EdSAFE Alliance

SIIA Announces New Partnership With EdSAFE AI Alliance

by PolicyPress Release

The Software Information & Industry Association (SIIA) and the EdSAFE AI Alliance (ESAA) announce a new partnership focused on the responsible use of AI in education. The two organizations will work together to engage with educators, technology companies, policymakers and regulatory bodies to advance initiatives.

“SIIA is thrilled to partner with the EdSAFE AI Alliance to work together to promote safe and equitable AI in education. Our members believe in the importance of the responsible deployment of technology in the classroom and never has that been more important than with the advances in AI. We look forward to working with our member companies and ESAA on this critical topic,” said Paul Lekas, SVP of Global Public Policy.

“We are proud to launch this collaboration with SIIA and its membership. They will be adding to and joining the global community connecting and providing leadership in the development of a safer, more equitable and trusted education ecosystem of Artificial Intelligence,” said Dale Allen, PhD, Co-Founder of ESAA and President of the DXtera Institute. “ESAA brings together existing networks, frameworks, education organizations, ministries, research and standards bodies to provide global leadership, strengthen local work and develop benchmarks, frameworks and standards to enable innovation and build trust for the safe use of AI in education.”  

With over 450 members, SIIA is the principal trade association for the software and information industry worldwide and the only trade association for the ed tech industry. SIIA members provide critical tools for in class, remote and hybrid learning that enhance the learning experience at all levels. As AI in education continues to evolve, SIIA remains at the forefront of representing its members and the industry at large to policymakers around the world.

ESAA is a global alliance of AI ed tech and education leaders committed to establish a healthy ecosystem within the AI education industry. Spread across 20 countries with more than 200 participants, ESAA provides a foundation for building frameworks, community, resources and standards to establish a unified approach to help users and regulatory bodies work together on AI in ed tech issues. 

For more information please reach out to Pam Golden at pam@glapr.com or Lauren Lopez at lauren@dxtera.org.

Patent

SIIA statement on the Patent Examination and Quality Improvement Act of 2022

by Policy

Today the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) issued this statement on the the Patent Examination and Quality Improvement Act of 2022:

SIIA commends Senators Leahy and Tillis for the introduction of the Patent Examination and Quality Improvement Act of 2022.  Poor quality patents are a tax on innovation in the software and information industries. The bill recognizes the importance of examination time and resources, as well as the technical training needed for examiners of critical emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.  We look forward to working with the sponsors to help this bill become law.

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.