In this harsh economic environment when many of the old ways of doing business don't seem to be working any longer, what b-to-b media companies must do has become clear: Innovate or die. New ideas are more important than ever; and the people who come up with them are critical to helping this ailing industry out of its current slump.
This year's list of the Top Innovators in Business Publishing features a host of executives who are working to divine ways that media companies can make money in the years to come.
It's no surprise that many of these Innovators are focusing on ways to generate more revenue from the Web. After years of prognosticators heralding the rise of the Internet as a dominant marketing medium, that day has finally arrived.
Bob Carrigan, CEO of IDG Communications worldwide, has played a key role in transforming a print-focused publisher into a multimedia company that generates the largest share of its revenue (42%) from online.
Jeff Killeen, CEO of GlobalSpec, is being recognized as an Innovator for helping build his company as an online-only business. Under his leadership, GlobalSpec, an engineering industry search engine, has posted dot-com era growth in recent years.
Among others being recognized for their innovative use of the Web: Keith Fox, president of BusinessWeek, who has embraced the Internet's interactivity and used it to solicit story ideas from online users; Nick Cavnar, VP-circulation at Hanley Wood Business Media, who has mined his company's e-mail database to develop new products; and Jim Sulecki, director of e-media at Meister Media Worldwide, who has overseen his company's aggressive immersion into Web 2.0 in the past two years.
This is Media Business' sixth year of honoring the Top Innovators. The awards are presented in six categories: CEO, publishing executive, online executive, events, audience development and production. Some categories are broken into large trade, small trade (less than $200 million in annual revenue) and general business.
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