CMP Media Announces CMPnet, the Hub for Technology and Internet Communities on the Web

CMP Media Inc. today announced CMPnet, a new Web service that will be the hub for the technology and Internet communities. Slated to debut June 30, CMPnet will be aimed at the core Web audience -- users of technology who rely on the Internet for business, personal productivity and entertainment.

CMPnet will integrate the company's existing Internet products, providing users with the full array under a unified umbrella, and add many new services that will build communities and enable visitors to the site to interact with one another. The company will also unify its Web sales force into one organization, providing advertisers with a single point of access to all of the company's online products.

"Launching CMPnet enables us to use our expertise in technology to broaden our Internet presence and give millions of Net users more of what they really want," said Rebecca Barna, Vice President/Group Publisher of CMP's Internet Media Group.

CMPnet will be headquartered in Manhasset where the Internet Media Group and most of CMP's online products are based. NetGuide Live headquarters, currently located in San Francisco, will move to Manhasset. All NetGuide Live sales personnel will be retained. Efficiencies resulting from the integration of the company's existing Web products will result in the elimination of 22 editorial and technology positions at NetGuide Live on the West Coast. As always, CMP will try to provide alternate positions where possible.

The management team for CMPnet includes Beth Haggerty, Publishing Director of NetGuide Magazine and NetGuide Live, who has been named Publishing Director of CMPnet, and Mitchell York, Vice President of TechWeb®, CMP's pioneering technology super site. Haggerty will vacate the publishing post at NetGuide Magazine to focus all of her time on CMPnet. Scott Wolf, Vice President/Group Publisher of CMP's PC Group, will take over the publishing post at NetGuide Magazine.

CMPnet: Integrating CMP's Online Products and Services

CMPnet content will comprise a combination of newly-created information and features, along with the best elements from CMP's other sites which in aggregate currently generate more than 20 million page views per month. In addition to TechWeb, which features the popular TechWire, TechInvestor, FileMine and TechCalendar sites, and NetGuide Live, the consumer's guide to the Net, CMPnet will include First-TV, CMP's Internet TV video network, as well as the company's U.S. and international publication Web sites.

All CMPnet products and services will share a common unifying design interface and navigation architecture created with Ikonic, Inc. a leading Web strategy, design and implementation firm with offices in San Francisco and New York. "For years, we've built businesses on the Web. CMPnet is different," said Robert May, Chairman and CEO of Ikonic. "Backed by CMP's brands, vision, and circulation base, we think it represents a whole new category, the first infotech civilization on the World Wide Web."

A Unified Sales Force

With the creation of CMPnet the company will unify its Web sales into one organization. "Our customers have asked us to make it easier for them to buy across our spectrum of technology and consumer audiences," Haggerty said. "We are now going to do that with a dedicated Internet sales force."

CMPnet will offer advertisers a uniformly structured rate card for CMPnet's standard products, allowing them easy access to cost-efficient pricing and a uniform system of ad management and reporting. "By combining these powerhouse sites under one umbrella, CMP can offer greater consolidated monthly Web traffic, giving our technology and consumer advertisers a big boost in potential reach," Haggerty said.

In addition, CMPnet will form a custom Web-publishing group which will create sponsored Web sites and other online marketing opportunities for CMP customers using successful models developed by the company's publishing groups.

The Management Team

Barna has held many senior-level positions in her seven years at CMP. Prior to her promotion last December to head up CMP's Internet Media Group, Barna focused her energy on building interactive business for CMP's Enterprise Computing Group.

Haggerty, who will report to Barna, was recently named one of "25 Women to Watch" by Advertising Age. She has more than 15 years of experience in the technology marketplace and since 1994 her efforts have been exclusively dedicated to the Internet, most recently as Publishing Director of NetGuide Magazine and NetGuide Live.

York, a 16-year CMP veteran, launched TechWeb in 1994 and has led it to its present position as one of the leading technology content sites on the Web. He has held top editorial and publishing posts at CMP including Publisher of VARBusiness magazine.

CMP Media Inc. provides publishing, marketing and information services to the broad high-technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and users of technology -- through print and electronic media. CMP's print titles include, among others, EE Times, Computer Reseller News, InformationWeek, HomePC, NetGuide Magazine and WINDOWS Magazine.

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SOURCE: CMP Media Inc.