|
Ziff Davis Inc. (ZD) is an American magazine publisher and Internet Information company. It was founded in 1927 in Chicago by William B. Ziff, Sr. and Bernard G. Davis. Throughout most of its history, it was notable as the publisher of hobbyist magazines, often ones devoted to expensive, advertiser-rich hobbies such as cars, photography, and electronics. However, since 1980 onward, Ziff Davis primary publishes computer and technology related magazines, and its growing number of websites, spun off from its agazines, have established Ziff Davis as an Internet Information company. Ziff Davis had several broadcasting properties, first in the mid-1970's, and later with its own technology network ZDTV, later renamed to TechTV, that was sold to Vulcan Ventures sometime in 2001.
Fiction and Hobbist Magazines In 1938, Ziff Davis acquired the science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and soon added a new companion, Fantastic Adventures; FA was folded by merger with the newer Fantastic, founded in 1952 initially to great success, in 1954. ZD published a number of other pulp magazines and, later, digest-sized fiction magazines in the 1940s and 1950s, and continued to publish Amazing and Fantastic till 1965. William B. Ziff, Sr., died in 1953 and son William B. Ziff, Jr. returned from Germany to assume his role in the company. In 1958 Bernard G. Davis sold his share of Ziff Davis to found Davis Publications. Under the younger Ziff's direction, the company soon became a successful publisher of enthusiast magazines. Ziff Davis purchased titles like Car and Driver and by gearing content towards enthusiasts and readers who made purchasing decisions for their companies ("brand specifiers"), the company was able to attract advertising money that other, general-interest publications were losing. In the 1970s and 1980s the company's success grew with this approach and a rapidly expanding interest in electronics and computing. With titles such as PC Magazine, Popular Electronics, and Computer Shopper, Ziff Davis rose to the top of the technology magazine business. Television stations formerly owned by Ziff Davis In 1979, Ziff Davis expanded into broadcasting, following an acquisition of television stations originally owned by greeting card company Rust Craft. Ziff Davis's stations included NBC affiliates WROC-TV in Rochester, New York and WRCB-TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee, CBS affiliates WEYI-TV in Saginaw, Michigan and WSTV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio (which changed its calls to WTOV-TV and its network affiliation to NBC after Ziff Davis assumed control of the station), and ABC affiliate WJKS-TV in Jacksonville, Florida (which would also switch to NBC shortly after its acquisition was finalized). These stations would be sold off to other owners (mainly "Television Station Partners") by the mid-1980s. Technology Magazines, and web properties Ziff Davis first started technology-themed publications in 1954, with Popular Electronics and, more briefly, Electronics World led more or less directly to its interest in home-computer magazines. Since then, Ziff Davis became a major player in the field of computer and internet related publishing. In 1982 it acquired PC Magazine. In 1989 the company launched the ZDNet site. In 1995 it launched the magazine Yahoo! Internet Life, initially as ZD Internet Life. The magazine was meant to accompany and complement the site Yahoo!. In 1998, Ziff Davis started ZDTV, a technology-themed television network. ZDTV was sold to Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. in 2000, and was renamed to TechTV. In 2001 Ziff Davis Media Inc. reached an agreement with CNET Networks Inc. and ZDNet to regain the URLs lost in the 2000 sale of Ziff Davis Inc, to SoftBank. The Ziff Davis Media Inc. partnership of Willis Stein & Partners and James Dunning (former Ziff Davis CEO, chairman, and president) gained the online content licensing rights to 11 publications, including PC Magazine, CIO Insight and eWEEK. Since 2004, Ziff Davis has annually hosted a trade show in New York City known has DigitalLife. DigitalLife showcases the newest technology in consumer elctronics, gaming and entertainment. Unlike E3 or the Worldwide Developers Conference, DigitalLife is open to the public. Current Magazines Image:EGM 200.JPG|Electronic Gaming Monthly Image:OPMMagazineCover.jpg|Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine Image:CGWCover.jpg|Computer Gaming World Image:EWeekCover.jpg|eWeek Image:PCMagCover.jpg|PC Magazine Current Properties Image:1upscreenshot.jpg|1UP.com Image:Cgscreenshot.jpg|CrankyGeeks Image:Dltvscreenshot.jpg|DL.TV Image:ExtremeTechwebshot 10-03-06.jpg|ExtremeTech Image:FileFront screenshot.png|FileFront Image:Gametabscreenshot.jpg|GameTab.com Image:GameVideosScreenCap.jpg|Gamevideos.com Discontinued Magazines and Websites Sources | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |