E-News : January 23, 2006 News Items of the Week ABC supports Everybody Wins! The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) has become the first member company to enroll in Everybody Wins!, a national foundation promoting children's literacy by teaming adults with underprivileged school children. American Business Media marked its 2006 centennial year by partnering with the Everybody Wins! organization in a year-long effort to encourage its member companies to participate by donating their time and, where appropriate, funds to advance children’s literacy across the nation. A check will be presented to Everybody Wins! at ABM’s Centennial Gala, December 7, 2006 at the American Museum of Natural History. Everybody Wins! is a leading national literacy and mentoring non-profit organization devoted to increasing children’s prospects for success in school and in life through one-to-one reading experiences. Founded in 1991 in New York City, Everybody Wins! now provides “reading mentors” for more than 8,000 elementary school children across the country through two programs—Power Lunch and Readers Are Leaders. Those wishing to become involved with the Everybody Wins! organization should contact Hope Geller. Nominate a Colleague for a Tim White Award Nominations are currently being accepted for the third annual Timothy White Award for editorial integrity. Named after the fearless editor of Billboard magazine, the Timothy White Award recognizes business journalists whose work demonstrates the integrity, courage and passion that White displayed in his career. The nominated editor must currently be employed by an American Business Media member company, show deep knowledge of and enthusiasm for the industry that his/her publication or Web site covers, and serve as the “conscience” of that media’s audience and fearlessly support important industry causes in writings, speeches and personal interactions. Entries, which include a completed entry form, an essay detailing why the nominee deserves the award and a copy of the editor’s publication or three clips supporting the nomination, must be submitted no later than February 1, 2006. Click here to access the nomination form.
News on Print Business Publications Continue Strong Ad Revenue Growth Advertising revenue growth among business publications remains strong in the latter part of 2005. The Business Information Network (BIN) report for November 2005 shows combined revenues of the year-to-date are up 4.95% compared to the previous year. The Banking, Financial, Insurance and Travel, Conventions, Meetings categories led with 25% and 24% increases in revenue, respectively, through the year-to-date. Monthly revenue totals also show positive growth, increasing 2.42% over November 2004. Ad pages grew 3.58% through the year-to-date, thanks in part to strong category performers Banking, Financial, Insurance and Agriculture increasing ad pages 26% and 25%, respectively. “The year is finishing up better than we anticipated,” said Gordon T. Hughes, II, president/CEO of American Business Media. “Last year we had predicted revenue would be up three to four percent and it is pacing closer to five percent. We anticipated pages up abut two percent and we see growth beyond that." Ad page increases for many other categories were strong as well. Year-to-date figures for the Architecture, Design, Lighting category increased 23% over last year, while the Automotive category increased 17%. In January 2005, American Business Media augmented its reporting model for magazine advertising sales in industry markets, as relayed through BIN, by examining 22 markets comprised of all business-to-business books tracked by IMS/The Auditor, and PERQ/HCI for healthcare figures. The data, by category, is available on ABM’s Web site or by clicking here.
ABM Event Report The Power in B-to-B Media is the Power of Integration Publishers, sales representatives and marketers gathered together in the New York offices of Scholastic International last Thursday, January 19, to showcase b-to-b media and its impact on building brands, generating leads and boosting revenues. Offering successful company case histories, speakers Toni Racioppo (client communications director, OMD), Battista Remati (director of marketing communications, Echolab), and J. Lee Thompson (advertising and media communications manager, JVC) highlighted integrated media as a crucial element of b-to-b marketing. "Obviously, there are some shifts going on in the marketplace," said moderator Bob Felsenthal (vice president and publisher of B-to-B Media Business). "And with them, businesses are finally spending again." "Twenty-five percent of revenue each year now needs to go towards marketing, and that's the only way to do business," noted Echolab's Battista Remati. Emphasizing a diverse approach, including in-print, in-person, and online methods, Remati recommended all ads in all mediums contain a unique URL address to facilitate simple measurement of portal effectiveness. An in-depth program providing innovative methods to competitively position B-to-B media in an environment that demands integration, while analyzing the roles custom publishing, trade shows and digital media play in today’s ever-changing marketing mix, The Power in B-to-B was sponsored by Slack Barshinger, Edith Roman, and the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Video segments of the event will be presented on ABM's Web site in the coming weeks; parties interested in videocast sponsorship opportunities should contact Peter Loibl.
Education Spotlight Sponsor a Student for the 2006 Neal Awards Intended to introduce aspiring media professionals to the best of business media, enhance ABM member company reputations as supporters of education, and foster relationships with potential future Neal Award winners, “Today’s Champions & Tomorrow’s Best” has garnered participation from company's such as American Lawyer Media and Ziff Davis, among others. Over 150,000 students will graduate from American journalism schools this spring, many unaware of the career opportunities available in business media. The best way to ensure that the brightest and most promising journalism students are exposed to careers in b-to-b is to give them a front row seat to the best of the business press. For more information, contact Miriam Tomaselli.
