Macworld Magazine/MacCentral Move To IDG

by , 3:00 PM EDT, October 10th, 2001

Mac Publishing, LLC, will be moving to a new house. The publishers of Macworld Magazine and MacCentral.com are now the sole property of IDG, which publish many tech-oriented books as well as being the trade show organizers of such industry events as MACWORLD Expo San Francisco and New York. Mac Publishing used to be the joint property of IDG and Ziff Davis and was formed when those two publishing giants merged their Mac properties, including MacWeek, MacUser, and Macworld Magazine. Macworld and MacUser was merged into a single magazine called Macworld, MacWeek was changed into eMedia Weekly, and was eventually killed. MacWeek.com was shuttered earlier this year. Mac Publishing also bought MacCentral in 1999, and closely aligned its operations with Macworld.com when MacWeek was closed.

International Data Group (IDG) today announced it has become the sole owner of Mac Publishing, LLC, previously a joint venture between IDG and Ziff Davis Media Inc.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Mac Publishing publishes Macworld magazine, the world's leading independent Macintosh publication as well as Macworld.com and MacCentral.com on the Web. As producer of the Mac community's flagship events, Macworld Conference & Expo, this acquisition makes IDG the world's largest source of targeted information for the Macintosh industry.

"The decision to fully incorporate the Mac Publishing properties into our established global Macworld product line reflects IDG's commitment to the Mac market, our belief in its future, and our strategy of delivering our content across print, online and event platforms," said Kelly Conlin, IDG president and CEO. "IDG advertisers will benefit by having access to over 2.5 million of the industry's most influential Macintosh buyers through IDG's Macworld products in 11 countries worldwide."

"IDG has demonstrated consistent commitment to the Apple marketplace since the early 80s, providing information on the Apple II market," stated Colin Crawford, President and CEO of Mac Publishing. "Given IDG's continued dedication to this market, I'm extremely pleased to be able to bring the Macworld publication back to the IDG family."

IDG was the first media company to recognize the potential of the Macintosh platform: Macworld magazine was founded by IDG Founder and Chairman, Patrick McGovern in conjunction with the first public unveiling of the Macintosh platform in 1984. Today, Macworld continues to reach the largest, most influential universe of active Macintosh buyers.

Produced by IDG World Expo, this year's Macworld Conference & Expo in New York attracted record-breaking crowds of over 64,000 attendees and proved to be a valuable event for exhibitors in terms of attendee traffic and press attention. Mac enthusiasts are already looking forward to the January 2002 shows in San Francisco, CA and Japan.

* Source: IntelliQuest CIMS v8.0

You can find more information on Macworld Magazine and MacCentral at their respective Web sites.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is more than likely a good thing for Macworld magazine in its print version. IDG's commitment to the Mac market certainly has a stronger track record than does Ziff Davis'. IDG also has far more invested in the Mac market than does Ziff Davis, though it will be interesting to see what happens at properties like The Screen Savers as that TV show dedicates a lot of air time to Mac issues and often has Brett Larson of Macworld Magazine on the show. The Screen Savers is on the TechTV cable channel, which is owned by Ziff Davis.

It will also be interesting to see how this move will affect Macworld.com and MacCentral.com, as Mac Publishing has struggled to deal with its online properties in the face of the advertising declines of the last 20 months or so and the new realities of Internet publishing. Ziff Davis has a MUCH bigger online presence than does IDG, but our gut reaction is that we would rather see those sites (and the print presence) under the leadership of IDG than Ziff Davis any day of the week. In our opinion, Ziff Davis just hasn't been Mac-friendly in a long time.