The most prestigious award in B2B journalism…so why am I not up for one?! ::Wink wink::

Congratulations to those deserving few who are up for the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a trade journalist: the Jesse H. Neal Award. There will be a finalist breakdown in this week’s min’s b2b, but, for now, just two quick observations (that may or may not contradict each other):

- IDG always makes a great showing at the Neals. This year is no different as the tech publisher has 17 noms if we count correctly. There are other companies with lots of nominations, too, but, as far as we can tell, IDG is the only company guaranteed to land at least one Neal: The three finalists in the best staff-written editorials or opinion columns category are Computerworld, Computerworld, and PC World–all IDG pubs.

- Scratch what I just said: Crain, another name that we frequently see on the finalist list, is the only publishing house up for best single issue of a newspaper or tabloid.

Good luck to IDG, Crain, and all the rest of the finalists!

Click here for the minonline brief and complete list of noms.

Here’s a story that’s been all over the national business news that has a very strong B2B angle: The hostile takeover attempt at CNET by Jana Partners and Sandell Asset Management, two massive hedge funds.

I won’t go into details, because I write a lengthy article about it in this week’s min’s b2b (I’ll link to the subscribe page here, because it’s just easier for me than retyping the 1,700 words in this blog), but, suffice it to say, I think that B2B media execs, especially those in the tech publishing space should be following closely. That means you, Bob Carrigan (IDG), Steve Weitzner (Ziff Davis Enterprise), David Levin (CMP), Jason Young (Ziff Davis), and Greg Strakosch (TechTarget). I would also advise that smaller operators, those of e-media startups and small content companies, watch this story closely–especially the company’s stock price, which can be found here.

(Hint: Right now, based on the company’s stock price, it would sell at about 23xEBITDA. Chew on that.)

For everyone’s benefit, I’m taking a little break from blogging today, b2b-ers.  Enjoy these words of wisdom from Jim Casella.  You can also check out his blog here.

As we start the new year, the word that keeps coming up in politics and business is “momentum.” Hillary lost it in Iowa but regained it in New Hampshire. McCain lost it six months ago when his campaign started to run out of money before he had run any ads, but he regained it in New Hampshire and hopes to keep it in Michigan and South Carolina. Rudy believes he will gain it in Florida, but it could be too late in the game going into Super Tuesday, February 5th. Mitt claims he has won two silvers, but silvers do not give you momentum. Edwards clearly does not have it and pressure will mount on him to get out of the race after South Carolina and make it a two-person race for the Democratic nomination. Huckabee claims he had it for a moment in Iowa, but he lost it in New Hampshire. Obama clearly has it, but it slowed down a bit in New Hampshire. One of the candidates in each party will certainly grab the momentum ring on Super Tuesday and ride it to the White House in November.

It is clear that winning or coming close against great odds can establish momentum. The Giants lost to the Patriots in late December, but by playing his first team and coming close, Tom Coughlin gave the Giants the momentum they needed to beat the Bucs on the road in the wild card NFC playoff game and beat the Cowboys this past Sunday to get into the NFC Championship game. The Packers seemed to lose it towards the end of the season, but they regained it in the snow at Lambeau Field against the Seahawks. It brought back memories of Lombardi’s Packers, with Hornung, Taylor and Bart Starr in their glory years. Brett Favre keeps getting better with age! The Patriots continue to have it as they move closer to running the table. Can they be denied before Super Sunday, February 3rd? Not if momentum has anything to do with it.

min’s b2b keeps us informed every week on which publications and categories are hot and have momentum and which continue to be under pressure. Up until this past year, Hanley-Wood clearly had momentum, particularly with its residential titles. Its focused approach was a winning hand, just as enterprise computing was from ‘92-’01 when CMP, IDG and Ziff Davis rode the momentum wave. Google has it while Yahoo! has clearly lost it. Will Google be able to maintain it during this cooling-down period if it cannot introduce an innovative new product to complement search?

The media business is very similar to politics and sports. When you are winning and on top, it feels like it will last forever. But as Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, and others have stated, “only the paranoid survive.” Those of us who grew up on the advertising side of the business know how quickly fortunes can change and how difficult it can be to represent a property that is not #1 or #2 in its category.

