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Media - Tuesday, October 25, 2005

The Trade Pub Biz Stinks

Two of the biggest trade publication groups - Primedia and CMP have axed their CEOs in consecutive weeks. We once talked with a boastful trade pub exec who smirked that "Conde Nast and Time Inc. execs get invited to all the parties while we make all the money." That is no longer the case. It does seem that the writing is on the wall -- and that increasingly trade pubs will lose their advertiser allure and ownership over niches to blogs. Look at all the industry attention that the sites LightReading (which CMP wisely bought) and PaidContent.org have achieved with low overhead and without the expense of running print publications. Trade rags that want to survive will move to online-only strategies -- check out TechTarget as a model.

Read - Primedia Shares Tumble As CEO Departs (AP)
Read - CMP Media shakes up top ranks, names Weitzner CEO (B2B)