Ziff-Davis
This note considers US magazine publisher William B Ziff Jr and the succession of publishing groups identified as Ziff Davis.
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It covers -
- introduction
- Ziff
- Rust Craft and Berkman
- studies
- landmarks
Introduction
The history of Ziff Davis is unusually complex, featuring major asset sales in 1985 and breakups in 1994 and 2000.
Ziff Davis Media, the current incarnation, traces its origins to 1927. The group began as a publisher of specialty consumer magazines before expanding into business niche publications. After major divestments in 1985 it centred on personal computer magazine publishing, before expanding into trade shows, exhibitions and electronic publishing. After 1994 it initially focused on technology publications and the ZDNet site, before rebuilding a presence in the trade shows and launching a cable television channel (ZDTV, later TechTV).
In 2000 the technology publications were collected in Ziff Davis Media Inc. (an arm of Ziff Davis Holdings Inc.), claimed to be one of the largest publishers of US technology and videogame magazines, with imprints that include PC Magazine, CIO Insight and Electronic Gaming Monthly. As of 2004 its titles reportedly accounted for an aggregate 20% of advertising pages in the sectors and 2.5 million paid circulation. The company licenses content and brands to some 40 non-US markets. Other revenue sources including mailing list 'rentals', events and newsletters.
Ziff
William B Ziff Sr (d1953) and Bernard Davis co-founded Ziff-Davis as the Popular Aviation Company in 1927, initially as publisher of Popular Aviation and Radio News.
Like competitor MacFadden demand for pulps and hobbyist magazines saw the company grew at an impressive rate. Imprints included Amazing Stories, Air Adventures, Mammoth Detective and specialty consumer magazines such as Modern Bride and Popular Electronics.
Son William B Ziff Jr (1930-2002) acquired Davis' interests in 1958 and expanded aggressively into hobbyist publications such as Car and Driver and Popular Photography. That provided the revenue for acquisition of titles such as PC Magazine and trade publications such as World Aviation Directory.
In 1978 Ziff was told he had only a few years to live after discovery of prostate cancer. During 1984 he sold the group's business and consumer magazines for US$712 million, retaining a handful of computer titles such as PC Magazine (acquired in 1982 from Dennis).
CBS acquired the consumer magazines (such as Popular Photography and Stereo Review), later sold to Hachette.
News Corporation acquired the business titles: Travel Weekly, Aerospace Daily, Aviation Daily, The Weekly of Business Aviation, A/C Flyer, Business and Commercial Aviation, Hotel & Travel Index, Meetings & Conventions, Official Hotel & Resort Guide, Official Meeting Facilities Guide, World Aviation Directory and World Travel Directory.
In 1994 its magazine publishing operations - major competitors for IDG's publications - were sold to junk bond promoter Forstmann Little for US$1.4 billion. Forstmann in turn sold those interests to Softbank, which subsequently spun them off to junk bond promoter Willis Stein & Partners for US$780 million.
In 1994 Ziff-Davis also sold its electronic publishing unit and its exhibitions and conferences division.
Willis Stein's 1999 acquisition encompassed some 80 titles, including PC Magazine, PC Week and Yahoo! Internet Life. The publishing division was rebadged as Ziff Davis Media Inc.
Ziff-Davis' Market Intelligence business unit was sold to Harte-Hanks Inc., the newspaper publisher turned direct marketer, in August 1999. During the following year ZD Education, the Ziff-Davis "business-to-business IT learning division", was acquired by a Wasserstein Perella equity fund and renamed Element K. During the same year Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures acquired Ziff Davis' digital cable television unit (ZDTV) for US$320 million. ZD Events, producer of the Comdex electronics trade shows, was spun off as Key3Media Group Inc.
Rust Craft and Berkman
In 1979 Ziff Davis paid US$89 million for Rust Craft Greeting Cards Inc and its subsidiary Rust Craft Broadcasting (six television stations, including WROC Rochester, WEYI Saginaw, WSTV Steubenville, WRCB Chattanooga and WJKS Jacksonville). The group traced its origins to the greeting card business launched by Fred Winslow Rust in Kansas City in 1906. That card company, second largest in the US in the early 1950s, was subsequently acquired by the Berkman family's United Printers & Publishers. United adopted the Rust Craft name in 1962.
Ziff's interest was apparently in the stations, unloaded for a considerable profit in 1983, and the printing operation. American Greetings purchased the rights to Rust Craft Cards and its international card subsidiaries in 1980. The Berkmans established Associated Communications Corporation in 1979, building holdings in television and radio stations and in mobile telephone systems. That group was rebadged as Associated Group, Inc. in 1994.
In 2000 Associated was acquired by Liberty Media for US$3 billion in AT&T stock. The deal included 40% of Teligent. The family is perhaps best known for endowment of the Berkman cyberlaw centre at Harvard Law School.
Studies
There have been no major studies of William Ziff or Ziff-Davis.
Landmarks
1927 Ziff Davis founded
1938 acquires Amazing Stories
1954 launch of Popular Electronics
1979 pays US$89m for Rust Craft Greeting Cards Inc
1981 launches Computer Gaming World
1982 acquires PC Magazine
1983 sells Rust Craft's six television stations (inc WROC Rochester, WEYI Saginaw, WSTV Steubenville, WRCB Chattanooga and WJKS- Jacksonville) for US$100m
1984 CBS buys Ziff-Davis Publishing Company's Popular Photography, Stereo Review and other consumer magazines for US$362m
1984 Murdoch buys Ziff-Davis business magazines for US$350m
1988 Ziff Davis acquires 50% of MacWEEK
1992 launches Corporate Computing
1993 closes Corporate Computing
1994 Ziff family sells 95% of Ziff-Davis Publishing to Forstmann Little for US$1.4bn
1994 Ziff-Davis launches ZDNet, Interactive Week and Family PC
1995 Softbank buys 70% of Ziff-Davis, Inc. (publishing arm of Ziff-Davis Communications) from Forstmann Little for US$2.1bn, changes name to Ziff-Davis, Inc. and buys COMDEX for US$800m
1995 buys Ziff-Davis Publishing for US$2.1bn
1998 Softbank floats 26% of Ziff-Davis Inc.
1999 Harte-Hanks buys Ziff-Davis Market Intelligence for US$106m
2000 ZDTV (later renamed TechTV) sold to Vulcan Ventures, Inc for US$320m
2000 Ziff-Davis Inc magazine unit sold to Willis Stein & Partners for US$780m
2000 Ziff-Davis acquired by CNET Networks Inc. for US$1.6bn
2002 magazine unit restructured after dot-com crash