Min's B to B articles from September 2003

Min's B to B archives from September 2003

John Masterton Takes the Reins at min's b2b.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... He was key to min's b2b's 1998 launch in his 1993-2002 capacity as PBI Media, LLC, Media Group editor, and with this issue, Masterton returns as editor, following predecessor Anthony DeRico's enrolling in Syracuse University law school. He can...

DJ Votes with Its Wallet for Tech Startups Via TP Acquisition.(Dow Jones & Co. acquies Technologic Partners)
September 8, 2003... Dow Jones & Co. is back in the M&A fray, last Wednesday (September 3) acquiring online newsletter specialist Technologic Partners, for undisclosed terms, in a deal that reunites DJ with TP founder Dick Shaffer, who created The Wall Street...

Advanstar Gets Healthcare Makeover With $135M Medical Economics Buy.
September 8, 2003... B2B practitioners keep looking for light at the end of the M&A tunnel. It's far too early to declare an end to the drought, but the waning days of summer have brought mild encouragement. Best example was Advanstar's recent acquisition...

Boxscores--Mid-Year Advertising Trades: 8.7% Page Drain Erodes Ad Revenue 4.4%.(a list of ad page totals for several advertising and marketing industry magazines)(Illustration)
September 8, 2003... It's unlikely that a new print/online ad campaign from American Business Media--which, beginning next week, will inject $3 million into Dow Jones & Co.'s The Wall Street Journal, Crain Communications' Advertising Age and BtoB, Adweek Magazines'...

Boxscores: Will IT Enterprise Shift Benefit Corporate Computing Books?(a list of ad pages for several computer magazines)(Illustration)
September 8, 2003... A recent computing trends survey from ChangeWave Research (see related story nearby) finds that 52% of its survey group of business professionals report they are "personally seeing indications of a shift in overall IT spending towards the...

Jordan, Edmiston Ogles Info Services in New Meet.(the first annual Business Information Executive Forum is planned)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2003... With B2B M&A only beginning to emerge from its long hiatus (see Advanstar, Dow Jones deals elsewhere in this issue), deal brokers are looking to exploit new markets. One example is New York's Jordan, Edmiston Group Inc., which will conduct the...

No Blackout in First-Half $$$ Figures at Fairchild, IDG.(Fairchild Publications report first-half revenue figures)(Illustration)
September 8, 2003... Due to a calculating error in the group publishers charts in our August issues, Fairchild Publications' first-half revenue figures were understated. In fact, Supermarket News and five other Fairchild B2B books tallied $50.5 million in revenue...

Beefier Response Rates Will Key B2B Email Growth.(DoubleClick reports that opt-in email remains effective)
September 8, 2003... Neither rain, nor hail, nor torrents of spam will deter permission-based emails from reaching their targeted eyeballs. Despite industry hand-wringing about how spam is choking the life from a once-promising promotional tool for publishers and...

Security Issues Spearhead B2B Software Sales.(security management becomes a hot topic for business-to-business software)
September 8, 2003... With the second anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist atrocities already upon us, it's not hard to understand why companies everywhere are more concerned with security of every kind. This may help explain why security management is one of the...

People on the Move.(periodical publishing personnel news)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 8, 2003... Lara Chait last week was promoted to senior director of the marketing and promotion group of Fairchild Publications' WWD Worldwide (flagship: Women's Wear Daily). Besides WWD, the onetime Lifetime Network marketer will oversee WWD Children's...

Getting Ahead or Getting Left Behind: ABM Compensation Survey Pinpoints Salary Winners, Sinners; Salutes Circulators.
September 15, 2003... Workers at B2B companies who feel their salaries are frozen in time--or, worse, actually declining--may not be so far off the mark. A new biannual survey from American Business Media, releasing this week, finds that not all B2B publishing job...

