IBT Media

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IBT Media
Logo ibtmedia.png
Web address corp.ibt.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
Publication
Owner Etienne Uzac, Johnathan Davis
Launched 2006
Current status Active

IBT Media is an American global digital news organization with over 90 million monthly readers.[1] It publishes the International Business Times and Newsweek, among others. IBT Media is headquartered in New York City, in the Hanover Square neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.[2] As of 2014, the company posted revenue of about $21 million and generated a profit of about $500,000.[1]

Overview

IBT Media has several brands that it has built organically through specialty vertical sites and also international editions.[3]

IBT Media focuses on online publication, but relaunched the Newsweek print edition in 2014.[4] It says its aims are to engage "a new generation of readers with content that speaks to their interests, analysis that serves their businesses, and insight to make sense of a globally connected world"[5] and to foster global economic growth.[6]

IBT Media also says that it tries "to use good Internet techniques in trying to uncover little things that are important, like SEC filings, unique data points, speeches business and political leaders give in the more obscure venues, and thinktank or NGO reports",[6] and that it believes in the "second-minute story", where the all-important second-day story—the one that delivers context, analysis and explanation—is now in Internet time.[7]

Corporate structure and revenue

IBT Media says it is a privately held company, owned by Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis,[8] has not received outside funding,[9] and has grown with a focus on being an "efficient company", concentrating on the "revenue side as well as on the expenses".[10][11]

It started in 2006, with personal savings, an SBA bank loan, and no input, financial or advisory, from VCs.[clarification needed][9] It has been profitable since 2010.[3][9][10][11]

It has also grown through the acquisition of Newsweek.[12]

The company derives its profits primarily from advertising and has been profitable since 2010.[11] It says it has recently undertaken new ventures to become a "multi-product global media group"[13] and to diversify capital, including adopting Newsweek's subscription models across its properties, and launching a new business-to-business arm.[3][10][14]

Innovations

IBT Media had run on a proprietary content management system that it has built over several years. The company started to tie-in real-time analytics into the newsroom as early as 2010, and based on those results, optimize follow-up content, positioning, and editorial calendars to serve readers. Social feedback is also built into the newsroom.[4]

The company has also created platforms for content. Bizu, a video platform for business professionals hosts content and also offers incremental revenue streams to content providers.[13]

The company also launched a platform for users to submit and discuss sports content, called SportsNet, in beta. Its aim is to "fans and experts around the world to contribute on any sports related topics" while allowing fans around the world to interact. It had 400 contributors as of 2012.[15]

Partnerships

IBT Media says it has an ongoing "working relationship" with Olivet University which includes the school providing design assistance and computer resources, and IBT Media providing internships for students. It characterizes it as similar to the relationships Silicon Valley companies have with local universities.[12] However, publication Christianity Today alleges that IBT Media has a close relationship both with Olivet and with its founder, controversial[12][16] evangelical pastor David J. Jang. It claims that Jang is an investor in and has exercised control over IBT Media, that Davis was formerly director of journalism at Olivet, and that Uzac was its Treasurer, at least at one time.[12][17][18] Executives characterize the relationship as between the institutions and not the founders, and that it was purely operational.[11][12]

IBT Media is part of Economist's "Ideas Channel", an ad-network based on mindset rather than demographics, set up in part to reach "an intellectual and often influential audience interested in business, politics and science".[19]

IBT Media’s Bizu video platform partners with IDG Communications and France 24. for content, and Digitas and PJA Advertising and others for monetization of the platform.[13][20]

The company's brands publish to a number of 3rd party platforms, including Flipboard, Zite, and The Washington Post's Social Reader.[21]

Assets

  • International Business Times – global business and economic news, in seven languages across ten editions[22]
  • Newsweek – iconic global news provider
  • Medical Daily – medical news site[23][24]
  • Latin Times – Latin American-oriented news site[23][25]
  • iDigitalTimes – technology and digital media news site[23][26]

Chronology

  • 2006 - International Business Times incorporates in New York.[27]
  • 2008 - 2010 - IBTimes launches specialty verticals: Jobs, Health, Real Estate, Education and Travel.
  • 2011 - IBTimes moves into Newsweek's old offices after 1200% growth for the year.[2]
  • 2012 - International Business Times reincorporates as IBT Media, the new parent company to IBTimes, and launches Bizu, a video web portal and platform.[20]
  • 2013 - Medical Daily, HollywoodTake, and Latin Times[28] are launched.
  • 2013 - Newsweek is acquired.[29][30]
  • 2014 - Newsweek returns to print,[31] and the Newsweek operations becomes profitable [32]

References

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  8. https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnathan-davis-037b1b10
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  31. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/03/business/media/tiny-digital-publisher-to-put-newsweek-back-in-print.html?_r=0
  32. http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/10/8554160/emnewsweekem-announces-its-profitable

External links