Recently I blogged about the shift that’s occurring in the outlook of New Entrepreneurs–and by New, I mean entrepreneurs who have started ventures in the post-Bubble economy of the past six-12 months. (We need a name for this new world order. Any suggestions?) I reached out to my network to find examples of what’s changing, and got a wide and interesting response. One of my old colleagues from CMP Media got in touch and we had a fascinating conversation. Seth Nichols has been vice president of digital media for Questex Media Group Inc., a business-to-business media and information provider, headquartered in Newton, MA. The company, which is an outgrowth of Advanstar, has more than 100 print and digital media publications, conferences and events as well as other information products. Earlier this month, Seth completed the purchase of one of Questex’s properties, Cadalyst.com, which is a publication and website for computer-aided design professionals, and launched his new company, Longitude Media.
To understand why this is interesting, you need to appreciate the dynamics of the business-to-business media industry today. It is in a shambles. Companies are downsizing, eliminating products and laying off employees more than ever before. The market for advertising of all kinds is under severe pressure. And amidst all this, Seth buys into the market. When I asked him to explain his reasoning, he talked about how things used to be when he and I were at CMP in the go-go days of Internet media. The outlook of media executives at that time and well after–call it the period roughly from1996-2008–was toward transactions. In the ’90s it was about positioning for IPOs; in the early 2000s it was about positioning for private-equity M&A. For a very long time the conversation has not been about creating value in the core asset.
The core asset in the media business? What is it?
It’s the audience you serve. Seth noted that traditional media companies, Questex included, may have hundreds of content-oriented websites but barely any (and sometimes no) people who spend their time on web analytics, web search, and online audience development. Finance and legal departments have outweighted and outspent the functions that create asset value. Resources aren’t allocated toward mining and increasing the value of the core asset, the audience of readers for whom a particular content site exists. Seth’s approach? To focus his effort on audience aggregation using the most sophisticated tools and human resources available so that advertisers can get the maximum benefit of that aggregation. This is what media circulation departments used to do when I was growing up in publishing in the ’80s and ’90s. It’s not that Seth’s idea is new…it’s just that his idea has been forgotten in the age of transactional media. Now, everything old is going to be new again. And that’s a very good thing.
How about your industry? What are you doing that will redefine the entrepreneurial rules for the new age in which we find ourselves?
Sometimes entrepreneurs can be the victims of their own success. Here’s a situation that may sound familiar: your own a service-oriented business with one full-time employee—you. You have had hundreds of clients over the years. You use subcontractors to do certain jobs that you don’t have time for. You are really busy and business is very good. But you feel overwhelmed. There are a couple of problems you’ve identified.
