Deals and Developments: MIXED SIGNALS FOR TECH PUBLISHING

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 2004

Byline: Jeff Bercovici

Though they're all heavily involved in technology, Ziff Davis, Penton and CMP (a unit of Britain's United Business Media) had very different results to report for 2003. For Ziff the news was particularly good: Thanks to a huge (89 percent) jump in online revenue and other new businesses (including a new events initiative), the company had its best EBITDA quarter since December 2000. It finished the year with $34.5 million in EBITDA, on a slender 1.5 percent revenue gain, to $194 million. However, CEO Bob Callahan told investors on a conference call, things are not so hot in print: Pages for Ziff's enterprise books (eWeek, Baseline and CIO) fell nearly 3 percent and the prospects are still unclear for tech spending in 2004, although the market has "stabilized," he said. Meantime, United Business posted a near 6 percent drop in 2003 revenue to $991 million, but a 53.2 percent jump in pretax profits to $192.94 million. The company says that CMP returned to profitability during the year and doubled operating profit, but it also disclosed that pages fell 5.5 percent. On a happier note, the company has gained market share - from 24.5 percent to 26.6 percent. If things are getting better in tech publishing, you couldn't tell by Penton's results. It reported a painful 12.3 percent loss in revenue, to $206 million, and cited cutbacks in spending across b-to-b businesses, and in technology and manufacturing in particular. Its losses narrowed to $87.8 million, from $286.3 million in 2002.