IndustryDivelobby

If M&A Is a Barometer, Then B2B Media Is Booming; We Can Help You Grow With It

by Media

This article is by Tony Silber, AM&P Network’s director of programming and development.

In an era where the prolonged focus in B2B has been on building “data-first” businesses, producing leads and holding events, the recent sale of content-centric Industry Dive stands out.

M&A in B2B media is red hot. The big news, of course, is the sale of Industry Dive a week ago to Informa. That spectacular transaction, valued at $525 million with a staggering multiple of about five-times revenue, is reverberating through the industry. It will likely have a significant effect on valuations going forward.

The 10-year-old publisher went straight when others turned left searching for shiny objects. Industry Dive has never focused on lead gen or any other types of data development. It never leaned into in-person events. Instead, under the guidance of CEO Sean Griffey, it has emphasized journalism, focusing on delivering news and trends and other kinds of information in 27 vertical markets. (See a recent story my colleague Ronn Levine wrote about one of their 10 2022 Neal Award winners.)

Financially, Industry Dive has depended on good-old advertising revenue and marketing services. This year, its projected topline revenue is $110 million. “It became very popular to say that ad models wouldn’t work and that everything has to be subscription,” Griffey told the Press Gazette last year. “But what we said was that ad models and marketing models still really work if the audience is incredibly valuable. And where the audiences are very valuable are in niches.”

Informa is not alone in acquisitions. Between them, GovExec and Endeavor Business Media have acquired at least 15 companies this year. And since late last year, Future plc has acquired Dennis Publishing (including Kiplinger), WhatCulture, a digital-only brand focused on gaming and entertainment, and leading digital-only women’s lifestyle publisher WhoWhatWear.

For Informa, this latest transaction represents a total turnaround. It had been divesting major chunks of its business over the last three years, including its pharma intelligence unit to PE firm Warburg Pincus, its asset-intelligence unit to Randall Reilly, and UBM Life Sciences plus 20 other brands to Endeavor Business Media. It also sold a group of trade shows and B2B brands to Questex.

But then last month, Informa said in a “Trading Update” that it is now bullish on B2B. Their three B2B units are all performing strongly year to date, and partly because of the Industry Dive acquisition, it sees major B2B growth going forward.

Robust M&A activity is usually an indicator of a healthy market. And that’s why I’m thrilled to be here at the AM&P Network.

B2B never lost the ability to create great content—or to aggregate valuable audiences. And in retrospect, all the out-of-necessity experimentation of the last 20 years has created something important: resilient, entrepreneurial media companies that have developed multiple sources of revenue and the ability to innovate and iterate. The coming decade and beyond will see the rise in strength of B2B media, in terms of influence, importance and engagement.

We have much work to do, but I promise you this: Our organization is and will be the center of gravity in this industry. We’ll bring together disparate sectors—such as digital, agriculture, legacy companies, association media, and private-equity rollups—and help you navigate this new promised land.

I’ve spent a good part of my career with Folio: and Min, Forbes and MediaPost, writing about the challenges media executives face in all areas—tech, marketing, content, audience, sales, product development, financial management, talent, strategic planning and more. Then I spent more than a decade as a senior business executive myself, learning these same things not as an observer but as a practitioner, accountable for business performance at each step.

So as I work to produce content and events and sell sponsorships and media, I know what this industry needs as well as anyone. I’m fortunate to be helping facilitate the boom days ahead. First up: An in-person BIMS (Business Information & Media Summit) in early December. It will be the best BIMS event ever, with new insights, plenty of inspiration, and a day-and-a-half program packed with innovation and instant takeaways.

Watch this space the next few days for more information.

 

 

TaraLajumoke

‘Multiple Resilient Revenue Streams’ Are Great But Think Multiple Channels as Well

by Media

“Every strategy must be underpinned by a rich understanding of your audience—who they are, why they are here, what content they value, what platforms and channels they like to use to consume that content,” Tara Lajumoke, managing director at FT Strategies, said earlier this year at Journalism.co.uk’s Newsrewired event.

