Paying journalists for results

I tend to have a pretty optimistic outlook on the changes in journalism. Sure, this can be a confusing time. And of course, we're all facing pressures that we couldn't have imagined a few years ago.
But for me, the world of new media is one of endless opportunities rather than countless threats.
So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I'm not upset by the news that CNET has introduced a pay-for-performance system for some online writers. But I'm not so insensitive to suggest that no one should be upset. Because this could, once again, represent a fundamental shift in our careers.

First, let me take a moment to note the significance that this change is coming from CNET. The San Francisco-based company has been at the fore of a number of significant changes in the journalism model, including comparison-shopping tools and the use of editors in video reviews. And although CNET wasn't the first news operation in Second Life, it was certainly the first to have one of its reporters attacked by flying penises.
More importantly, CNET's article pages have become a model for Web writing and design. Take a look at this piece for example, and pay particular attention to the "High Impact" graphic. CNET uses that box to make the "nut" graf of print-style feature writing more Web friendly. And close observers of online journalism will have noted that the Wall Street Journal -- king of the "nut" graf -- has adopted the "nut" graphic for its online edition.

Now CNET may be taking the lead again by creating a new compensation system for writers at its ZDNet unit. (You can hear ZDNet writer Mary Jo Foley talk about the system in this podcast.)
In brief, ZDNet is paying its bloggers based on the number of clicks they receive -- rewarding writers who generate traffic.
That's likely to cause worry among some journalists, who fear that publishers will begin rewarding writers who "cater" to an audience by creating content that is popular but has little journalistic value.
But I agree with Steve Rubel that since the ZDNet blogs are written by "veteran journalists," it's unlikely "that the performance based compensation changes their ethics one iota." And I agree too with Scott Karp that for professionals in search of hits, "quality will increase your odds a lot more over the long term than pandering and sensationalism."

And that, in a nutshell, is why I'm not worried about pay-for-performance journalism. I don't expect it will lead to a race to the bottom. I don't expect it will cause publishers to replace high-end prose with low-brow content. Rather I expect pay-for-performance to become a way to reward the best among us -- those exceptional few writers that bring readers. And I see pay-for-performance as a way for forward-thinking publishers to keep their most valuable employees from striking out on their own in search of readers and rewards.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, entrepreneurial journalism, standalone journalism, newsletters, business media

A second wind for Second Life

I was on the road last week visiting clients and friends in several cities. And nearly everyone I spoke with asked me about Second Life.
Now when a media phenomenon that I love becomes so pervasive that everyone I know wants to know my opinion about it, I get a little nervous. Sure, perhaps the subject at hand has reached the tipping point and has become less of a trend and more a permanent part of our lives. Certainly that's the experience I've had as an advocate for blogging, external links and a few other things. And as a general rule, that's a wonderful thing.
But it's also possible that when a phenomenon becomes mainstream it loses something. Perhaps it's exclusivity. Perhaps it's the sense of being cool and ahead of the curve. But something important can get pushed out the door as the crowds rush in.

The first time I spoke to journalists about Second Life was a little more than a year ago. I showed some screen shots. I said I saw enormous growth opportunities for journalists in Second Life. And I talked about one of the newspapers that had appeared there -- a real publication that covered a virtual world.
But I got the feeling that the audience thought I was nuts. Or at least a little silly.

But things change. Time passes. And eventually real-world journalists discovered the virtual world. Late last year both Reuters and CNET opened bureaus in Second Life. An entrepreneur opened a virtual porn magazine. Corporate America found the place too. And even a Congressman took up residence. And soon flying through Second Life began to feel quite a bit like walking through the real world.
And somewhere in there, I lost interest.

But things change. Time passes. And last week Second Life decided to open up its source code.
(You can read more about the decision here and here.) And although I am not a developer, and I have no intention of trying to do anything with the code, I was absolutely thrilled by this news.
Here's why: As wondrous as Second Life is, it has never been what it promised to be -- a virtual world. It was, instead, a virtual room. Albeit a very, very big room.

I don't know what a new and open Second Life will look like. Perhaps the change will be monumental. Perhaps not.
But I do know this -- I'm more excited about Second Life than I have been in a long time.
Because now, just like in the early days, it feels like anything can happen there.

