Min's B to B articles from November 2003

Min's B to B archives from November 2003

BIN Spin: August B2B Spending Fell 3.5%, But Boxscores Seem to Tell an Even Grimmer Tale.(Illustration)
November 3, 2003... Although recent min's b2b Boxscores suggest much steeper declines in many sectors, American Business Media's Business Information Network last week reported that across-the-board ad spending fell 3.5% in August after a 6.3% adpage plunge. On...

B2B M&A Monitor: Cadalyst Takes Out the Competiton in Buy-and-Bury Cadence Purchase.(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... As we closed this issue, the ink was still drying on Cadalyst publisher Advanstar's agreement to buy Cadence and related properties from CMP Media. The package, for which no terms were disclosed, gives Advanstar the 17-year-old monthly...

ZD's Callahan: Promising Q3 Results Could Be Prelude to Growth Boomlet.(Ziff Davis Media)
November 3, 2003... In recent months, quarterly earnings reports have become a grim exercise in B2B. (Just ask Penton Media chief Tom Kemp, who has to face analysts November 6.) So it's easy to understand Ziff Davis Media's enthusiasm in trumpeting its...

B2B Boxscores--August: Long-Suffering Vertical/Special Interest Books Would Take BIN Spin Any day.(ad page counts and revenue totals for several special-interest magazines)(Illustration)(Industry Overview)
November 3, 2003... Many publishers shudder at American Business Media's latest Business Information results (see story/chart in this issue), which for August show a 6.3% ad-page decline producing a 3.5% ad-spending slump. But sales executives at Vertical/Special...

B2B New Media Report: Do Digital Magazines Underscore or Undercut the Print Brand?(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... While business publishing generally is seldom seen at the cutting edge of Web innovation, there are a couple of areas where B2B has led the way online. One such segment is digital magazines. When Newsstand and Zinio started issuing digital...

Usage Patterns Bode Well for Embedded Links.(Zinio rolls out digital ads for Jeep in electronic editions of 'Business Week')(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... This bodes well for the effectiveness of embedded links in digital magazine advertising, which is one of the features publishers like Zinio and Newsstand promote. In a separate announcement last week, Zinio rolled out rich media ads for Jeep in...

B2B Boxscores--August: Even Par (-0.31% YTD $$$) Puts Broadcast/Video Pubs on Even Keel.(ad page counts and revenues for broadcast/video industry magazines)(Illustration)(Industry Overview)
November 3, 2003... No one likes to settle for par, but any B2B magazine category that is pushing even on the year for ad revenues must be doing something right. But with YTD revenue only -0.31% through August, that's the position our group of 14 titles finds...

Gopher State Tightens Grip on ABM's Grand CEBA.(Creative Excellence in Business Advertising)
November 3, 2003... Publishers like having their titles listed among the top ad-page performers, editors can't win enough Neal awards for editorial excellence, and graphic designers like seeing their layouts recognized. B2B ad agencies are no different, and their...

B2B People on the Move.(periodical publishing industry personnel news briefs)(Brief Article)
November 3, 2003... In the first Primedia executive hire since the October 21 arrival of president/CEO Kelly Conlin (min's b2b, 10/20/03), Jerry Okabe (ex-PBI Media/Miller Freeman) was appointed VP/audience marketing for the company's Overland Park, KS-based...

B2B Stockwatch: What Goes Up Must Come Down (Just Ask Primedia).
November 3, 2003... As we note elsewhere in this issue, earnings report season can be a grim time for B2B companies, as Primedia found out in the market week charted below. One week after leading our pack as biggest B2B gainer (see last week's issue), the company...

B2B M&A Monitor: CMP's Marshall Plan: Build Out Med Media After Clinching $37.5M Cliggott Buy.
November 10, 2003... People sometimes stop buying cars, financial products, or office supplies. But, no matter what the economy's doing, they never stop getting sick. Or needing to get better. That may be the thinking behind two smallish deals last week that saw...

B2B Profit & Loss: Penton Slices Q3 Losses by 80%, But Sees Little Real Growth on the Horizon.
November 10, 2003... It's not often that a quarterly loss in excess of $50M can be couched as a success story, but Penton Media is giving it a try. And they have a point. In a conference call with analysts on third-quarter earnings last Thursday (November 6), the...

B2B Boxscores (September)--Is There a (Small) Silver Lining in Cloudy Developer/Tech Tallies?
November 10, 2003... In reviewing August results for the troubled Developer/Technical trade magazine sector (see min's b2b, 10/13/03), we asked the rhetorical question, "Will Doom Follow Gloom?" We don't have anything even close to a definitive answer yet but,...

