CMP Technology Strengthens Its Market-Leading Brands and Increases Focus on Next-Generation Media

MANHASSET, N.Y., June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- CMP Technology, a targeted media and marketing solutions company, today announced broad-reaching changes to its product portfolio and organizational structure, the latest steps in its ongoing strategic transformation into a next-generation media company. The company is realigning its product offerings around its market-leading brands, putting its online networks at the heart of its operations, expanding its footprint as the largest organizer of b2b technology events and unifying its sales and marketing resources in each of the major markets it serves. The changes include a restructuring of content, audience marketing, production and product development resources to reflect the company's current focus on digital and face to face media.

"CMP has always been committed to leading the growth of our industry, our customers' business and our own company. These changes are a significant milestone in our ongoing transformation, and they position us to define the future of technology media," said Steve Weitzner, CMP Technology President and CEO.

Over the last 24 months, CMP has invested $146 million in acquisitions and launched initiatives that broadened and balanced its portfolio by adding dominant events and online products, including Interop, Black Hat, Light Reading and TechOnline. In 2006, for the first time, event and online revenue surpassed print revenue, a trend that will accelerate this year.

In the broad technology markets that CMP serves, the company will shift resources by merging titles to strengthen its market-leading brands, reducing print frequencies, strengthening online networks, launching new digital products, globalizing brands and streamlining sales, marketing and editorial structures. As a result, CMP will provide its customers with easier access to the most comprehensive integrated portfolio of technology media brands, through knowledgeable sales consultants focused on building marketing solutions with maximum return on investment.

"The changes that we are announcing today will reinforce CMP's leadership position in technology media, providing the greatest access, the greatest influence, and the most effective marketing solutions for our customers. No other media company has the dominant brands -- online, face to face and in print," Weitzner added.

The Business Technology Market

InformationWeek, which for eight years has been the market-leading business technology brand in advertising market share, readership and reach to the broadest, most influential IT buying audience, will now integrate the editorial and audience resources of Network Computing and Optimize, creating one brand that seamlessly connects the 'why' behind business strategy with the 'how' of technical implementation.

InformationWeek Magazine, which will continue to reach 440,000 technology decision-makers weekly, will launch three monthly demographic editions: For IT, By IT; For CIOs, By CIOs; and Strategic Security. The newly expanded InformationWeek will allow marketers to create print media programs that offer the flexibility of online, delivering broad reach to the largest audience of business technology buyers in the industry, as well as targeted access to vertical segments of the market.

InformationWeek.com will remain the primary news and business technology research tool for IT decision makers. The site, which has experienced a dramatic 40% increase in traffic year over year, will be launching additional products, including a series of blogs, video services, webcasts and virtual communities. InformationWeek.com will also become the news arm for the TechWeb Network, which includes resources such as networkcomputing.com, optimizemag.com, byteandswitch.com and IntelligentEnterprise.com, and offers the greatest breadth of online resources for people who buy, build and manage technology. This August, TechWeb will launch bMighty.com, a new website aimed at small and mid-sized businesses.

A unified sales, marketing, custom media and project management team will help technology vendors meet their goals and objectives through the creation and delivery of results-driven marketing solutions across the entire business technology market. More sales, content and product development resources will be dedicated to TechWeb.

Interop, the largest business technology event in the world, attracting nearly 500 exhibitors and 20,000 buyers to its flagship event in Las Vegas this year, will continue to grow through a series of initiatives, including the integration of the recently acquired Software 2008 conference, and through continued expansion in key global markets, in addition to Berlin, Moscow and Tokyo.

The Web 2.0 Expo, produced in partnership with O'Reilly Media, which this year launched in San Francisco with more than 8,000 total attendees, will be expanding to Berlin in November of this year.

The Channel

CMP will continue to produce the number one and two channel publications in the industry, along with the most-trafficked website in the Channel, and one of the top in the IT industry. The mission and market positioning of CRN and VARBusiness, along with their key supplements, will not change: CRN will continue to provide news analysis in the print edition and breaking news online. Going forward, CRN will publish twice-monthly. VARBusiness will continue to provide strategic management advice, now with monthly frequency. A unified editorial team will ensure that content production is seamlessly integrated across all platforms.

CMP's Channel brands will now have an integrated, customer-centric sales structure to offer marketing solutions across everything channel, from access to execution. One unified sales team will represent CRN, VARBusiness and ChannelWeb, with dedicated platform-experts focused on XChange events, and specialists focused on The Institute for Partner Education and Development (IPED).

More resources will be dedicated to ChannelWeb. The CMP Channel will continue to invest in new initiatives like eXalt, a web-based tool that provides sales solutions and configuration abilities to accelerate sales for solution providers, as well as bringing new tools to market to help solution providers better manage vendor sales incentives and spiffs. ChannelWeb has also launched lead generation tools, the largest solution provider database in North America, and a number of community and networking features and productivity tools.