For a look at an earlier post of mine about Second Life and online communities, click here.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, business media

Jon Udell leaves journalism ... sort of

Jon Udell, arguably the most talented guy working in B2B journalism, is leaving B2B journalism.
Sort of.
Jon is departing InfoWorld for a new gig at Microsoft. But according to Jon, little will change in what he does each day. "The details aren't nailed down, but in broad terms I've proposed to Microsoft that I continue to function pretty much as I do now. That means blogging, podcasting, and screencasting on topics that I think are interesting and important; it means doing the kinds of lightweight and agile R&D that I've always done; and it means brokering connections among people, software, information, and ideas -- again, as I've always done."

It's too early to tell just what Jon's work will look like when it's published by Microsoft. But I'm not worried. First, it's a pretty good bet that Microsoft hired him because it respects him, not because it thinks it can control him. More importantly, Microsoft has already demonstrated with Scoble that it has the wisdom to let its workers share their thoughts with the blogosphere. (In fact, with nothing more to back this up than my hunch, I'm going to say that Microsoft is hiring Jon partly because it misses the credibility that Scoble lent it before he jumped ship.)

Certainly Jon's decision is a blow to IDG. And since IDG is a client of mine, and one of my favorite B2B publishers, his departure saddens me. Besides, there is something a little sad for all of us in B2B publishing when one of our own decides the opportunities are greater elsewhere.

For an earlier post of mine about Jon, click here.
For Rex's take on Jon's new job, click here.
Click here to see how marketing sites are becoming more like media sites.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, business media

The return of new media's power couple

It's as if Martin and Lewis were appearing again in Vegas.
It's like Mantle and Maris had taken the field again.
It's as if Fred and Ginger have stepped onto the dance floor once more.

The two most interesting guys in the world of online journalism are reuniting.
Rob Curley has taken a new job with Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the same company where Adrian Holovaty works.
That's particularly interesting news for those of us in B2B journalism. Because the parent of WPNI, the Washington Post Co., owns a slew of trade magazines, including Government Computer News and Defense Systems.
Curley and Holovaty were the top guys at the Lawrence Journal-World when that tiny paper morphed into a multimedia showcase, becoming one of the most influential publications in America.

But eventually the pair moved in different directions.
Curley headed to the Naples Daily News in Florida, where he became director of new media and convergence. And he became a superstar in the world of college media, speaking to young journalists about the opportunities and challenges of new media.
Holovaty went on to win a series of awards, create the best-known news mash-up (chicagocrime.org) and then join the Washington Post to help oversee its rebirth as a converged publication.

I won't say much more about these guys. I know I sound as if I'm swooning, and Lord knows I've said enough about Rob and Adrian in posts such as this and this.

But I will urge you to read two things ... and think about what it may mean for journalism in general and your publication in particular.
First, check out this piece by Steve Klein at the Poynter Institute, where he interviews Rob about the new gig.
Then check out the latest post on Adrian's blog, in which he writes about a "fundamental" way in which newspapers must change. Read through his post and substitute the word "magazine" or "newsletter" or "any news product" where appropriate.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, business media, journalism education

More on virtual communities

Last week I posted something on my how my newfound fascination with virtual communities related to my longstanding fascination with communities in B2B media.
Today I've come across a review in "The Economist" of a new book on the business opportunities and cultural ramifications of virtual worlds (thanks to Fine Young Journalist, one of my new favorites in the blogosphere, for pointing me to the review.)
Take a look at the review. See if it does to you what it did to me ... trigger a purchase through Amazon.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters

Communities build themselves

In the past few weeks I've spent a lot of time.... a lot of time ....in the virtual world known as Second Life. It is strange, lovely and addictive. And I'll have to make an effort not to get consumed by the place.
I heard about this online world months ago, but it didn't catch my interest then. I knew it was some sort of online gaming environment where people created "avatars" that "lived" in the virtual world. And it just seemed silly to me.
Then I read about Anshe Chung, a woman who was amassing real-world riches for her work in the virtual world (a second article that mentions her can be found here.) I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm always looking for opportunities. And I found myself wondering if there was a business opportunity for me in the virtual world. I wanted to know if a newspaper or magazine existed in Second Life, or if I should launch one.
So I logged on for a free trial.
As it turns out, there is a newspaper in Second Life. And it's a pretty good paper -- full of actual news, albeit about a fictional world.
But far more interesting to me was that the world itself -- this pretend community where people can fly, this imaginary place where people talk through written messages -- was so much fun. And after a half-dozen visits, I felt somehow that I belonged in this community of possibility and conversation.

