This resignation makes me look back at Steve Weitzner’s move from CEO to head of international business development for CMP.  Was this something he really wanted?  What he pushed out by the home office in London where parent UBM is based?  Was the feeling mutual?  A few weeks ago, I would have said that it looks like Weitzner left on his own terms and is now doing what he really wants to be doing.  Now, I’m not so sure.

One other question, does Marder’s leaving have anything to do with Weitzner’s?  Again, the timing makes me think that the home office in London (ie, David Levin, UBM CEO) was not happy with top management, etc.  I’ll endeavor to find out.

Rumors

The search for CMP’s new CEO is on.  I’ve heard two names from a few people.  Let me preface this by saying that this means nothing, really…just what’s floating out in the ether:

Tony Uphoff - a recent acquisition from Nielsen (he was running The Hollywood Reporter).  He is now running CMP’s business technology group

Gary Hughes - Hughes is the CEO of CMPi, UBM’s European B2B media branch

This week saw the announcement of David Blansfield’s, SVP at Penton’s design engineering group (Machine Design), appointment as president of magazines at F+W Publishing, the large consumer/niche publisher of I.D., Print, HOW, and many others.  Blansfield replaces Colin Ungaro, another B2B veteran, most recently of Reed’s new products division.  Also, earlier this year, Eric Shanfelt got up off the bench and joined Clay Hall’s Aspire Media, another enthusiast company.

Both Blansfield and Shanfelt come into their new jobs brimming with confidence.  And why not?

When I first started at min’s b2b just over 18 months ago, I spent my first few days on the job in Phoenix at the American Business Media Spring Meeting.  There, there was some concern about B2B media companies doing all they could to monetize their content.  There was further concern that B2B media companies were way behind other media companies in doing.  This worry has paid off, as now B2B media companies are way ahead of their consumer and niche counterparts in monetizing Web opportunities, as well as face-to-face and custom publishing opportunities.

So, in practice, you might assume that a B2B media executive with years of experience squeezing every penny out of every crumb of content would do quite well on the consumer/niche side.  I’d make that assumption.  It didn’t work out with Ungaro, it seems.  Hopefully, Shanfelt and Blansfield will have more luck.  Time will tell and we’ll be watching.

More on this in this week’s issue of min’s b2b.

I just stumbled accross this Web site: http://www.sustainprint.com/

Kudos to the people at North American Publishing Company for taking on this important topic (environmental awareness/sustainability in publishing) with a credible editorial product. I’ll be writing more about this later in the week and in min’s b2b this week.

UPDATE: Due to time and space considerations, this article will appear in the following week’s issue of min’s b2b.

Okay digital magazine vendors: don’t freak out yet…read the whole post. 

I moderated panel today hosted by ASBPE (american society of business publication editors) about digital magazines at the McGraw Hill Companies.  I’d say the turnout was very good, the panelists were articulate, and, in general, we all learned a lot.  I came away with three things that I’d like to share.

1. I am not a believer in digital magazines.  Of course I know they exist, but, what I mean is, I don’t read them.  Let me first say that my usage habits are perhaps not typical.  I’m a print guy.  I love holding magazines, reading them on the subway, in the john, etc.  I like glossy covers, and photo spreads.  I consume on the Internet, too, but not nearly as much.  Really.  But, you know what?  My own experience doesn’t really matter (and neither does yours).  To judge what our readers will want based on what we like is ludicrous.  The key is to….

2. Survey your readers.  The fact is, having a digital edition available can save you a lot of money in paper, printing, and distribution costs, as well as make you some money in added subs, especially overseas.  But at least some of your readers will need to want one to make this work.  I would guess that if you contact one of the vendors (NXTBook, Zinio, and Texterity are three that come to mind and that were present today), and tell them that you’d like to use them, but want to survey your readers first, I’m guessing they’d be happy to help.  And why not survey your readers with help on the cheap?

3. Experiment.  It probably doesn’t cost very much to make a PDF version of your products and find some way to distribute it to subscribers.  I’m not saying that this will be a great revenue source, but if you don’t want to spend time and money investigating a full-fledged digital edition, and you still want to get into the game, this is a good way to start.  Digital editions may not be huge now, but they might be in the near future, and do you want to go into that future with zero experience with the medium?

Of course, there was a lot more said at the session, and we all learned a lot, but, it’s Friday before Thanksgiving, and I think I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Ps - One last piece of advice: if you want to expand overseas, a digital edition is probably the best way to do it at this point: no time delay, no mailing fees, and limited startup costs.  This might even be a good way to launch new products.

I just got off the phone with Cam Bishop, CEO of Ascend Media, and he confirmed to me what I reported below: Ascend’s Physician’s Money Digest will be shuttering after the November issue, and that Family Practice Recertification and Internal Medicine World Report will fold at the end of the year.  Also to report: Ascend has sold Dental Products Shopper.  To whom?  Find out in a few minutes at minonline.com.  I’m going to write a story about it.  There will be more yet in min’s b2b on Friday.

I was sent a tip today that Ascend’s Physician’s Money Digest will be shuttering after the November issue, and that Family Practice Recertification and Internal Medicine World Report will fold at the end of the year.  I called Will Passano, division president, and Cam Bishop, CEO of the company, and left messages.  I also emailed Bishop.  No response so far. (If you have more news on this story, please email me at jgreenfield@accessintel.com.)

This is just more negative news coming out of a company that seemed to have so much promise when it was formed.   This year alone, Ascend has sold its top-performing division (Stagnito) to BNP Media, and lost a top executive in Ron Wall.  When I’ve spoken to top executives at Ascend about the state of the company this past year, they’ve said the right things, but didn’t sound to happy or confident.