B2B Launchpad: CMP Targets Secure Computing, Preaches "Better Safe Than Sorry".
September 15, 2003... While many sectors of the high-tech magazine market have been ravaged in the downturn, there always seems to be a better mousetrap just around the corner. One example is computer security (see last week's min's b2b), whose importance has grown...

B2B Boxscores (July)--Developer/Technical Books Find No Rest for the Weary.(a list of ad pages for several developer/technical publications)(Illustration)
September 15, 2003... If pressed, you could probably make the case that things improved ever so slightly in July for our group of 22 Developer/Technical titles. Where only two books were up in year-to-date ad pages through June, January-July tallies--presented below...

Media Mavens Reunite as Fadner Maps New Route for MediaPost.
September 15, 2003... Advertising research specialist Joe Mandese (ex-Media Buyer's Daily/Advertising Age/Adweek) has been around long enough to work with and know just about everybody in media and advertising. But his new appointment as editor-in-chief for all...

B2B Boxscores (July)--Power's Still Out for Electronic Titles.(a list of ad pages for electronic industry magazines)(Illustration)
September 15, 2003... As bad as the July advertising news is for Developer/Technical magazines (see story nearby), the picture doesn't get much better when we turn to our 23-title Electronic group. But it does get better. As a whole, the group was - 15.39% in ad...

b2b Site Sightings: The Revenge of the Long Scroll: eWeek.com Goes Long...
September 15, 2003... Ziff Davis Media unveiled a redesigned and reorganized eWeek site last week that apparently aims to bring the long, painful scroll back into vogue. Even on a hi-res display setting, this home page sprawled downwards five screens. As a result,...

...While CareerJournal.com Goes Lean, Clean, and Smart.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2003... Try clicking from eWeek.com to CareerJournal.com's re-launched home page to see a true contrast in information design philosophies. The Dow Jones executive career site is a model of economy and compression. The new and improved...

B2B Group Publishers: First Half Isn't Over 'til It's Over.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2003... Speaking of eWeek.com parent Ziff Davis, our August 25 review of firsthalf group publisher advertising results incorrectly listed two titles under the ZD banner that the company no longer owns. min's b2b tracks two of the company's 10 titles,...

B2B Stockwatch: Robust YTD Gains Hold True Despite Mixed Week.
September 15, 2003... They say some stock values are rebounding, and B2B is feeling some of the impact. Indeed, while six of the 11 companies in our B2B group lost (mostly incremental) ground last week--seven days after a shortened Labor Day week saw only one of 11...

B2B M&A Monitor: Still Yelling "Timber!", Primedia Sells Simba to Book Specialist Bowker.
September 22, 2003... Primedia sure wasn't kidding when it vowed to sell off assets. Amid swirling reports that its flagship New York magazine will next go to the auction block, the Henry Kravis-led company last Tuesday (September 16) agreed to sell Simba...

B2B Boxscores--July: Healthcare Books Are Just the Remedy for Ailing Publishers.(a list of ad page totals and revenues for several health care and pharmaceutical industry periodicals)(Illustration)(Industry Overview)
September 22, 2003... The January-July performance of 15 CMR-tracked Healthcare/Pharmaceutical titles listed here may be just what the doctor ordered for B2B publishers suffering from too many minus signs in front of their numbers. Unlike just about any other trade...

VNU's E&P Slashes Frequency 75%, Goes 24/7 in Web Reincarnation.(Editor & Publisher)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2003... It's seldom considered a victory in magazine circles when a print property reduces or eliminates its publishing frequency and instead converts to the Web on a 24/7 basis. But Adweek Magazines is giving it a game try with last week's...

B2B Boxscores--July: Engineering Sector Can't Break Ground on Ad Uptick.(ad page totales for several engineering magazines)(Illustration)(Industry Overview)
September 22, 2003... As with many trade magazine sectors, July was unkind to Engineering/Manufacturing titles. It's hardly a bellwether month, but publishers are squinting for any rays of hope. If you want to reach, you could say that down-but-not-out YTD results...