Of course, revenue diversification is a goal for all publishers. And Lajumoke advised media leaders that long-term success required “multiple resilient revenue streams.” But she also added that diversifying channels of revenue can be important as well—in other words, creating products or events for different audiences that you have.

Amidst the evolving media landscape, live streaming has emerged as a potent tool for engaging audiences and monetizing content. As publishers navigate the intricacies of revenue diversification, integrating live streaming into their repertoire presents a compelling opportunity to connect with audiences in real-time. A comprehensive live streaming guide 2024 can provide invaluable insights into harnessing the full potential of this medium, offering strategies for content creation, audience engagement, and monetization. By leveraging live streaming platforms effectively and creating captivating experiences tailored to their audience’s preferences, publishers can unlock new revenue streams and cultivate deeper connections with their audience in the digital age.

The Financial Times realized that not all of their readers want to pay a lot for content, so they launched FT Edit, a specially curated app that gives readers access to 8 articles of in-depth news content, every weekday. The FT has around 1.2 million digital subscribers. The new app targets the 20-plus million readers who have signed up to any of the FT’s social media feeds.

Lajumoke also pointed to their ‘free to read’ day in November 2021 which gave free site-wide access for 40 hours. “The best way to sell journalism is through your best journalism,” she said. “So, the philosophy behind paywall relaxations is to expose readers to the journalism that the newsroom produces in a strategic way.”

An article last year about Allrecipes listed five diverse ways they were using to bring in revenue, including: charging grocery stores to place coupons and information about free samples on their site; affiliate marketing of recipe ingredients; food-related sponsors.; syndicated content; and selling products to users.

Here are four other publisher examples for streams and channels of revenue:

Podcasts. “Over the past couple of years, we’ve been busy building a portfolio of weekly and fortnightly podcasts across our business media brands as a critical element of our ‘deep engagement’ strategy—concentrating efforts on known, niche and highly-committed audiences,” deputy managing director of Haymarket Business Media, Donna Murphy, told the Press Gazette. They’ve now added a podcast awards program to their fold and grown their own podcast audience—and sponsorships—300%. “We see podcasts as a key audience engagement tool, and as we continue to move away from print in some areas, it’s a perfect medium to build personality and tone. Like magazines, podcasts are episodic and have clear structures.”

Events. “[By] thinking, ‘How do I take the show that we were running and allow people to access it on their tablet and let them try?’ you’re forcing it,” Brian Cuthbert, group vice president of Diversified, told me earlier in the year. “We are looking at all the shows individually—so in some markets we’re beefing up and certainly continuing to invest in the content that we’re producing, the types of demand generation offerings that we have for our exhibitors and sponsors… We want people to consume the content in the way that’s most comfortable for them. You want to come to an in-person event, you want to go listen to something on-demand, you want to engage with people online in networking chats. I’ll give you all of those options, but I don’t think it just exists tied to a single show anymore. It’s really around how you build it out over the course of a year.”

Native advertising… is not just for magazine or newsletter content anymore. An article on Journalism.co.uk presented three of the latest trends:

  • Interactive: “A New York Times article, Women Inmates, written as part of a partnership with Netflix for the launch of Orange Is the New Black, [serves] as one of the best examples of native advertising, and this was a long-read with plenty of interactive imagery to grab the reader’s attention.”
  • Audio and video: Instead of pre- or mid-rolls—where we get a separate message from a sponsor—look for podcast content done in collaboration with a sponsor. As with print, it could still be just as valuable to that audience.
  • New platforms: TikTok has been mentioned as a new place for sponsored content. I’ve also seen sponsored content in many places on Instagram.

Webinars. “We created a new virtual experience,” Haley Berling, senior manager, digital programs and events, GovExec, told us in one of our early Editorial Training sessions this year. “We incorporated things like virtual and customer sponsor resource pages with interactive chat features in downloadable assets for our clients. We created a virtual press room and editorial resource library for our editorial staff. And then we built a simple theater digitally where users can easily consume the content within very intuitive, easy login experience and [more] chat… As a living resource hub of content of all types, and then a place where our VIP community could come and interact with us and each other, it was more of a digital experience. Over the course of the next six months we partnered with some fabulous partners and actually built and developed that event site into our own internal virtual event platform that we could easily deploy for multiple events.”