As managers, we need to make certain that our businesses are constantly innovating to insure that we are not in the position of losing momentum for our core brands. Media brands with significant good will and brand equity will allow for tarnished brands to be rebuilt, but it is very challenging. Does anyone recall brands like Atari and Sega, which were once the leading video game platforms and seemed invincible? Keep checking those scorecards and doing research to insure that your leading properties will deliver strong results in ‘08 and beyond.

First, the news:

Mike Kisseberth is the new CEO of IDG’s PC World and Macworld, according to an announcement late Friday afternoon (9/14).  The position had been filled by interim CEO and CEO of IDG, Bob Carrigan, since the departure of Colin Crawford, who returned to his previous position running interactive sales for corporate.  Crawford had stepped down after Harry McCracken, editor of PC World, was reinstated after resigning the previous week over an editorial disagreement with Crawford. 

Now, the back story:

I am not in the office.  I’m now blogging from Grandma’s.  I’m here for a holiday dinner.  (Why I was checking my email after work on a Friday while at a family event is an issue for my analyst.)  I couldn’t resist writing a bit about this since it is related to the McCracken/Crawford story that I followed pretty closely when it broke, last May.

And, truth be told, I wanted to get the story up online as fast as possible.  (It’s a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless, that the Internet puts huge pressures on journalists to get the story out before anyone else.  I’m not immune.) 

And finally, the commentary:

I don’t know much about Kisseberth, but I’ll try to talk with him next week for a more in depth story in min’s b2b.  For now: he most recently comes from CNet, where he was senior VP of corporate sales and operations.  According to the press release, “during his tenure at the interactive media company, revenue among corporate accounts increased more than threefold.”

Kisseberth will have weird shoes to fill.  Crawford was only CEO for six weeks before stepping down.  Aside from the initial gaffe, Crawford (and Carrigan, McCracken, and Pat McGovern) handled the situation quite well and all came out smelling relatively good.  There was a momentary lapse of confidence in the editorial integrity of the publication initially, followed by swell of good feelings at the outcome.

So what sort of environment is Kisseberth walking into?  One, I imagine, in which the editors rule the roost.  But, in a category with incredibly attentive readers–they followed the McCracken/Crawford story religiously, making it into a national media issue, breifly–that might be a good thing.

From Grandma’s house, signing off. 

Apologies for my recent absense, minsiders. I’ve been spending all week preparing to leave. In a few days time, I’ll be relaxing on a beautiful North East beach, barring any more hurricanes. But, all this is not your concern. Here are some of the thoughts I’ve had this week regarding the news.

Mackler is back: When I spoke with Paul Mackler about his purchase of HMP Communications, he said that he was looking to expand the business by acquisitions and organically, but that HMP was going to stay exclusively in the healthcare market. This struck me as odd, because Mackler’s last job was in building a large, fully diversified B2B company: Cygnus. Is this new strategy a slight dig at his old one?

Penton and John French: John French’s myocardial infarction made it into the New York Post this past week. We here at min think that Keith Kelly sometimes crosses the line in his reporting between business and personal, and relevant informatino and speculation. Regardless, our only thoughts on the matter, presently, are to wish John a speedy recovery.

PC World v. PC Magazine: I was contacted by the PR agency that represents PC Magazine this week because Jim McCabe, VP/publisher of the book, wanted to make comment on the new PC World redesign. That call never ended up happening, but I thought it interesting that McCabe would want to comment on his biggest rival. Most publishers hesitate to talk about their rivals. I wonder what he would have said.

Sys Admin: This week in min’s b2b, I talked with Charlie Shively, new helmer of CMP’s software group. He was telling me about the reasons for Sys Admin’s decline and eventual shuttering. It’s still 100% unclear as to why Sys Admin has so many ad pages this year, even if you don’t consider an 80 page insert it had in January. I honestly believe that Kerry Gates, the now-ex publisher, was giving away severely dicounted pages in Sys Amin’s final hours just to gouge the competition. Is this an unethical practice? I don’t know.

Have a great week minsiders. I’ll see you after Labor Day.