Min's B to B articles from January 2006

Min's B to B archives from January 2006

Looking at Licensing: WK Dumps 'What, Me Worry?' Approach, Starts to Pump $$$ Out of Growing Licensing Unit.
January 2, 2006... Talk to just about any B2B media executive these days and they're looking under rocks for every last revenue dollar. They're raising ad rates, trying to charge for certain extras they may have once done for free, building out their Web...

November Boxscore Coverage...(Illustration)
January 2, 2006... SLICING & DICING: THE TOP 5 BY THE NUMBERS (NOVEMBER/YTD) Monthly Ad Pages (November 2005/2004) Ad Pages Ad Pages % Chg. Title YTD 2005 YTD 2004 YTD 1 EE TIMES 236.13 354.2 -33.33 2...

Changing Places: In Bigtime B2B, Executive Turnover Seems to Be the Cardinal Rule, Not the Exception.
January 2, 2006... The country has the same president as it did at this time last year. New York State has the same governor, and the New England Patriots are still reigning Super Bowl champions just as they were a year ago. But just because these leaders have...

b2b Boxscores (November): Will WSJ-Exposed Med Journal Byline Imbroglio Get Healthcare Media to Toe the Line?
January 2, 2006... You can hardly go to a B2B professional event without stumbling onto a seminar stressing the unique merits of B2B media as impartial presenter of important, unbiased industry information, research, and statistics. But the good folks who...

Fun with Numbers: Online Ad Market Will Grow A) 10%, B) 25%, or C) More (Or Less) By 2010.(Brief Article)
January 2, 2006... As B2B aficionados well know, part of this newsletter's stock in trade is fun with numbers. And we find hours of amusement when two or more different research reports emerge simultaneously, predicting wildly different outcomes-- sales growth,...

Boxscores (November 2005): 1) Brutal November Dismembers Early Q4 Gains in Developer/Tech Field.(Illustration)
January 2, 2006... When we reviewed the volatile Developer/Tech category last time (min's b2b, 12/5/05), we headlined the month under review as "An October to Remember in Rebounding Developer/Tech Fold." Well, as the saying goes, that was then and this is now....

Boxscores (November 2005): 2) Government Really Swings, As Potent November Supersedes Tepid October.(Illustration)
January 2, 2006... The wild swings from one month to the next noted above are also seen in our Government sector--only in reverse, and to the benefit, at least for now, of the six publishers in our seven-title grouplet. In this case, a minute +0.68% ad-page...

b2b Boxscores (October): Engineering, Electronics Pick Up Some Slack As Some Ad Pages Come Back.
January 2, 2006... ENGINEERING AD PAGES AND REVENUES (January-October 2005/2004) Ad Pages Ad Pages Title (Publisher) YTD 2005 YTD 2004 1 Advanced Imaging (Cygnus) ...

Media/Info Market Deals Soar 130% In $$$ Value In First Three Quarters.
January 2, 2006... They've been playing "Happy Days Are Here Again" for awhile in many media M&A sectors. This includes B2B where, according to dealmaker Jordan Edmiston Group, Inc., third-quarter 2005 B2B M&A racked up significant increases over the same...

Changing Places: In New Year's First Major Exit, Mary Berner Quits the "New" Fairchild.
January 9, 2006... In last week's issue, we charted the top executive changes at a handful of leading B2B info providers in calendar 2005, with speculation on whether or not more would follow in 2006, perhaps prompted by a greater emphasis on growing revenues...

Happy New Year Not!: IDG Puts CMO Into Deep Freeze.(International Data Group)
January 9, 2006... January is supposed to be a time for new beginnings, but it may not be shaping up that way (see story above). In the first high-profile magazine death of the year, International Data Group's fast-growing CXO Media unit last week acknowledged...

b2b Boxscores (November): After Seemingly Booming Forever, Is Even Building Starting to Burp?
January 9, 2006... Once again, we see ample signs in our Building/Construction group of ongoing vitality in an important sector that is outpacing just about any other B2B area. But there are also a few unfamiliar burps, such as November's -5.71% ad-page...

Steve Smith on New Media: Welcome to Blogazine Nation.
January 9, 2006... (Editor's Note: This is a reprint from a column by our New Media maven that appeared in the 1/2/06 issue of our parent publication, Media Industry Newsletter (min). While he mostly cites examples from consumer publishing, we believe it...

b2b Boxscores (November): Banking/Finance Fights Fits-and-Starts Kind of Year.
January 9, 2006... BANKING/FINANCE AD PAGES AND REVENUES (January-November 2005/2004) Ad Pages Ad Pages Title (Publisher) YTD 2005 YTD 2004 1 ABA Banking Journal (Simmons...

B2B People on the Move.
January 9, 2006... Five-year Dow Jones & Co. veteran Richard Zannino, currently the Wall Street Journal publisher's COO, last Tuesday (January 3) was named to succeed Peter Kann as CEO come February 1. Kann will retain his title as company chairman, but his...