 

 

Businesss collaborations concept. Vector of businesspeople reaching an agreement after successful negotiations

Global Education, Intelligence and Media Company Information Security Media Group Acquires Israeli B2B Marketing Firm

by Media

This article is by Tony Silber, AM&P Network’s director of programming and development.

New York M&A firm Media Advisory Partners represented iSMG in the transaction.

Information Security Media Group, publisher of Bank Info Security and 29 other vertical news and information sites in the cybersecurity space, announced this month that it has acquired a majority stake in the B2B marketing agency Xtra-Mile.

The acquisition will bolster the capabilities of Princeton, NJ-based iSMG’s CyberTheory business unit, specifically in marketing automation and mar-tech stack development. A focus will be on emerging cybersecurity vendors just beginning their digital-marketing journeys.

At the same time, iSMG said in a press release, the deal enhances Xtra-Mile’s ability to assist brands in breaking into global markets and offers a host of other services by leveraging iSMG’s first-party intent data. Xtra-Mile is based in Neve Yamin, Israel.

iSMG CEO Sanjay Kalra noted that the company has served the cybersecurity ecosystem in Israel since its founding 16 years ago. “This move enables us to realize our goal of having a major presence in every global cybersecurity hub and serve our clients with team members on the ground,” Kalra said. “The addition of Xtra-Mile’s capabilities will also support us in better catering to the needs of the global cybersecurity community.”

Xtra-Mile, founded in 2007 by Erez Raz and Sharon Israel, provides its clients with 360-degree digital and media marketing solutions and advisory services. It serves the hi-tech, cybersecurity, and IT domains across Israel, Europe and the U.S.

Co-CEO Sharon Israel called the transaction a landmark event in Xtra-Mile’s history. “We are excited by the synergies and tremendous opportunities for global expansion,” she said. “Given Israel’s strong position as a global cybersecurity hub, we feel this is a natural move for iSMG to invest in the country, and we welcome the commitment.”

Co-CEO Raz said that product enhancements, efficient client delivery, and streamlining execution capabilities in the global environment are a core element of the partnership. “This move further strengthens our commitment toward providing bespoke marketing services to clients globally. We are a nation of entrepreneurs and innovators, and we found a similar spirit in this partnership with iSMG.”

Raz and Israel will join the ISMG senior leadership team.

iSMG general manager Mike D’Agostino noted that the company has been serving numerous cybersecurity and IT companies in Israel for over a decade. “We can now focus on nurturing and deepening those relationships by being right there—entrenched in the community,” he said.

“We were thrilled to have been exclusive financial advisors to Sanjay and the team at iSMG on this important deal,” Media Advisory Partners founding partner Mark Holdreith said. “Xtra-Mile is a great company and strong strategic partner for iSMG. They are well positioned to help accelerate iSMG’s global strategy in the increasingly important, innovative, and fast-growth cybersecurity sector.”

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

 

News update. Vector digital news, online newspaper concept. Site editing, content updating illustration. Newsletter and newspaper, communication and news online

‘It Really Helps Provide Context’; Neal Award Winner Shows Many Modes of Data Journalism

by Media

“The stuff that is going to really set your journalism apart is learning how to do this on a day-to-day basis in your everyday stories and getting story ideas,” Jonathan Maze, Winsight’s Restaurant Business editor in chief, told us recently in our Editorial Training Session titled Data Journalism 101. Here are some insights from that session.

“There are a million things that you can do on a day-to-day basis [with data] that just helps your overall body of work, and it really does not actually have to be that hard,” Maze said. “You’ll find out how to enrich stories, find ideas and how to best use them.” (Winsight and Maze won the 2022 Neal Award for Best Editorial Use of Data for Restaurant Business’s Top 500.)