All editorial and market research will now be part of IPED, adding additional resources and information to the largest provider of research, analysis and consulting services for solution provider organizations and vendor sales divisions.

XChange, the largest producer and manager of IT channel events in the industry today, will continue to innovate by offering custom events, targeted roadshows like Managed Services and a new Global Partner Event, where senior channel executives from all over the world will attend to discuss global industry issues.

The Electronics Market

EETimes and TechOnline are the leading global brands for electronics and design engineers. CMP will continue to shift news-gathering and content production resources to the 24/7 online edition, while using the weekly print edition of EETimes to provide analysis and interpretation of the news. The editorial teams in the US and Europe will be combined and continue to collaborate closely with partners in Japan and Asia to provide a global and local perspective for readers and advertisers. The EETimes.com site will be redesigned, adding video shows that highlight major news and offer design tutorials.

The EETimes sales team has been reorganized into three functions aligned to customer needs: a small senior sales team that will sell across all products to top accounts, a telesales team responsible for smaller accounts and new business development, and a customer service team responsible for post-sales support of web, print and event customers.

The Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) remains the leading event for the US design community. This fall, ESC will "mash-up" with RFID World East and the Software Development Event reaching developers across all job functions and markets. In addition, the event grows internationally with its first ESC India in Bangalore.

TechOnline will continue to innovate to provide a network of tools and resources. Its current design center, e-learning center and product center structure will be supplemented by new content from Mechatronics and other application-specific content environments. The industry's leading lead generation products, such as webinars and white paper libraries, will continue to grow under the TechOnline brand.

A new digital services division is charged with leading the group in building new businesses and products for both reader and advertiser customers. This group will integrate How Machines Work, an exclusive CMP partner that develops games and virtual environments designed to let users learn about technologies and explore new designs in interactive environments. With the success of Life 2.0 Summit, the industry's first in-sim trade show hosted on Second Life, CMP now also offers Second Life consulting services to provide cutting edge marketing capabilities to customers. This division will also drive eLearning capabilities throughout the Innovator's division, enabling customers to build online universities and generate leads for sponsors.

The Telecom Market

Led by its flagship Light Reading, CMP continues to expand its reach into the entire spectrum of the communications space, strengthened by the acquisition of Cable Digital News. CMP is combining Light Reading with its research-focused sister brand, Heavy Reading, to maximize growth in international markets, especially in Europe and Asia. Light Reading is also expanding its events portfolio, with more than 20 face to face and web-based events with the integration of Telco TV.

The Gaming Market

The Game Developers Conference (GDC), increases in both attendance and exhibition space annually, and remains the epicenter of the International Game Development community. The Austin Game Conference adds the online, multiplayer and mobile games markets, bolstering CMP's position in PC and console games. Austin GDC will also premiere PC Powerplay, a consumer gaming event focused on the PC as a game platform. The group continues to expand its events to support the video gaming ecosystem, including Hollywood and Games (in partnership with Nielsen Media's Hollywood Reporter) and China GDC (in partnership with IDG Worldwide Exhibitions).

Game Developer Magazine and its associated website Gamasutra reach over 500,000 unique visitors per month, touching virtually everyone in the global game development business, with information, educational resources and recruitment.

The Call Center Market

CMP's International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) sets the pace in consulting, training, education and face to face events, helping organizations worldwide optimize their call centers to create the most efficient and effective customer outreach capabilities. ICMI has dramatically expanded its service footprint -- both domestically and globally -- and will host more than 60 online industry events this year. ICMI operates a wholly owned subsidiary in China that provides certification and training services to the burgeoning Chinese market. The Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) continues to grow in importance, attracting high-profile exhibitors and international attendees.

In addition, CMP is transforming Call Center magazine into a digital, global publication focused on bringing its audience the latest news, trends and best practices from around the world not simply the US. Starting with the August issue, Call Center will be exclusively digital and will include expanded, brand new coverage of call center issues throughout the world incorporating global trends and global best practices.

The Software Development Market

Dr. Dobb's, along with ddj.com and the SD West Conference, are the most respected brands in the software development market. Based on shifting audience and market conditions, CMP is closing SysAdmin. Our Microsoft- supported MSDN and TechNet will be sold by an integrated sales team, allowing the advertising community unparalleled access to the full spectrum of developers.

About CMP Technology (http://www.cmp.com/)

CMP Technology is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.

  Contact
  Alix Raine
  SVP Communications
  CMP Technology
  araine@cmp.com
  516.562.7827

SOURCE: CMP Technology

CONTACT: Alix Raine, SVP Communications of CMP Technology,
+1-516-562-7827, araine@cmp.com

Web site: http://www.cmp.com/
http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/

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