New Media Boxscores (July): IT and HR Both Defy the Dog Days of Summer...
September 22, 2003... Go figure. Business people were supposed to be on vacation in July, which typically keeps Web traffic depressed through much of the summer. While this was true for many industries in our Box Scores list, the techs enjoyed a substantial bounce...

...But Remember: Your Web Brand Does Not Stand Alone.(HitWise)
September 22, 2003... Where is all that traffic coming from, we wondered, and where does it go? In partnership with traffic monitoring service HitWise (www.hitwise.com), we tracked upstream and downstream activity at several of our Box Score destinations. HitWise...

B2B Stockwatch: Hurricane Watch Yields 11 Up.(Illustration)
September 22, 2003... Market watchers who want to buy into the notion that stock prices are beginning to recover may find solace in this week's Hurricane Isabel-abbreviated edition of B2B Stockwatch (based on Wednesday's close [September 17], before the storm hit...

B2B M&A Monitor: Ziff Davis Taps TM Media to Energize New Events Marketing Push.
September 29, 2003... It hasn't been the best of times for B2B events--conventions, trade shows, conferences, seminars--but that isn't stopping Ziff Davis Media, once a powerhouse in high-powered high-tech giga shows but relatively quiet since selling Comdex three...

BIN Spin for ABM's Top 10: Forget July, Let the Fourth Quarter Begin!(a break down of ad pages and revenues for several categories of business magazines)(Illustration)(Industry Overview)
September 29, 2003... What with fall in the air and football season well underway, it's a good thing July is a quickly fading memory. That's probably just the way B2B executives want it, after every one of the American Business Media's top 10 revenue-producing...

B2B Boxscores--July: No Easy Money in the Banking/Finance Sector.(a list of ad pages and revenues for several banking and finance industry magazines)(Illustration)
September 29, 2003... It's been a bad year for financial firms, what with a down economy, countless government investigations, unproductive mergers, and large-scale layoffs. Little wonder, then, that the 21 Banking/Finance titles in our CMR-tracked group have...

It Ain't Over 'til It's Over for Reborn Red Herring.('Red Herring' will not return as a print publication for at least one year)(Brief Article)
September 29, 2003... We won't be seeing Red Herring back as a print publication for at least a year, but the namesake information/events company that once personified the new media economy--and which crashed and burned last spring when its VC owners couldn't find a...

B2B Redesigns of the Month.(a list of publications that are being redesigned)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
September 29, 2003... New designs have been executed or announced for these titles: Title/Publisher: BusinessWeek/McGraw-Hill Effective Date: 10/6/03 Comments: New typeface, more photos/fewer illustrations, reorgan-ized news sections, revamped personal...

B2B Boxscores--July: Food Books Brush Off Weak July to Retain YTD Upside.(a list of the ad pages and revenues for several food service industry magazines)(Illustration)
September 29, 2003... It isn't everyday that a magazine category can sustain double-digit month-versus-month losses in both advertising pages and ad revenue and still maintain YTD gains in both. It's an anomaly, but that's what transpired in July for our 33-title...

Are Online Marketing Messages Falling on Deaf Ears?(Brief Article)(Illustration)
September 29, 2003... An eye-opening study of online B2B marketing communications shows that, while marketers apparently agree on the value of measuring effectiveness, there is little consensus on the best ways to track results--or, to put it in budget terms, return...

B2B Stockwatch: Is Earnings Report Dread Stunting B2B Growth?(publishing industry stock prices)(Illustration)
September 29, 2003... When the economy is bad, the onset of quarterly corporate earnings reporting season can hinder the stock market overall, as investors brace for the next round of missed projections, hidden accounting scandals, and newly revealed executive...

B2B People on the Move.(periodical publishing personnel news briefs)(Brief Article)
September 29, 2003... Pam Spector (ex-HBO) has joined Ziff Davis Media as VP/business development & international licensing, in which she will try to raise the international footprint of ZD publications. Before joining the PC Magazine/Electronic Gaming Monthly...