ABM Windy City Meet: If the Dollars Won't Come to You, Go to Where the Dollars Are.
November 10, 2003... In these times of prolonged economic downturn, it's time to get serious. And that's what American Business Media has in mind for its Top Management Meeting, scheduled to convene in Chicago next Tuesday (November 18). "It's more than just the...

B2B Boxscores (September)--Little Power Restored in Electronics Sector.
November 10, 2003... They got the juice back on pretty quickly after the August 14 East Coast/Midwest power blackout. It looks like its going to take a little longer, however, for our 23 CMR-tracked Electronics titles (new entry: Penton Media's Wireless Systems...

B2B New Media Report: Post-Summer Web Slumber Causes Minor Traffic Slump...
November 10, 2003... While post-summer September reporting was scant from our slumbering Box Score participants, many B2B publishers sustained a minor viewership slump in September. Conversely, a nearly equal number enjoyed the more customary post-Labor Day bump....

...But Check Meredith's Farm Site for Extra Web Balm.
November 10, 2003... Of course, one of the best ways to maintain site traffic in lean months is to leverage the print publication to keep readers in the habit of re-visiting the Web site. Because of the extreme, heavy-on/heavy-off work cycles of farmers, traffic...

B2B People on the Move.
November 10, 2003... At Fairchild Publications, Virginia Healey was promoted to associate publisher/marketing of the fashion monthly W. She had been marketing services director for the past three years, following stints at Glamour and Elle....Bob Lee has joined...

B2B Stockwatch--Mixed Week (5 Up/6Down) Isn't Much, But It Sure Beats 0-for-11.
November 10, 2003... Evidence is mounting that there is some kind of stock market recovery underway, herky-jerky though it may be. And you could say B2B is trying, too. Although Jupiter Media's third-quarter report, in which revenues rose 26.6.% to $13.3M, helped...

O&M Brand Boss in ABM Keynote: Risk Aversion Can Be Risky Business.
November 17, 2003... In today's troubled business climate, a lot of companies--B2B info providers prominently among them--feel they have to reinvent themselves to thrive in changed circumstances. Among other things, this means revaluating what they do, how they do...

B2B Boxscores (September): No Wonder Dealmakers Are Sweet on Healthcare Market.
November 17, 2003... If anyone needs convincing about the strengths of the healthcare publishing sector relative to other B2B categories, they need only examine the two most significant recent M&A deals in B2B: Advanstar's $135M Medical Economics buy (see min's...

B2B Launchpad: Deal-ing in Good Faith: Belief in M&A/IPO Rebound Yields Corporate Dealmaker Debut.
November 17, 2003... With magazine launch activity down across the board, some may be questioning the wisdom of last week's debut of Corporate Dealmaker, a new quarterly from The Deal, the weekly that reaches 45,000 corporate dealmakers, financial executives and...

B2B Boxscores (September): Advanstar-Engineered Cadence Deal Will Compress Engineering Sector.
November 17, 2003... It isn't necessarily a big deal, but it is big news in this recently troubled sector of B2B publishing. When Advanstar's Cadalyst bought CMP Media's Cadence (both of which serve the computer-aided design field) and announced that the November...

B2B Marketing Partners: CMP Calls in the Cavalry on Ex-PC Expo Show; Ziff Davis Gets Bookish.
November 17, 2003... Maggie Award winner www.PCworld.com will provide online content to the How-To section of Microsoft Network's (www.msn.com) redesigned Tech & Gadgets channel. Content will address spam, online security, and equipment buying advice, and will...

B2B Boxscores (September): Will $47B Merger Scatter Seeds of Banking/Finance Improvement?
November 17, 2003... Good executives always look for improvement--even if it's only incremental gains--from one period to the next. And despite much recent bad advertising news in the Banking/Finance B2B sector, the September figures charted here have one...

B2B New Media Report: Publishers Ogle Split Fees from Contextual Ads on Search Engines Like Google...
November 17, 2003... Paid search listings have been a key catalyst for the online ad rebound this year, and market leaders like Google and Overture are now offering publishers a way to get in on the largesse. Contextual ad programs plant paid search engine listings...

...Especially When They Turn Unused Ad Inventory Into a Revenue Stream...
November 17, 2003... "We find that the deeper and more granular the content the user is looking, at the better the ad performance," says Abrahamson. In fact, while publishers often sell their front pages, hubs and major resource pages at a premium to advertisers...