B2B Stockwatch (Yearend Edition): M-H Finishes '05 on Top, Cuts to the Bone to Start '06.
January 9, 2006... The world is full of irony, and it sure seems ironic that McGraw-Hill last week laid off 500 employees (2.6% of its workforce) and took $23.2M in pre-tax writeoffs after finishing 2005 as the top year-to-date gainer (+12.80%) in our B2B...

Editors' Survey Finds B2B Ethical Standards Going to Hell in a Handbasket.
January 16, 2006... Hardly an American Business Media conference goes by without a solemn panel of B2B editorial executives, usually scheduled on the last day when attendance is dwindling, decrying the state of editorial ethics and Church/State relations in...

It's In the Books: '05 B2B M&A Value Soars 42.3% in JEGI Tally.
January 16, 2006... There was no Category Five media M&A disaster in 2005 the likes of Time Warner/AOL in 2001. Nor did Advanstar choose to proceed with a contemplated sale that might have netted hundreds of millions of dollars for its private equity backers....

Steve Smith on New Media: Film & Video Bets Web or Bust; Will See If New Media Pays as Well as Old.
January 16, 2006... Sure the online gold rush is in full trot, but a lingering question for traditional publishers is whether the new revenues from a robust online compare even to a shrinking print market. This seems to me an issue magazines either are glossing...

Boxscores (November 2005): 1) Will Automotive's Skid Turn Into a Total Wreck?
January 16, 2006... For decades, automotive advertising has been the gold standard of American advertising. If you had automotive,it seemed you could get everything else. And if you had some, you could try for more. That was then. Now, General Motors is sagging...

Boxscores (November 2005): 2) Computing's Ad Virus Worsens After November's -20% $$$ Dropoff.
January 16, 2006... COMPUTING AD PAGES AND REVENUES (January-November 2005/2004) Ad Pages Ad Pages Title (Publisher) YTD 2005 YTD 2004 1 Baseline (Ziff Davis) ...

M&A Shorts: CMP, Ascend Come Out of the Gate Spending.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... Face-to-face media and events are quickly taking on greater prominence in B2B portfolios, and they are the driving force behind two CMP Media acquisitions last week. On Wednesday (January 11), the company agreed to pay $65M for MediaLive...

B2B Boxscores (November): Latest Foodservice Swing Brings Sector Well Back Into Plus Country.
January 16, 2006... When you see numbers like November's, it's tempting to say, "Foodservice is fantastic!" After all, November ad pages were +9.22%--a minor drop from the previous November but a far sight better than October 2005's -10.85%. Any 20- point swings...

B2B People on the Move.
January 16, 2006... Onetime Iona College Gael Jean Maddalon has been promoted to COO at American Business Media. She joined the organization in 1999, and has been CFO since 2002...At Crain Communications, Suzanne Fitzpatrick Siracuse has been named publisher of...

ABM Turns 100, Sets Yearlong Centennial Slate.(Brief Article)
January 16, 2006... It's customary to look back as you get older. And American Business Media will be doing enough of that in coming months. But the principal order of business as it kicks off its centennial year will be looking ahead. As outlined at a New York...

Advertising Sales:TNS Foresees 5.4% Total Growth in '06 Ad Biz, But Low-Balls B2B Prospects at +1%.
January 23, 2006... When it comes to advertising, the pie is getting bigger, but maybe not for B2B. In its annual full-year ad-spending forecast (released last Wednesday, January 18), ad/marketing data vendor TNS Media Intelligence predicted total U.S. ad...

Marketing Case Study: Pairing Web Options With Print Centerpiece, JCV Hits Ground Running With ProHD Line.
January 23, 2006... The Internet and B2B e-letters are changing the way new products are introduced and promoted as well as how suppliers communicate with their dealer networks. In many ways, it is making things faster, cheaper, and more trackable. It's also...

B2B Boxscores (November): 1) Travel Follows October Boom With a Boon November.
January 23, 2006... In a welcome boon to publishers, the marked upward movement in revenue figures seen in October results provided by our new Boxscore data partner, IMS/The Auditor, was continued in November activity, with October's +19.23% year-to-date...

B2B Boxscores (November): 2) Transportation Continues Roller-Coaster Pace of Ups and Downs.
January 23, 2006... Our IMS-provided figures for this turbulent sector show some oddities from one month to the next. Where October ad pages registered +7.86%, November's came in -20.95% (almost a 30-point swing the wrong way). Similar movement was seen in...

Steve Smith on New Media Boxscores (November): Housing and Business Render November Traffic Treat; Variety Prompts 'Shouts.(Illustration)
January 23, 2006... Given the sheer volume of Web traffic that went the way of e-commerce this year (e-sales up almost a third), it is surprising there was enough bandwidth left for content. But while most other workday traffic tends to head south in November,...

