CMP Technology, a trade magazine and online publisher, said yesterday that it will be eliminating 200 jobs and closing or reducing circulation on several print titles.
The Manhasset, NY-based publisher is making the changes as part of a restructuring process designed to focus CMP more fully on digital and face-to-face media operations. Two of CMP’s publications, Network Computing and Optimize, will be folded into the larger InformationWeek. Software magazine Dr. Dobb’s will absorb SysAdmin.
“Print is not going away,” Alix Raine, senior vice president of communications for CMP, said reading from a prepared statement. “It’s still going to be part of our portfolio but it will be a small piece of the portfolio. We are going to continue to grow our tech media brands. We want to streamline our portfolio to serve our market-leading brands.”
CMP cited declining print revenue and growing online traffic as reasons for the company’s shift away from print publications. CMP invested $146 million in online and tech acquisitions and initiatives in the last two years, and print accounted for less than half of the company’s revenue in 2006.
Primary publication InformationWeek will continue to circulate to an audience of 440,000, as well as launching new online offerings and monthly printings of special demographic editions.
InformationWeek.com, which experienced a 40 percent increase in traffic this year, will introduce blogs, video services, Webcasts and virtual communities. New print editions of the magazine will include For IT, By IT, For CIOs, By CIOs and Strategic Security Special.
Two other publications will reduce their print runs. CRN will now be published twice a month, instead of three times a month. Weekly electrical engineering magazine EE Times will reduce its 150,000 print circulation to 130,000.
A subsidiary of Britain’s United Business Media, CMP provides information to IT professionals and is one of the largest publishers of technical, trade and online publications in the world.
The company will continue to build its online networks, launch new digital products and globalize its brands. TechWeb, an online networking tool owned by CMP, will offer new resources and launch bMighty.com, a Web site that focuses on small and mid-sized businesses.
“We want to continue to grow our business,” Ms. Raine said. “We’re going to continue to invest and grow our brand. I think we have to be innovative and agile and we need to remain close to our customers.”
