Friday, November 17, 2006
Silber on Show Dailies, Etc.
If you're like me, and have been reading Folio: since the days of Joe Hanson, you know that the magazine has had its ups and downs. For the past few years, there have been far more ups than downs, mainly due to Tony Silber and the fine team he's assembled.
I was thinking about this after I read Tony's fine blog post with his Observations from ABM Top Management (Meeting). Tony hits on at least two important points.
The first is his excellent definition of what makes a good show daily. I completely agree , and think that show dailies covering any b2b market could be made better by following Tony's lead:
My view of show dailies is pretty emphatic: They need to NOT be about the sessions and speakers that everyone sees and hears anyway. They need to be about the buzz. They need to be conversations starters. As in, “Can you believe the management team at Penton is getting $12.5 million?” Or, “Did you hear VNU may be changing its name?” Etc. This is the lifeblood of a good daily in this space—Peter Craig called our daily a “rag,” but he’s wrong.
(also note the two great stories Tony mentions in passing. Anyone for Nielsen Business Media?)
The second is his great capture of perhaps the best untold story of late in b2b media:
The world of b-to-b publishing is awash with easy money, which is helping to fuel all the M&A activity over the last year or so...What the heck, rates are at historic lows, and lenders are willing too extend far out on the limb, providing much of the leverage for private-equity buyers. But some lenders are talking now about excess, about the climate not being sustainable. Once one or two loans default, they say, watch out.
Watch out indeed!
Comments
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I was thinking about this after I read Tony's fine blog post with his Observations from ABM Top Management (Meeting). Tony hits on at least two important points.
The first is his excellent definition of what makes a good show daily. I completely agree , and think that show dailies covering any b2b market could be made better by following Tony's lead:
My view of show dailies is pretty emphatic: They need to NOT be about the sessions and speakers that everyone sees and hears anyway. They need to be about the buzz. They need to be conversations starters. As in, “Can you believe the management team at Penton is getting $12.5 million?” Or, “Did you hear VNU may be changing its name?” Etc. This is the lifeblood of a good daily in this space—Peter Craig called our daily a “rag,” but he’s wrong.
(also note the two great stories Tony mentions in passing. Anyone for Nielsen Business Media?)
The second is his great capture of perhaps the best untold story of late in b2b media:
The world of b-to-b publishing is awash with easy money, which is helping to fuel all the M&A activity over the last year or so...What the heck, rates are at historic lows, and lenders are willing too extend far out on the limb, providing much of the leverage for private-equity buyers. But some lenders are talking now about excess, about the climate not being sustainable. Once one or two loans default, they say, watch out.
Watch out indeed!
