The Reason As T WHy Ziff Davis Sells Off Magazines

MediaPost reported this morning that Ziff Davis has announced plans to sell off the magazine titles in its Enterprise Group to a private equity firm. The sale includes print titles eWeek, CIO and Baseline magazine, as well as web properties eweek.com, webbuyersguide.com, cioinsight.com, baselinemag.com, and channelinsider.com.

I've addressed this phenomenon previously here in bemoaning the demise of CMO magazine. Magazine brands have value. Content has value (though possibly less on the web than in print). Printing has diminishing value, particularly in the technology publication space.

MediaPost noted that Z-D has "cut costs and reformulated itself as a Web-focused publisher" over the past few years. But if the value of magazines is in their brand, and Z-D is selling off the titles, the question is—Z-D is going to be a web-focused publisher of what exactly?

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Terms: print publications dying, print magazines declining, publishing, Ziff Davis, MediaPost, Enterprise Group

The online marketing business portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Mike Bannan: mike@digitalrdm.com

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