I've been thinking a lot about community of late...and how B2B media companies can foster it. Community is, in a very real sense, the goal of publishing. Or at least it should be. We create content, share it with others, and together we consider that content's meaning. To an old-media guy, community is the trade show that his B2B magazine sponsors. To a new-media guy, it's the feedback function on his blog. But put those differences aside and note the similarity -- both of those guys are in the business of fostering connections.
And that's a tough business to be in.

On a fairly regular basis, B2B media executives ask me how they can build community.
What I tell them is that doing so is nearly impossible. What I tell them is that communities build themselves.
And I tell them to read Giant Robot.
Giant Robot is the most interesting -- and most unusual -- magazine in my mailbox every month. It's a consumer magazine about "Asian Pop Culture and Beyond." But it doesn't look, feel or read like any other magazine I know.
The young guys who started GR sensed there was a group of people that needed a place to be. In other words, they believed a community would exist as soon as it had a "place" to gather.
And the founders of the magazine were right. There was a community of young, hip people, most of them Asian and Asian American, who related to the wider culture in a way specific to them. It wasn't that this group of people had shared interests. That's commonplace. Lots of people share interests with lots of other people. What was important was that this particular group had a shared sensibility. People don't join a community in order to belong. They join because they belong.

When communities have blossomed in the B2B world, they have followed a similar pattern. The community exists -- united by emotions more than by interests --but has no central location at which to interact. Then a B2B publication creates a "space" in which conversation can occur. Web sites seem to work best for this. Trade shows are still good at this too. Print magazines seem to be very poor choices (one of the many miracles of GR is that a community made up almost entirely of kids from the Internet generation formed around a print magazine. The key to that success seems to be that the community is also linked through GR's retail outlets and the products of the magazine's advertisers. When I walk around in lower Manhattan, I can spot a Giant Robot reader. They wear their sensibility -- a hip, anime-flavored, pan-Asian and all-American, anti-Orientalism sensibility -- on their shirt sleeves. )

I've come to believe that community is most likely to occur in B2B media that serve industries where strongly held emotions are the norm. People who work in such industries do more than share interests, they share a belief system. And when people work at something that is more than a job, then they tend to think of the B2B publication they read as something more than a magazine.
Thus it's not in the least bit surprising that a vibrant online community has grown around Cygnus' Firehouse.com.
Community also seems more likely to form among people trying to enter an industry than among those already working in it. Job seekers are united by a single common sensibility -- the belief that they are in the wrong place in life.
Thus I'm not surprised that MediaBistro attracts dozens of people nearly every weeknight to its classes, seminars and social gatherings. Whereas I can't imagine that Folio or Editor and Publisher would have similar luck attracting working journalists.

So is there anything a B2B journalist can do to help foster community?
Yes.
The great lesson of the blogging phenomenon is that there is someone who feels passionately about any subject you can think of. And if that person starts a blog, there are always a few people who feel strongly enough to post comments.
Any B2B journalist can tap into that power. You don't need to start a blog, but you do need to become more bloglike. If you allow readers to speak to you and each other, then you have created a place where community might arise. If you let people speak, you may find that they will listen. And together you may find the sense of emotional connection that is the basis of community.
And let me be clear, I'm not suggesting that anyone start another talk-among-yourselves service on their Web site. I don't think a discussion group, live chat or online forum is the best way to connect your readers.
Rather, what I am urging is that you allow your readers to talk to you and each other in public about your work. I'm talking about feedback functions. I'm suggesting that allowing comments on your stories will do more to foster community than any other thing you can do.
Feedback functions are the single best way to find out if there are any readers who share your sensibility -- the strongly held emotional belief that your product is important.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, conversational media, entrepreneurial journalism, standalone journalism

