TechTarget's CIO Decisions Magazine Debuts as First Monthly Magazine Targeted to CIOs and Senior IT Executives in the Midmarket

Industry Veterans Joseph Levy and Maryfran Johnson Focus Lens on Needs of Decision Makers in Largest, Fastest-Growing Market for IT

NEEDHAM, Mass. --April 5, 2005—Information technology (IT) media company TechTarget announced the debut today of CIO Decisions, the first monthly magazine to serve businesses in the U.S. midmarket, the largest and fastest-growing market for IT products and services. The premier issue mailed to a controlled circulation of 60,000 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and senior IT executives involved in setting their organizations’ IT budgets and priorities.

Joseph Levy, Maryfran Johnson Bring 50+ Years’ Expertise to Launch of New Brand

CIO Decisions is led by two of the most respected figures in IT publishing. Joseph Levy, founder of IDG’s CIO magazine and former president of IDG’s CXO Media unit, will head sales and operations as CIO Decisions publisher. Maryfran Johnson, who left her post as editor in chief of IDG’s Computerworld to join Levy in launching CIO Decisions, directs all editorial efforts and assembled the team of experienced journalists on the CIO Decisions masthead. The pair bring more than 50 years’ combined experience to the task of launching a new magazine brand.

Filling a Void in the Marketplace

Like all TechTarget media, CIO Decisions addresses the needs of a community underserved by current media offerings, filling the information void left by general-business publications and the growing crop of magazines aimed at a broad audience of Fortune 1000 CIOs, IT managers, and staff. Unlike these publications, CIO Decisions offers IT marketers a highly efficient vehicle for communicating with a targeted audience composed of executives responsible for IT purchases in the midmarket, the vast market sector between the Fortune 1000 and the small-business sector.

These 40,000 U.S. businesses—companies with revenues between $50 million and $2 billion—represent the fastest-growing sector of the economy with respect to spending on IT products and services. Forrester Research projects IT spending in the midmarket will grow at a rate 36 percent faster than IT spending at large companies, while Gartner projects the midmarket’s IT spending power to grow more than any other segment through 2007.

"TechTarget stays extremely close to our market, constantly enhancing our knowledge of how different communities of IT professionals use media to inform their professional decisions, from managing their business relationships to making the most cost-effective IT purchases,” said TechTarget CEO Greg Strakosch. “As a result, we recognized that midmarket CIOs face unique technological and business issues, yet have little information specifically designed to help them meet those challenges. We’ve applied some of the top talent in the industry to the job of producing a publication that speaks directly to the needs of this large and economically powerful audience of midmarket executives. IT vendors, who are increasingly turning their attention to the economic power wielded by the midmarket, have enthusiastically embraced the debut of CIO Decisions."

The CIO Decisions Media Group has attracted advertising from some of the most prominent vendors of IT products and services, many of which have specific initiatives aimed at reaching the midmarket. Advertisers include IBM, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, and EMC. CIO Decisions is a product of TechTarget’s CIO Decisions Media Group, which produces integrated media and events for midmarket CIOs and IT executives. Other products of the CIO Decisions Media Group include the magazine’s companion Web site, CIODecisions.com, which debuted today; sister Web sites SearchCIO.com and SearchSMB.com; and the 2005 CIO Decisions Conference, “Building the Integrated Enterprise: IT and Business Realities,” which takes place July 26-28, 2005 in Pebble Beach, CA.

In-depth Editorial to Help Midmarket Executives Align IT with Business Goals and Priorities

CIO Decisions’ editorial focuses on a strategic priority voiced by midmarket CIOs: ensuring that IT organizations understand the goals and priorities of each line of business and can deploy the IT systems, personnel and processes that drive business success. The publication’s commitment to addressing this need is highlighted by the magazine’s tagline, "Aligning IT and Business in the Midmarket Enterprise."

“In the process of creating this first issue, we learned a great deal about what distinguishes midmarket CIOs from CIOs in larger organizations,” said CIO Decisions Editor-in-Chief Maryfran Johnson. “We discovered that midmarket CIOs face similar challenges as their peers in the Fortune 1000. With smaller staffs and more restricted budgets, tough, midmarket CIOs are forced to be more innovative in their approach to solving problems. Their experiences and the lessons they’ve learned are instructive, not only for other midmarket CIOs, but for Fortune 500 IT executives, who are also struggling with bringing IT more closely in line with business goals and objectives. As a result, case studies, in-depth stories, and interviews that draw on these experiences will drive our coverage. CIO Decisions will focus on the midmarket as no other publication can.”

