhere are always on the lookout to create and exploit new revenue streams. But these efforts aren't just restricted to magazine publishers. Standard Rate & Data Service, too, is looking to expand its pie in the B2B...

B2B Boxscores (January)--Vertical/Special Interest Books Veer Up in Early Results.(Illustration)
April 12, 2004... When we last visited this sector (min's b2b, 3/8/04), our headline warned that "late-year losses leave less to build on in '04." Our reasoning was that accelerated ad-page/revenue decreases in the fourth quarter would weaken a marginally...

B2B New Media: Online Targeting Takes More Than Just a Keen Eye...(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... As reported here over the past few months, advanced methods of targeting ads to specific audiences and niche interests within business sites are taking hold, with many publishers now lining up to deploy both contextual and behavioral ad...

...As Keyword Ads, Audience Behavioral Specs Get More Sophisticated.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... While Google casts its net wide for publishing partners (allowing any site to sign up online), Yahoo! subsidiary Overture takes the selective path of feeding keyword ads only to a small collection of content sites, including parent Yahoo.com,...

Attention B2B Web Publishers: Get Online with Our New Media Boxscores.
April 12, 2004... min's B2B is looking to expand its coverage of industry information Web site traffic. Our monthly Box Scores feature tallies, page views, and unique visits among some of the major B2Bs. Our coverage, next scheduled for next week's issue (April...

Media Research: Jupiter--Spam Ban Won't Can Soaring Outlays for E-mail Marketing.
April 12, 2004... Federal regulators may be trying to can spam, but it isn't going away as a marketing medium. Certainly not according to the JupiterResearch unit of new media researcher/forecaster JupiterMedia, which predicts that spending on e-mail marketing...

B2B Boxscores (January)--Government Books Grab a Growing Slab of Advertising Pie.(Illustration)
April 12, 2004... While B2B media executives have been tightening their belts trying to keep costs under control, government spending is sky high. This means that all sort of government contracts are or will be out for bid, for everything from security services...

B2B People on the Move.(PennWell Corp. named Thomas Fowler VP of its Fire Group.)(International Data Group appointed Alan Bergstein as president/publisher of its Bio-IT World, Inc.)(Linda Hooper joined City Business Journals Network as national sales manager)(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... Tulsa, OK-based PennWell Corp. Wednesday (April 7) named Thomas Fowler VP of its Fire Group, with executive responsibility for Fire Engineering and FireEMS magazines and related conferences/exhibitions (including new offerings in Germany,...

Editorial Events: Columbia Prof Tackles Media Survey, Blemishes and All.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... It might surprise you to learn that, in the wake of the Stephen Glass (New Republic) and Jayson Blair (New York Times) fiction-passing-as-fact scandals, journalists claim they are now more careful with fact-checking and sourcing (but admit the...

B2B Stockwatch: Nasdaq Throws a Line to VerticalNet; Primedia Yields Another 'Net Asset.(Illustration)
April 12, 2004... With Passover and Good Friday on the slate, it was a fairly quiet market week for B2B media stocks (but not for Japan's markets, including the Nikkei Average, which took a hit after three Japanese civilians were taken hostage in Iraq Thursday...

A Note from the Publisher.
April 12, 2004... Dear min's b2b subscriber, After delivering min's b2b electronically for half a decade and hearing from readers on their delivery preferences, we will begin offering this publication as a print newsletter. Beginning with the April 19th...

B2B M&A Monitor: Q1 Print Deals Edge Up, But Trade Show Trading Takes a Powder.(Illustration)
April 19, 2004... B2B companies must either be jealously guarding their most productive trade show properties or else waiting on the sidelines for valuations to improve. Either way, trade show acquisitions all but disappeared during the first quarter, according...

News You Can Use: ABM Attendees Can Meet the Mets at San Diego Spring Fest.(American Business Media Spring Meeting)(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... Showgoers pining for a change of pace from the serious business at next month's American Business Media Spring Meeting May 2-5 in Coronado, Calif., might want to take in a ball game in nearby San Diego. As it happens, the twotime National...

New Media Report: B2B Blogs Help Steer Site Traffic, Connect Print with Web.
April 19, 2004... Hell, yeah, they do! Don't delude yourselves into thinking that Weblogs are a passing fad of touchy-feely Internet idealists. For print publications that have spent all too long hiding their editors behind dead tree and ink, the blog is one of...