Go East, young man

If I were young again and just starting out in journalism, I'd learn an Asian language. Heck, I'm not young anymore, and I've been in this business for a long time, but I recently decided to learn some Vietnamese. (PERSONAL DISCLOSURE: The love of my life was born in Vietnam, and although she's been a Brooklyn girl since she was a baby, she still speaks Vietnamese with her family. So my decision to learn that language has more to do with my heart than with my career.)
But regardless of who you love, you could do a lot worse than to learn a new language from the developing world -- for that's where the opportunity is in B2B journalism.
Check out the latest news from Reed Business, which is launching a new publication about the pharmaceutical industry in Asia.
Reed has made similar moves before, and it isn't the only publisher to sense that there is growth in the East. Look at what I've written about before here and here.
If you want to hear more about international opportunities in the trade press, try to attend this upcoming session at ASBPE's New England chapter. And follow developments at the blogs of my friends Paul and Hugo.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, advertising

Brace for change; protect yourself by changing

I've been laid off a few times in my career. It's an unpleasant feeling.
At its core, a layoff tells you two things.
First, your bosses have screwed up. What was once a successful business (or at least an optimistic business plan) has turned sour. Profit has turned to loss. Opportunities have been missed. Investments have been squandered. And the people at the top are the ones who are responsible.
But second, and far more important, getting laid off means that you have screwed up too.
If your boss was a fool, you should have seen it a long time ago and began looking for another job. If the company was being mismanaged into the ground, you should have quit and gone with a smarter bunch of people.
Or, as I see time and time again, if the industry itself was changing, than you needed to change even faster.
The Los Angeles Times has a piece today about the growing number of layoffs in the newspaper industry. And I read it with what I found to be a surprising lack of sympathy. The article is filled with phrases such as "collective funk," "dispirited" and "falling morale." But the article doesn't even mention what has caused the "problems" in the print industry -- a remarkable and fascinating shift in which new forms of storytelling have emerged and where the audience has become part of the news-gathering process. The news business has become a conversation -- and that may be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to us. But the L.A. Times piece has nothing to contribute to this conversation other than whining and self pity.
If you want to work in editorial, then you're going to have to accept that change is here. Learn to be one of those journalists that your publisher needs to help navigate the new world. If you haven't mastered multimedia skills, do so. If you're not participating in the conversation about conversational media, do so.
If you're not interested in changing, then get ready for that pink slip.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, newsletters, conversational media

Instablogs stumbles, but the threat remains

Longtime readers of this blog know I like to warn B2B publishers that they face a competitive threat from standalone journalists -- sources, ex-employees and others who use the tools of citizen journalism to bring their work directly to users.
If you're a B2B journalist, you should be aware of the new opportunities you have now.
If you're a B2B publisher, you should be worried about these new standalone competitors taking away your business.
But whoever you are, it doesn't look like you have to worry about Instablogs.
Instablogs is a new collection of single-topic blogs -- some of which cover the business world. Among them are sites about the advertising and outsourcing industries.
But the network has stumbled badly in its opening days...and I'm just not seeing anything that would indicate the blogs have enough professionalism or passion to make a go of it.
First, I agree with Steve Outing at Poynter that publishing the blogs anonymously is a bad idea. I'm sure Instablogs has the same concern that I think B2B publishers should have -- letting a single person become the voice of your product leaves you vulnerable to the whims of that same single person. But running a blog that doesn't conform to the culture of the blogging world -- personal and transparent -- is a bigger mistake.
More importantly, whoever these anonymous bloggers are, it appears they aren't the most professional bunch around. Instablogs has already issued an apology for plagiarizing other writers. But in what I've already come to think of as Instablogs' flawed style, the apology itself is not transparent. In other words, it doesn't tell me what happened. It doesn't tell me why it happened. It doesn't even tell me what the offensive blog was.
Instablogs is getting crucified in the blogging world. I'll be surprised if this experiment lasts much longer.
But that doesn't mean that B2B publishers are off the hook. The threat from a new generation of entrepreneurial journalists -- many of whom already have name recognition in the industry you cover -- has arrived.
(ADDENDUM -- About two hours after I wrote this post, Instablogs responded to my complaint about the lack of transparency in the apology on their site. You can see their response here or by following the link in the comment section below. I'd like to give Instablogs credit for a rapid and professional response. Thanks folks.)