The premier issue of CIO Decisions introduces the regular departments that serve the magazine’s mission:

• Update: (Tagline: “Ideas, Innovation & Inspiration”) – A collection of timely, quick-read items—such as short Q&As, trends analysis, specific ways CIOs are solving technology/business problems, and exclusive research statistics.
• CIO Habitat: (Tagline: “Original research on IT leadership issues”) – A research analysis authored by futurist Thornton May, dean of the IT Leadership Academy in Jacksonville, Fla., and drawn from his extensive, ongoing research among hundreds of CIOs and industry leaders.
• 2-Way Street: (Tagline: “An Executive Conversation”) – This dual-exec interview with a CIO and a senior business colleague homes in on how the pair works together, and how IT/business alignment plays out at their company and in their top initiatives. The April issue features a conversation with the CIO and Director of Products/Services for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
• Vertical Views: (Tagline: “An industry-specific look at business challenges and IT responses”) Includes an overview, individual case studies, and an expert opinion from an industry insider. The April issue’s installment focuses on retail and features an expert-view column from the former CIO of the National Retail Federation.
• Business Mentor: (Tagline: “Insight and Guidance from a Veteran CIO”) April’s feature is written by the just-retired CIO of MasterCard International, an executive with 35 years’ business and IT management experience, and focuses on how IT executives must become “change masters” to connect with their businesses.
• Project Expert: (Tagline: “Seasoned Advice for IT Management”) Penned by an industry insider, April’s “Project Expert” kicks off a seven-part series on the “Deadly Sins of Project Management.” The First Deadly Sin: Mistaking half-baked ideas from senior business executives for projects.

Feature articles offer comprehensive analysis of important industry trends (“Shifting Ground”) or provide in-depth examinations of CIO experiences (“100 Days in Iraq”).

• 100 Days in Iraq: Explores how CIO George Danforth risked his life repeatedly during the most perilous assignment in his 30-year career: creating a national IT strategy for Iraq.
• Shifting Ground: With hosted software shifting the dynamics of vendor pricing models and disrupting the industry’s control over how customers spend, this article shows how midmarket CIOs are navigating this new landscape.
• Passing the Audit: A timely look at the effects of policy on midmarket processes: While most companies staggered under Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, Pacer International got the job done on time and on budget. The article also shows how, in the process, it kick-started an IT/business transformation.

A Seasoned Editorial Team Led by an Award-Winning Industry Veteran

Award-winning editor Maryfran Johnson brings over 20 years’ experience to her role as editor in chief of CIO Decisions. She has assembled a team of veteran reporters and editors for the full-time staff of CIO Decisions.

• Executive Editor/Editorial Director Anne McCrory: A 10-year veteran of Computerworld, McCrory held various senior editing positions, serving most recently as senior news editor. She has won multiple news awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and was a finalist for best news coverage in American Business Media’s Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards.
• Art Director Linda Koury: Koury has more than 20 years' experience in designing national-newsstand titles, and has won more than 30 national awards for design excellence. Koury served most recently as art director at MIT's Technology Review. She has worked as art director at Inc. magazine and associate art director at Fast Company.
• News Director Ellen O’Brien: O’Brien brings more than 15 years’ experience at top news organizations to her role as news director for the CIO Decisions Media Group. She joined TechTarget from The Boston Globe, where she was a staff reporter for six years. Prior to the Globe, O’Brien served as New England correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and was senior editor of The Improper Bostonian. O’Brien worked most recently as news editor of TechTarget’s SearchSAP.com.
• Senior Features Editor Tom Kaneshige: Kaneshige has covered business and technology in Silicon Valley for more than a decade, holding a variety of editorial positions, including senior editor of Line 56 magazine, and senior writer at Upside and CIO magazine.
• Managing Editor John Stuart: Stuart has more than ten years’ experience producing technical and business publications in the U.S. and Europe, including a four-year stint as the Director of International Publications at Burda Yukom Publishing of Munich, Germany.
• Senior News Writer Linda Tucci: Joined CIO Decisions in March 2005 from The Boston Globe, where she was a business correspondent. Tucci has over ten years’ experience as a business reporter for St. Louis publications, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Business Journal.
• Senior Staff Writer Jim Rendon: Rendon joined TechTarget from M-Business magazine, where he was the European correspondent. He has written extensively on business, technology, culture and the environment for such publications as The New York Times, Wired, Business 2.0, Men's Journal, and Rolling Stone. Prior to CIO Decisions, he covered networking, wireless and voice technologies as senior features writer for TechTarget’s SearchNetworking.com.

About TechTarget

TechTarget is a leading provider of specialized online content that brings together buyers and sellers of corporate IT products. We sell customized marketing programs that enable IT vendors to reach corporate IT decision makers who are actively researching specific IT purchases. We operate a network of 35 websites, each of which focuses on a specific IT sector, such as storage, security or networking. IT professionals rely on our websites for key decision support information tailored to their specific areas of responsibility. We complement our online offerings with targeted in-person events and three specialized IT magazines that enable advertisers to engage buyers throughout their decision-making process for IT purchases. As IT professionals have become increasingly specialized, they have come to rely on our sector specific websites for purchasing decision-support. Our content enables IT professionals to navigate the complex and rapidly changing IT landscape where purchasing decisions can have significant financial and operational consequences. Since our founding in 1999, we have developed a broad customer base that now comprises more than 1,000 active advertisers who placed business with us in 2006, including Cisco, Dell, EMC, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Research in Motion, SAP and Symantec. More information about TechTarget is available at www.techtarget.com.

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