Rich Data Update Focus Group to Identify Rich Data Interests ABM will be conducting a two-hour Rich Data focus group at our New York offices on Thursday, January 26 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. As many of ABM’s members have expressed interest in having the association's resources focus attention on helping member companies learn how to identify Rich Data opportunities, maximize revenue and profitability by prioritizing these opportunities, and organize their companies to ensure Rich Data success, the Rich Data Council is planning a hands-on seminar in June of 2006. An updated Rich Data Booklet containing business models and hands-on examples explaining how to identify, build and execute Rich Data initiatives will be issued following the seminar; the event agenda will be finalized and posted on the ABM Web site in the coming weeks. To ensure that the seminar and updated booklet meets the needs of our members, ABM will hold a two-hour Rich Data focus group, Thursday January 26, to identify members Rich Data interests and concerns. Though all parties interested in contributing are invited to attend, the focus group will be tailored to the needs of Smaller Publishers - $50 million or less. Only a couple open seats remain, so please let us know as soon as possible if you would like to participate in the Rich Data Focus Group. For more information, or to register for this event, please contact Peter Loibl.
History of B-to-B This Week in History As part of our Centennial Celebration, ABM will be showcasing member companies through "This Week in History," a date-specific outreach initiative spotlighting key moments of b-to-b history. For more information, or to submit materials for inclusion in ABM's 100 year initiative, contact Sara Sheadel. January 1922: Progressive Grocer publishes its first issue. January 27, 1945: VNU's Billboard magazine debuts a 15-position music chart, titled "Disks With Most Radio Plugs." The name is changed soon after to “Records Most-Played On The Air” January 1990: Randall Publishing founds Motor Media.
Top Media Moves Google Inc. has agreed to acquire dMarc Broadcasting, Inc., a Newport Beach, California-based digital solutions provider for the radio broadcast industry. VNU has agreed in principle to acquire a majority interest in privately held BuzzMetrics Inc. as part of BuzzMetric’s plan to acquire Intelliseek Inc. Berkshire Hathaway, the investment house run by Warren Buffett, has formed an agreement to acquire Business Wire, a privately held company that provides online global news and business coverage. Machine Design magazine, a Penton Media property, has announced a joint initiative with IDES to provide an engineering plastics search engine. CMP Entertainment Media has joined with technology sponsor Grass Valley to offer visitors to the Sundance and Slamdance film festivals a specialized event, "HD House," focusing on high-definition tools for the production and postproduction of independent films. CTQ Media has launched BPMEnterprise.com, an online resource for those involved in business process management (BPM). eMeta Corporation has announced that its annual revenues grew over 50% in 2005, with organizations including Pearson, Reuters, and Oxford University Press joining the customer roster. Jack Welch, author and former CEO of General Electric, and his wife Suzy have signed on to write a regular column ("The Welch Way") for BusinessWeek delivering no-nonsense answers to questions posed by readers about business, company and career challenges. Howard J. Bashman, appellate litigator and author of the “How Appealing” law blog, will join Law.com as a columnist. Bashman will pen “On Appeal,” a weekly column featuring analysis and commentary on issues related to the nation’s state and Circuit appellate courts, judges and cases. Reed Business Information has named Debra Bulkeley as executive editor of Electronic Business magazine, and promoted Ron Shank to the position of publisher for Library Journal and School Library Journal magazines. Ziff Davis has named Georganne Rossi director of list sales. Randall Friedman was recently promoted to vice president and group publisher of Lebhar Friedman, Inc., responsible for Drug Store News, DSN Retailing Today, Home Channel News and The Retail Group Meetings Media has announced the results of its 2006 Meetings Market Trends Survey: while costs are rising, meeting planners expect to have more money to work with and more events to plan in the coming year. New Member Profile New ABM member Scranton Gillette Communications provides efficient and effective methods of bridging the communications gap between vendors and customers in the business-to-business markets. Through the development and successful application of improved communications products, Scranton Gillette constantly strives to be recognized as a well-managed, profitable, innovative and progressive company with a reputation of serving its customers and employees with integrity, honesty and professionalism. For more information, visit the Scranton Gillette Web site. New associate member Olive Software is the world leader in XML automation technologies, bridging the gap between the paper past and digital future. With Olive's technology, organizations can have a single XML-base infrastructure for every document ever created.Currently over 300 customers on five continents chose Olive's XAP to utilize various applications including: historical archive digitization and commercialization, multiple source document unification and search, digital libraries, and newspaper, magazine or catalog e-publishing. For more information, visit the Olive Web site.
Committee Watch The following is a list of upcoming ABM Committee and Council meetings. For more information, contact Mark Flythe. All meetings are at ABM offices in New York unless otherwise noted. Committee/Council Time/Date Research Committee 3:00 pm EST 2.13.06 Digital Media Council 10:30 am EST 2.14.06
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