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, advertising, entrepreneurial journalism, standalone journalism

Changes at ICIS; changes for me

Reed Business' ICIS unit is rebranding its Chemical News and Intelligence service and adding coverage of the oil industry. The news operation, now known as ICISnews, has reporters based in London, Houston, Singapore, Shanghai, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Washington and New York.
It's a little unclear to me how much of the service is actually new. Chemical News and other Reed properties have been global players for quite some time in the chemical world. Reed's Chemical Market Reporter has been around for more than 130 years. And Reed already publishes some newsletters about petroleum product prices. Nonetheless, the new ICIS does seem to be offering something that the old Chemical News service did not -- daily news stories from around the globe about the petroleum industry.
That's good news for journalists. The new ICISnews may offer some interesting job opportunities for B2B reporters and editors. It's also good news for traders and others in the petroleum business, because information is vital in a market where a move of a penny can cost millions around the globe.
But it's bad news for those companies that already cover the petroleum industry -- notably Reuters, Platts, Pennwell and OPIS.
Now this is normally where I would disclose my ties to newsletter publisher OPIS, as I have in earlier posts. But those ties were severed just yesterday.
I'd been arguing that OPIS was vulnerable to new competition because its products were old-fashioned (the electronic publications are text only), often shoddy (many OPIS products are published without being edited) and unprofessional (in-house ads are run inside of news copy.) But I failed in my attempts to impose some of my beliefs about quality B2B journalism. First and foremost, I failed to convince the company of the need to edit copy. So OPIS and I have parted ways.
Now it would certainly be fun if I could say that ICISnews is exactly the sort of threat to OPIS that I envisioned. But that wouldn't be true.
ICIS will compete against OPIS in some limited areas, including feedstocks and crude oil. But ICIS isn't going after the core of OPIS' revenue -- news and pricing data from the wholesale gasoline market. OPIS is nearly all alone in that niche. Although a few competitors have risen over the years, they've been other Mom and Pop operations (sometimes started by OPIS employees) with similar less-than-stellar products. OPIS has beaten them back.
But I remain convinced that some new competitor will emerge in that space -- most likely someone such as Reed that is already the benchmark player in similar markets -- and take advantage of OPIS' weaknesses.
In the meantime, I'm off to new challenges. I'll post more about those in the next few days.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines, advertising

Business opportunity in B2B?

Can this be true? Is there really such a business opportunity right under our B2B publishing noses?
TSMI's Trade Show blog says that industry doesn't have a "resource that would allow tracking of competitors and industry bellwethers by the events where they were exhibitors and/or sponsors along with total spend on these events." In other words, the B2B media, which makes much of its money by publishing industry data and running trade shows, hasn't found a way to merge those two opportunities.
I'm not an expert in trade shows. Nor do I do much in data publishing. So perhaps I'm missing something. But this would seem to have some potential.
ADDENDUM: Check out what Paul Woodward, who writes about B2B media in Asia, has to say about this issue.

tags: journalism, b2b, media, trade press, magazines

Students, podcasts and journalism

I've said before that journalism students of today need to embrace the changes of participatory journalism and the converged newsroom. The tools of community journalism have opened opportunities that were unimaginable when I was starting out in this game.
And in today's Wall Street Journal, there's an interesting piece about a student who landed a gig podcasting on behalf of the Denver Post.
Let me be clear -- I don't think anyone needs the help of the mainstream press to do this sort of work. The beauty of community journalism is that there are few barriers to entry.
The Journal piece also discusses some other podcasting efforts by mainstream B2C publications. It's worth a read.
In the meantime, I'm still waiting to see something truly interesting podcasts emerge in the B2B world. I trust that sooner, and not later, some entry-level reporter at some trade pub is going to impress me.

NXTBook vs. repurposing content

In a post yesterday, I implied that I liked they way NXTBook makes offline content available in an online format. A reader of this blog wrote to ask why I, of all people, would say anything positive about such a system, given that I have previously spoken about the need to repurpose content for the Web, and that I have bad-mouthed other pdf-like attempts to put paper products on the Web.
Point taken.
As a general rule, I don't like the glorified versions of pdf files that publishers place on line. In particular, I've voiced disappointment at the efforts of my alma mater to create an electronic newspaper.
So let me clarify.
Creating content for an electronic medium provides innumerable opportunities to do things that simply cannot be done in a print product. And any industrious and talented journalist should take advantage of that. For a recent example of how to tell a story on the Web, check out this post by journalism teacher and fellow blogger Doug Fisher. For a look at how to write for the Web, read this piece by Jonathan Dube.
As for NXTBook, the simple truth is that I find the product kind of cool. It is not a substitute for multimedia content. But it is fun to play with.