...But Second-Guessers and Critics Abound.
November 17, 2003... Many in the ad industry have been second guessing the success of search advertising generally, and specifically whether contextual advertising like this will ever realize the kinds of response rates as paid listings on the search engine itself....

B2B People on the Move.
November 17, 2003... John French (ex-VNU/CMP Media) has been promoted to executive VP at Primedia's Kansas City-based Business Magazines & Media unit. He joined the company as senior VP/sales & operations late last year after 13 years with Penton Media, most...

B2B Stockwatch--Has Market Parity Come to B2B?
November 17, 2003... Complaints about parity in baseball or pro football--where any given team has a decent chance of winning at any given time, but most or all are mired in mediocrity--are nothing new. But is the same thing afflicting publicly-held B2B companies?...

B2B Regulatory Review: FCC's Snowden on Fax Facts--'We're Not Here to Play Gotcha!'.
November 24, 2003... While telemarketers and their business customers have resisted the national Do Not Call registry that allows consumers to opt out of unsolicited marketing phone calls, B2B publishers should view it as a valuable marketing aid. So suggested K....

BIN Spin: Service Sector Charges On Atop B2B September Ad-Spending Gains.
November 24, 2003... The bad news for publishers like Penton Media and for small towns across America with empty factories is that the manufacturing economy in this country is down, down, down, with jobs being eliminated or transplanted to cheaper foreign...

New Revenue Streams: B2B Innovators Go to the People When the People Can't Come to Them.
November 24, 2003... In the quest for multiple revenue streams, one principal that more B2B companies seem to be embracing is that, if the people with the money won't/don't/can't come to you, you should go to them. This may arise out of necessity, preference, or...

B2B M&A Monitor: Brit Academic Publisher Expands U.S. Market Presence Via $138.6M Dekker Deal.
November 24, 2003... London-based Taylor & Francis Group last Tuesday (November 18) solidified its position in the North American academic books and journals market by agreeing to acquire scientific/medical/technical (SMT) publisher Marcel Dekker, Inc. (New York)...

B2B Boxscores (September): Growth Slows in Foodservice Field.
November 24, 2003... In recent months, we've charted the relative good fortunes enjoyed in the 33-title Foodservice group, which for the most part has been running counter to the depressed (and exceedingly depressing) spending patterns seen in many other sectors....

B2B Human Resources: Fast-Changing Markets Dictate New Trans-Sales-Pro Role for Top-Notch B2B Publishers.
November 24, 2003... If B2B publishing isn't what it used to be, the role of magazine publisher certainly isn't what it once was, either. Indeed, while consummate sales skills are still mandatory, salesmanship now is more like the beginning of the job description...

B2B Boxscores (September): Fall Action Brings the Blues, Not Good News.
November 24, 2003... It's no secret that TV ratings for the networks' new fall programs have been abominable. That's probably because the shows stink, but it could also be because the nets don't advertise enough in our group of 14 CMR-tracked Broadcast/Video...

It's Not Business, It's Personal: WSJ.com Now Offers Intimacy As Well As Immediacy.
November 24, 2003... Buttoned down and otherwise businesslike, The Wall Street Journal Online reminds business publishers that the trades can get some serious traction among users and advertisers when they make room for more intimate issues. Last Tuesday (November...

B2B Boxscores (September): Vertical Books Keep Veering Off Course.
November 24, 2003... Ad results seldom change much from one month to the next, and the downward spiral of the Vertical/Special Interest titles seen in August (and in July, and, before that, in June) held true in September as well. For the most part, double-digit...

Brand Extensions: Five Ways to Avoid a One-Way Ticket to Palookaville.
November 24, 2003... Guest Commentary by Ava Seave/Quantum Media In a tough economy, brand extensions can be less common than they used to be. But a tough economy also reduces your margin of error, meaning any brand extensions you do go with really need to...

B2B Stockwatch--10 Out of 11 9 (Down) Isn't Good.
November 24, 2003... Looks like the holiday doldrums have come early to B2B, with 10 out of 11 stocks on our charts posting down numbers for the week. Lone exception is United Business Media, whose CMP Media last Wednesday (November 19) shipped its first issue of...

Next Issue of min's B2B: Monday, December 8th.
November 24, 2003... Football has its bye week, and so do we. To afford us extra time to digest our turkey, min's b2b will not publish the week of December 1. Our next issue will be dated December 8. Enjoy your bird! [Copyright 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All...