B2B Boxscores (February): Much of Developer/Tech Sector Still Looks Like a Train Wreck.(Illustration)
April 19, 2004... In some quarters recently there have been encouraging signs of a modest technology advertising rebound. Just don't tell that to most publishers in the beleaguered Developer/Technical category, where last year's grim tidings continue pretty...

B2B New Media Boxscores (February): Feeble February Gives It All Back as All Categories Suffer.(Illustration)
April 19, 2004... Not even Leap Year or Punxsutawney Phil could save sites from the usual February blues. Double-digit page view and unique visitor drops are typical for the period across tech, maintenance, and most other professions. The big exception is no...

B2B People on the Move.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... America Online veteran Kevin Normandeau last Monday (April 12) returned to International Data Group as VP of its online division, which includes Web sites with news updates and product reviews, plus special reports, Webcasts and other events,...

B2B Stockwatch: Few Surprises Seen in Sluggish Week, But Jumping Jupiter Takes a Jolt.(Illustration)
April 19, 2004... It wasn't a great week on the market in general, and it wasn't anything special in B2B, either. Only three of our 11 issues gained on the week (sister companies Elsevier N.V. and Reed International tied for first, at +2.0%). JupiterMedia's...

ABM Spring Meet Sheet: B2B Boosters Are Singing Their San Diego Serenade...(Ameiican Business Media)(business to business)
April 26, 2004... If you've been holed up on the East Coast or in the Midwest during the tough winter just passed, San Diego sounds pretty decent right about now. It's a good time to visit California's second-largest city (pop: 1.3M), as some 330 American...

...With One Eye Watching the Web...
April 26, 2004... One issue ABM president/CEO Gordon Hughes says his membership must come to grips with, whether they like it or not, is the wildfire growth of Web brand extensions, often at the expense of the print flagship. "These things are growing at the...

BIN Spin: Running Flat Beats Going Splat as February Ad Pages Hit Par.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Breaking even doesn't sound like much unless you compare it with some of the vertigo-inducing ad-page falloffs seen in recent years. So that's the data point for American Business Media's February Business Information Network results, released...

New Media Report: RSS (Real Simple Syndication) May Be the New Geek Medium of Choice...
April 26, 2004... If you're a techie, or just consider yourself a geek fellow traveler, then you already know that Real Simple Syndication is the hot new thing among the digerati. These simple XML headline feeds from major media Web sites (or from obscure Web...

...But Is There Money to Be Made?(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... The jury is still out on whether and how RSS feeds will have a revenue stream. One interesting experiment is from paid-placement provider IndustryBrains (www.IndustryBrains.com), which places contextually-relevant paid text links at Ziff-Davis,...

B2B Boxscores (February): Consolidation Takes Toll in Foodservice, But Top Players Soldier On.
April 26, 2004... The negative business impact of mergers and acquisitions has become a fact of life just about everywhere, and the giant foodservice media sector is no exception. "Where we used to see one manufacturer advertising 15 brands in separate ads, now...

Stat of the Week: Gordon Hughes Bats .700 In Annual Spring-Fling Attendance Growth.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... The American Business Media president/CEO (since 1994) probably never really had a 10-year plan, but year-over-year attendance at the group's annual spring fest has grown in seven of his 10 years at the wheel. High-water mark came in 2000,...

B2B Boxscores (February): Can Engineering Fashion Faint February Gains Into Fertile Second-Quarter Orders?
April 26, 2004... The selling month of February doesn't usually set things ablaze in many advertising sectors, and our 21-title Engineering group is no exception. But it wasn't such a bad month: even though a weak January still held year-to-date results down a...

...While Going Ape in Zoo Do.(Business to business market)(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Other highlights include former California Governor (and current Arnold Schwarzenegger advisor) Pete Wilson (on the Golden Gate State's world-class economy and its critical role in B2B) and "Inside the Beltway" prognosticators Rae Evans (Evans...

Short & Sweet: Former Primedia-ite McCurdy Gets Apprise-d; Furlong Seeks Search Sales.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... Longtime Primedia executive Chuck McCurdy is going the way of his onetime partner, former Primedia chairman/CEO Bill Reilly (who now heads Aurelian Communications): forming his own firm to acquire and operate media properties. McCurdy, who last...

B2B Stockwatch: Will B2B Fly As Tech Gets "High" (Again)?
April 26, 2004... Is the economic recovery picking up steam? Anecdotal evidence suggests so, with the likes of Xerox reporting improved copier and printer sales and IBM set to release its new Masala database search software. Next step is to see if such...