BtoB Media Business - December 2010 - (Page 4)

Upfront BY SEAN CALLAHAN “Comdex was wonderful and painful at the same time.” Bob Faletra, CEO, Everything Channel Page 30 Forbes stakes name on new President-CEO Perlis all three lost ad pages compared with the For almost 100 years, Forbes Media has same period last year: Bloomberg Businessbeen run by a member of the Forbes family. week (-4.7%), Forbes (-9.6%) and Fortune B.C. Forbes founded Forbes magazine in 1917. (-9.1%). His sons Bruce and Malcolm later ran the busiAs print pages have dwindled, Forbes.com ness and, up until Dec. 1, his grandson Steve has embraced online innovation. Spanfeller reForbes was CEO. On that day, Mike Perlis took vamped the site to aggregate business news. over as president-CEO, with Steve Forbes re- Now, Lewis DVorkin, chief product officer at maining chairman and editor in chief. Forbes Media, is again modifying the editorial “It’s a very significant move for Forbes,” approach of Forbes.com and Forbes by wading said Jim Spanfeller, CEO of the Spanfeller Group into social media and through the innovative and former CEO of Forbes.com. “I AdVoices program, which allows adthink it shows great confidence in vertisers to purchase blog posts. Mike and what he can bring to the Between October 2009 and Octocompany.” ber 2010, Forbes.com saw its traffic Perlis, most recently a general dwindle from 10.6 million to 8.4 milpartner at venture capital fund lion unique monthly visitors, acSoftBank Capital, expects to work cording to Compete.com. In the closely with Steve and Tim Forbes, same timeframe, www.businesschairman of Forbes Digital. “Those week.com dropped from 6.1 million Mike Perlis, guys are superconnected to this president-CEO, to 4.2 million unique monthly visibusiness,” Perlis said. “Steve is in- Forbes Media tors, and Money.CNN.com, which credibly well-connected and valserves as Fortune’s online presence, ued from an editorial standpoint with a lot of fell from 12.3 million to 8.1million, according advertisers. He plays a very important role. to Compete.com. Tim knows every nuance of how the compa“This is definitely one of the most competny operates.” itive segments of media,” Wickersham said. Prior to his decade at SoftBank Capital, “[Perlis] has a substantial challenge ahead of where he was involved with BeliefNet and him.” other businesses, Perlis was president-CEO of Perlis, however, is bullish on Forbes beZiff-Davis Publishing and president of Play- cause of its paid circulation of 900,000. He has boy Publishing Group. Industry observers confidence that the changes in how Internet applauded his hiring at Forbes. users consume and share information will fa“He’ll bring with him a very educated vor such strong brands. “I believe that brands sense of the direction of the media business,” are going to play a more important role as sosaid John Wickersham, partner at Atwood cial media plays a more prominent role,” he Advisors, noting Perlis’ decade of venture said. “Brands in that social environment are capital experience. really important.” “He has the right kind of background for Industry observers said Elevation Partwhat they are looking for,” said Reed Phillips, ners, the private equity fund that acquired a managing partner of DeSilva & Phillips. “He minority stake in Forbes Media for a reported combines a strong digital background with a $300 million in 2006, played a role in the namstrong print media background.” ing of Perlis as CEO. The firm acquired its Perlis takes over in challenging times not stake at the top of the market and has seen only for Forbes but also for its chief competi- Forbes Media, like most media companies, untors, Bloomberg Businessweek and Fortune. derperform in the intervening years. Each of these three publications lost about “If I were an investor in Forbes,” Phillips two-thirds of its ad pages between 2000 and said, “I would want the best CEO you can get 2009. For the first three quarters of this year, for the business.” 4 | Media Business | December 2010 | mediabusinessonline.com FROM THE PUBLISHER Bob Felsenthal Looking back on a stronger year hile 2010 has been a rocky year for many media companies, I think most of us feel much better now than we did a year ago. I am very happy to say BtoB and Media Business print and online experienced a strong lift in revenue this year (up more than 15%), and this growth was centered primarily in our digital offerings. As the whole world of b-to-b digital media continues to evolve next year, Media Business will be more important than ever to our readers. To make sure you’re aware of the best-of-breed strategies for digital growth, we’re giving our website a new look early next year. It will offer more content than before and will be better organized to help you find what you need. We will also continue to add more media-focused webinars in addition to our ever-expanding b-to-b marketing webinar series. More important, we will continue to be the strongest b-to-b media voice, providing the most news and analysis of our changing business. Our recently launched Media Business Digital Directions e-newsletter has been a great success, offering case studies of what publishing companies and individual brands are doing. Our BtoB Daily News Alert continues to provide the most frequent news from the b-to-b media and marketing sectors, and our biweekly Media Business e-newsletter covers print, events and digital media channels with an unmatched depth of analysis. I would like to thank our incredible Media Business editorial staff for the best coverage available in our b-to-b media world. And I thank all of our readers, advertisers and other friends. See you in 2011! W Perlis photo by Walter Smith Bob Felsenthal can be reached at bfelsenthal@crain.com. http://www.Forbes.com http://www.Forbes.com http://www.Forbes.com http://www.Forbes.com http://www.Compete.com http://www.businessweek.com http://www.businessweek.com http://Money.CNN.com http://www.Compete.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - December 2010

Btob Media Business - December 2010
Contents
Changing of the Guard at Forbes Media
Is Custom Content the Future of Media?
Looking for a Vendor? Check Out Our Annual Guide
Frustrated Sales Guys Launch Media Company
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Development
Events
Production
People
Benchmarks

BtoB Media Business - December 2010