Tony Silber, AM&P Network’s director of content and programming, moderated the event, which also included multi-Neal Award-winner Todd Dills, editor of Randall-Reilly’s Overdrive Magazine. (For today, we’ll focus on Maze and come back to Dills another time.)

“Data is such a multifaceted concept,” Silber began. “It could be product oriented, it could be audience-oriented, but it’s also journalism oriented and that’s a really, really important aspect of data. Turning data into content is an unbelievably valuable use of a resource for audiences distinguishing brands from their competitors—and it certainly, provides the basis for a high-margin, revenue-generating product or multiple products.”

(Three Editorial Training Sessions remain from the total of nine: Content Benchmarks—How Do Your Digital Products Stack Up? on Sept. 22; One Subscriber or 48,000 Pageviews? Understanding Editorial Economics on Oct. 20; and Refresh Your Podcast Strategy on Nov. 17. You can still sign up for individual sessions or get all nine on demand, including this one on data journalism.)

Here are some takeaways from Maze’s presentation:

Find story leads. “You can find story leads and ideas simply by looking at numbers,” Maze said. “It also really helps provide context, which is super important. You can’t have a good story without really good context.” He also said that if you do not know Excel really well, you should take training on it. And he emphasized the positives of persistence and that just gathering data over time can eventually yield some big stories.

Drive feature stories. Maze showed us a story he did on Crumbl Cookies. “If you haven’t heard about it now, soon you absolutely will. It’s one of the hottest restaurant chains in the country. We have access to data from Technomics, our data arm. I crunched some data and found out Crumbl grew by 463% over the past two years, and we hadn’t written anything on it. I also got some franchise disclosure document data which is really, really important if your industry has any franchises. I found out that the average local Crumbl unit makes $2 million, which just selling cookies is actually really, really good. And I used that [and a podcast interview with the CEO] as a foundation for a story on why it was successful.”

Call out bs. Executives may sometimes over emphasize their success, Maze said. He pointed to a story he did on Subway, which liked to take a victory lap for sales jumps at its restaurants. But by going over the data, he found that 25% of its restaurants averaged a 26% decline. “Sometimes data journalism is just simple mathematics,” he said. “We did another story more recently on a pizza buffet chain and found some data that said it actually is not doing nearly as well as its competitors. Again, [data] helps you call out when companies are not necessarily giving you the full story. It helps provide proper context, [and that] is super important.”

Put stories in context. For a story on jobs, Maze saw that private companies hit pre-pandemic levels, but restaurants didn’t. So he went and got access to bls.gov (the Bureau of Labor and Statistics) to look at the historical data. “You could go to the tables to find your industry and very, very quickly find out total job growth in that sector,” Maze said. “I was able to find that the restaurant spaces were actually [thousands of] jobs short of where it was before the pandemic. That’s a pretty important story—that could be done in a day and just a few clicks—and helps put job growth in the restaurant space in proper context.”

Supplement, don’t replace, talking to people. “It’s important to remember that data only supplements a report, it does not replace it,” Maze said. “You have to still talk to people, you have to get the lay of the land, you have to make sure you’re sourcing right and that people can help you provide proper information.” He cited instances where “running data past internal sources found that the data was completely off or there was something wrong and it saved me. So it’s still important to cover your beat very extensively when doing these pieces.” Dills backed this up. “Data is no substitute for reporting,” he said, “but it can really make information come alive.”

Don’t be intimidated. Maze finished by urging peers not to be “afraid or intimidated when thinking about using data in your reporting. It can be super helpful in your journalism and a lot easier than you think. If you just learn to use it every day and be persistent and patient, it can be very beneficial.”

student

COPPA and KOSA Statement

by PolicyPress Release

The following statement can be attributed to Sara Kloek, Vice President, Education and Children’s Policy, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) in regards to the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA 2.0.

“SIIA supports protecting children’s privacy and safety. The bills considered in today’s hearing include many well-intentioned provisions but need further refinement. We look forward to working with Senators and staff to find consensus amongst stakeholders on a strong, implementable bill.”