New Media Briefs: Penton's Machine Design Joins Quest for Vertical Search Gold.(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... More and more B2B publishers are deciding that the best way to get into vertical search is to do it themselves--sort of. Rather than falling victim to the gigantic search engines that seem to be taking over the world, B2Bs are forging new...

B2B Boxscores (November): Double-Digit Declines Keep Telecom Books on Edge.
January 23, 2006... It's sort of good times and bad times all at once in Telecommunications, one of the most volatile categories we track. The group charted here is peppered with minus signs--virtually half the group (seven titles out of 15) were down...

Boxscores (November 2005): Slicing & Dicing.(magazines)(Illustration)
January 23, 2006... THE TOP 10 BY THE NUMBERS Monthly % difference (November 2005/2004) % Change % Change % Chg. Title YTD 2005 YTD 2004 YTD 1 MEETING NEWS 59.17 19.46 204.04 2...

M&A Update: After IMS Collapse, VNU Sits on $8.8B Buyout Offer.(IMS Health Inc., VNU N.V.)(Brief Article)
January 23, 2006... Reports late last year that VNU's Dutch owners might field offers for the media conglomerate after its scuttled acquisition of IMS Health became clearer last week when the company said it had received a buyout offer worth $8.8B from a...

Marketing Case Study: B2B Print Is the Center of the Action as Echolab 'Redefines' Itself and Its Customers.
January 30, 2006... Publishers who are seeing more of their advertising business migrate to the frequently less profitable Internet are always cheered when an advertiser speaks publicly about the power of B2B print in successfully executing a carefully crafted...

BIN Spin (November): 2.5% Spending Gain Delivers Nearly +5% YTD $$$ Pace.(Publishing Industry Revenue)
January 30, 2006... B2B publishers still bristling over the latest lowball estimate from TNS Media Intelligence (see last week's issue) will be heartened to see the latest Business Information Network figures from American Business Media. For November activity,...

Steve Smith on Digital Media: The Need for Feeds: RSS and the New Eyeball Economy.
January 30, 2006... A recent spot check of some of our New Media Boxscore participants reveals that RSS--real simple syndication , for the uninitiated--is one acronym that B2B is now getting in a big way. Sites like International Data Group's PCWorld.com have 23...

IDG Reprises As Top Neal Nominee.(International Data Group Inc., VNU Business Media)(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... International Data Group and VNU Business Media, two large B2Bs undergoing vast changes in today's media market, were the big preliminary winners among a raft of Neal Award finalists unveiled last Thursday (January 26) by American Business...

B2B Boxscores (November): Broadcast Holds Its Own Despite Web Incursions.
January 30, 2006... There is no question that the Web is exerting its impact in the Broadcasting B2B sector, as it is in many other places. Digital ads offer more options, more immediacy, and better measurement options. Some titles--including min's b2b parent...

The Hollywood Reporter Teams With Starz For New Cable Show on Moviemaking Business.(Brief Article)
January 30, 2006... Despite a standing $8.8B offer for the entire company (see last week's issue), VNU is trying to operate in business-as-usual mode. Case in point came last Thursday (January 26), when VNU Business Media's The Hollywood Reporter used the Las...

b2b Boxscores (November): 1) Mixed November Gives Engineering +3.48% YTD $$$ Mark--And Possible Yearend Black Ink.
January 30, 2006... ENGINEERING AD PAGES AND REVENUES (January-November 2005/2004) Ad Pages Ad Pages Title (Publisher) YTD 2005 YTD 2004 1 Advanced Imaging (Cygnus) ...

b2b Boxscores (November): 2) Nasty November Nukes Earlier Electronics Gains.
January 30, 2006... ELECTRONICS AD PAGES AND REVENUES (January-November 2005/2004) Ad Pages Ad Pages Title (Publisher) YTD 2005 YTD 2004 1 ECN (Reed) ...

Musings With Hughes: Sneaking a Brief Look Back to Take a Long Look Forward.
January 30, 2006... by Gordon T. Hughes II, President/CEO, American Business Media Starting a new column for min's b2b is a great way to start a new year. Over the course of 2006, I hope to share some insights on the issues facing us in business-to-business...

B2B People on the Move.
January 30, 2006... Less than a month into the new year and another major B2B executive is out. Bart Catalane is leaving Ziff Davis Media as president/COO after 41/2 years in the post. An internal memo attributed the move to ZD's recent reorganization into...

B2B Stockwatch: 13.2% Q4 Revenue Gain Can't Keep M-H Out of the Doghouse.
January 30, 2006... You've got to say it's a good start to the new year when, only one month in, all but one of our nine media stocks are up in year-to-date trading. But the one that is down--McGraw-Hill--is a puzzle. Investors usually love staff reductions,...