Help with your magazine launch

If you're one of those folks with dreams of launching your own trade magazine, there's a new Web site that claims to have the information you'll need. Magazinelaunch.com is an online resource for entrepreneurs with visions of earning wealth from publishing. The site, complete with chatboards for sharing ideas, is the brainchild of InfoSwell, a California-based company that designs Web sites for magazines.
Magazinelaunch is also a place for "leading vendors and consultants" to connect with professionals and entrepreneurs. There are also opportunities with the site for writers who wish to freelance articles about the magazine business.

Another reorganization for Primedia Business

Things are changing once again at one of my former employers, Primedia Business.
The B2B publisher will fold two existing magazines into one in a move that "Folio"magazine warns "runs the risk of opening up opportunities for niche competitors."
Primedia plans to combine "Catalog Age" and "Operations and Fulfillment" into something called "Multichannel Merchant."
Off the top of my head, this doesn't seem like the best idea.
First, I just hate the new name. It's too similar to Reed Business' Multichannel News. More importantly, the name is supposed to evoke the broad business of online and print catalogs, direct mail and telemarketing. But to me it seems sort of bland and unfocused.
Second, I'm always a little wary when a niche publication -- where success comes from having expertise in a small area -- decides to go broader.
I assume the rebranding is part of Primedia Business' larger effort to refocus its marketing publications as part of the Chief Marketer initiative. And I'm generally supportive of that move.
But I have to say I agree with "Folio" on this one. There's considerable risk here.

Publishers' policies on blogs

I've been impressed with how some mainstream newspapers are embracing the participatory journalism movement. The Greensboro News & Record, for example, is generating considerable attention from other mainstream media outlets for its use of blogs and its embrace of transparency. But I have yet to come across a B2B publisher with a similar level of interest in how online journalism is evolving.
Much of the foot-dragging is based in fear, it seems. When I mention blogs to many B2B journalists, I tend to run into a lot of paranoid pontificating about amateurs pontificating in pajamas. I've said it before ... and I suspect I'll say it again ... trade publishers have to look again at the community journalism movement. Those people in pajamas are not your competition, they are your audience. They are not your enemy. They are the key to all your opportunities.
The pajama people are also often your coworkers.
And one specialty publisher has created a set of rules on employee blogging that may prove a workable template for any B2B publisher. The rules are evolving, according to Rexblog, because the company is listening to feedback from bloggers! Check out the most recent version of the rules here.

Trade pubs for the rag trade

B2B publications in the apparel space seem to be hot, presumably because changes in global trade laws are creating opportunities for clothing entrepreneurs.
Global Sources, which publishes newsletters about the industry, says it will launch "Garments & Textiles" magazine and a related website by summer. The products will serve apparel manufacturers and related businesses, primarily those that do business in China and India.
And Edgell Communications announced it bought "Apparel" magazine from VNU for an undisclosed amount. "Apparel" is an old-timer in the clothing and trade-magazine worlds. Originally titled "Bobbin," the publication entered the world the same year I did -- 1959.
But new and old publications alike must compete against the giant of rag-trade trade pubs: "Women's Wear Daily." No one else has the influence of WWD. No one else has the staff and stringer network to produce the detailed news and gorgeous photos that are the hallmark of WWD.
And WWD has the advantage of having Rich Rosen as managing editor. Rich is a friend of mine, a talented journalist and yet another of my fellow refugees from Bloomberg News.

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.

Launching

There are few things as exciting in our business as the launch of a new publication. If you've been lucky enough to be around for those first few days when a product debuts, you know what I mean. For journalists, it's a chance to recapture some of the joy of those early days in our career when things were new and our potential seemed limitless.
Folio magazine's cover piece this month is Startup Stories, a look at the "opportunities and challeges" faced by six new magazines. Among the featured publications are B2B magazines covering the restauarant, security and energy industries.