I was having lunch today with a friend in the industry.  We had both been watching some of the B2B deals that have gone through in the past year or so.  While the mega-deal of the year involved the expansion of an already huge Penton Media into the second largest diversified B2B media company in the country, the other two that we discussed saw the formation of two very different kind of companies.

Bill Reilly’s Summit Business Media, although it has plans to get very large, is focused on the service industries–finance, accounting, insurance, etc–exclusively at this point.  And Paul Mackler’s HMP Communications is focused on health.  In fact, last week, Bill Colbert told me for min’s b2b that he, along with VSS, his PE backer, was going to focus on building a single-industry company.  And Ascend Media has recently gone from diversification with Stagnito (health and food) to focus.

Will the new generation of B2B startups aspire to the Reed/Penton/Cygnus model?  Or will they be more focused?

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.