Advanstar veteran on B2B hunt

Robert Krakoff, the former chief executive officer of Advanstar, is looking to buy B2B media properties. And he has plenty of cash. Krakoff has formed a partnership with multibillion-dollar investment fund Blackstone Group to look for acquisition opportunities. (Click here for details on my least favorite Web site.)
There's been speculation in the B2B world that Mediapost is ripe for a takeover.
Other possible targets include almost anything owned by debt-burdened Primedia Business.
For a look at how Advanstar was run when it had debt problems, look to this insider view.

Mediaweek site redesign

Mediaweek has redesigned its Web site. And I couldn't be happier. The new version is crisp, professional and demonstrates an understanding of Web design. The old site was...well...one of the blandest, ugliest properties in B2B publishing.
I'll take some credit for the changes, since I've been pushing for improvements for awhile now.
Click here to see the new look. Note that the site is loading slowly and will give you a glimpse of the unattractive old version before the new property appears.

About.com for sale

Primedia is selling About.com. Potential bidders include AOL, Google and the New York Times. Before I say another word, it's time for some disclosures. I was a producer at CNN's online division when parent company Time Warner merged with AOL. It was a disaster. I fled in the ensuing bloodbath of fiefdom feuds. I landed a job as an executive producer at About.com, a compendium of Web sites with a citizen journalism bent. I was still at About when it was purchased by Primedia. I moved up the ladder at the new company, eventually winding up a vice president.
But the merger didn't work. The culture clash between magazine "professionals" and online "entrepreneurs" was intense. Civility was rare. My tiny corner of the Primedia world was even stranger. Primedia had earlier purchased the Intertec collection of B2B magazines. And those properties were being overseen by Industryclick, an online venture powered by arrogance that mimicked the early business model of Verticalnet. My position required that I deal with everyone -- Primedia big-wigs, About.com guides, trade-publication reporters, Industryclick codewriters and more mid-level executives than I could count. And everyone seemed to strongly dislike everyone else.
The About/Primedia merger was a disaster. And I'm glad to see the deal is at last unraveling. At this point, the sale will have little to no effect on B2B. Kelly Conlin put an end to the attempts to integrate magazine and web operations. And Primedia separated its trade-publishing business from its consumer properties. The online wings of the B2B unit are gone -- Industryclick, ABZ, Digibid, etc. Web sites, email newsletters, etc. are now run from within Primedia Business by the exceedingly talented Prescott Shibles, who worked for me back in the old days.
I'm going to bet that the N.Y. Times winds up buying About. The Times has been late in adopting the ethos of citizen journalism. Buying About would give them a leap forward. More importantly, About is the king of the targeted ad. And newspapers need new advertising revenue sources now that Craigslist is taking over the classified business.

Redundant names

National Trade Publications, a family-owned company based in upstate New York in the town of Latham, is changing its name. Henceforth the company, which publishes titles such as "Professional Carwashing & Detailing" and "Cleaning and Maintenance Management," will be called NTP Media. The new moniker is meant to convey that the company has moved beyond print into Web properties, e-mail newsletters and research services.
The new name seems redundant to me. Publications are media, and until folks forget what NTP stands for, the company is likely to be known as National Trade Publications Media.
That's still considerably better than when some genius at Primedia decided to change the title of that company's B2B unit to the hilariously redundant -- Primedia Business Magazines and Media.
I worked there at the time. And to add to the redundancy silliness, my title was changed to vice president for online content and editorial.

Best of the Web

I was happy to find that WardsAuto.com had won the Best of the Web award for premium sites from min magazine. The revamp of the Wards properties a few years ago nearly killed some of the most talented people on my team at Primedia Business. It's good to know the work paid off. (Disclaimer: I still hate the look of the public version of WardsAuto with its strange spacing, unnecessary time coding and bland colors -- all the result of the in-house content management system I've complained about before.)
And I'm thrilled that WardsAuto beat out Variety.com. Regular readers of this blog know I can't stand that property.
One of the winners of min's Editorial Excellence award is VNU's NationalJewler.com. Please take a look at the writing on this site. It's clean, crisp, news-oriented and free of cliches. It's simply lovely.
For the full list of min's winners, click here.
And while you're at it, bookmark this B2B site from one of min's creators.

Pass the tissue

Paperloop has sold Tissue World magazine and three related tradeshows to United Business Media. Tissue World, which covers the toilet-tissue manufacturing industry, will become part of UBM's CMP Asia division, a move that highlights UBM's belief that there's growth to be found in B2B industries in Asia. One of the shows that UBM bought is an annual event held in China.
Paperloop will retain the Pulp&Paper family of publications.