Tech Publisher CMP Lays Of 200; Shuts Three Magazines; Focusing on Digital

Missed this one earlier today: CMP, the tech publisher owned by United Business Media, is cutting 200 jobs, shutting down three magazines and says it will focus on digital. Among the changes: it is closing Network Computing and Optimize magazines, and folding their content into Information Week. It is also shuttering SysAdmin and will fold its content into Dr. Dobb’s Journal. The circulation of EE Time is changing from 150k in print to 100K in print and 30,000 online. CMP is also reducing the frequency of CRN to biweekly from weekly and VARBusiness from biweekly to monthly. All of these changes take effect in July. …The company has about 500 employees on Long Island, and some 1,125 worldwide.

This comes in face of some major M&A activity from UBM, as it has realigned its portfolio in the last couple of years. It has spent about $146 million in acquisitions in the last two years, including sites like LightReading and others. More details on this in the company release detailing the changes.

Newsday: Steve Weitzner, CMP’s CEO, said that last year, for the first time in the company’s history, print accounted for less than half of CMP’s sales, only 45 percent.

UBM CEO David Levin is one of the highlight speakers at our “Future of Business Media” conference in NYC this fall, and we’ll be questioning him on these and other issues in business and trade media sector.

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