Meanwhile, Wall goes to Apprise Media, and is now part of an organization that has increased revenues by 33% and profits by 55% in the two years it has existed, the company announced today: both through acquisition and organic growth.

Troubles that we’ve seen this year at Ascend, BNP/Stagnito, and Cygnus are unfortunate for those companies, the people that work there, and the industry as a whole, but these strong profit and revenue increases from Apprise go to show that the news isn’t always all bad, even in a print-challeneged 2007.

Most of this week’s issue of min’s b2b is devoted to discussing what I will call, for lack of a better word, green.  The focus of the issue will be what I wrote about in my post below: using the power of our editorial products to promote environmental awareness in the various industries that we serve, etc.

But make no mistake: there’s lots we don’t talk about.  We barely touch the issue of recycled paper and soy-based ink.  We don’t talk much about distribution, or digital magazines, or marketing green initiatives, or strategies for launching green columns or products.  There is a lot more we can discuss, and we will in the coming weeks and months.

I’d like to publicly call out the other publications that cover B2B media and ask them to join me in making this plea to our readers: let’s band together as an industry and resolve to reduce waste and the environmental impact of our own businesses while helping the businesses we serve do the same. 

Usually the opening remarks at American Business Media meetings are a bit ho-hum; the audience knows what’s coming, and Gordon Hughes, president and CEO of ABM, is a good speaker and delivers well. This morning’s report to the chairman, Hanley Wood CEO Frank Anton, was different. Hughes a large portion of the report talking about green initiatives in B2B. His speech was as close to an impassioned plea I think I’ve seen him get (and as close as would be appropriate in my estimation).

His message was three-fold…and I’ll start with the second and third parts, because I think the first is worth dwelling on:

1. Encourage conservation and sustainability within our own companies. This isn’t new, and anyone who isn’t doing it is just foolish, because it does save money (and can lead to good PR). Save paper, turn off lights, use recycled paper and soy-based ink–although these last two might not be cheaper–and the like. Simple.

2. Conserve in your personal life. This is a mantra we’ve been saying as a country since the early ’90s. Hughes urged people to examine the kinds of products they use (from fertilizer to detergent), as well as to do simple things, like carry groceries from the supermarket in canvas bags, “like what grandma used to do,” he says.

3. Encourage the industries we serve, through editorial, to be more green. I feel like this is revolutionary, and an important and brilliant suggestion. Major kudos to Hughes on this one. It’s time for the leaders in this industry to start taking on responsibility for the environment (and our country’s economic future) with extreme measures–and for business reasons. Let’s face it: the rest of the developed world is worried about the environment. It doesn’t matter if global warming is real, or a hoax, or a new show on FOX…the rest of the world is paying attention. And when it comes to developing the practices, technologies, and products that serve the new, environmentally conscious world, it’s foreign companies that will be leading the way–and reaping the profits.

It’s time for Motor to tell Detroit to get its head out of its ass: put real money into developing new technologies that save fuel, and drop–entirely drop–its lobbying efforts in Washington to limit legislation on fuel economy. It’s time for Chemical Week to tell the chemical industry to be more environmentally conscious: I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks ago (see it here)…but, essentially, the EU has started putting restrictions on chemicals that are both green and health-conscious, and our government, in conjunction with our domestic chemical industry, has bitterly opposed them–which do you think will become/remain the world standard? And who will benefit? It’s time for the journals at Farm Progress to tell its readers to drop their ridiculous obsession with corn-based ethanol: when sugar-based ethanol from Brazil is over four times more efficient, who do you think will win out in a globalized economy? Some of these suggestions might seem painful in the short term, but, in the long run, I believe they will turn out to be the correct business moves.

It’s time for our editorial teams to start stepping up, stop being mindless cheerleaders for industries run by dinosaurs, and to be the forward thinking, progressive, and, yes, business conscious watchdogs that they are. Because, what happens to dinosaurs?

When a CEO is “transitioned” from the role of CEO to another role within the company, this is often a face-saving move by both the company and the CEO when a parting of ways is imminent. Often the hallmark of this move is that the “transitioning” CEO ends up leaving the company within a year or so. We’ve seen that several times in B2B media in the past few years.

I don’t think this is that kind of move; I don’t think Weitzner is being “kicked upstairs.”

CMP/UBM is a very communicative company. Over the summer, when the company fired 200 of its 1,100 or so employees, Weitzner and Alix Raine, the corporate communicator at the company, called me and some of my colleagues at rival publications ahead of time to let us know what was happening and to let us know they’d be open to answering any questions we had. Though they put a positive spin on the story, they didn’t hesitate to acknowledge the negatives (premium content), that people were losing their jobs, and that that was not a pleasant prospect. It’s not my experience that CMP tries to hide things. It’s not David Levin’s (UBM CEO) way, it’s not Raine’s way, and, besides, UBM, being a publicly traded company in the UK, has a culture of disclosure.

That being said, there is a mystery here. If the company is making more money, as Levin said, and if the transition is going well, and if the move is mutually agreed upon and amicable, why not wait until there’s another executive in place ready to step into the role? It just seems a little too urgent. I think there is probably more here than has been written today, though I do believe the company is being fairly forthright in this case…I aim to find out next week at the ABM Top Management Meeting.

And, I’d like to add that I like Steve very much and that he’s been a great guide for me personally since I entered this industry. Every time I’ve reached out to him for advice–both about the industry and about my personal development–he’s been very helpful. And so, I wish him great luck in this next stage of his career; however, if his 23 year career at CMP is any indication, luck probably will have very little to do with it.