William Bernard Ziff Jr.
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

William Bernard "Bill" Ziff Jr. (June 24, 1930 – September 9, 2006) was an American publishing executive. His father,
William Bernard Ziff Sr. William Bernard "Bill" Ziff Sr. (August 1, 1898 – December 20, 1953) was an American publishing executive and author. Biography Ziff was born on August 1, 1898. He died on December 20, 1953. Ziff and Bernard G. Davis founded the magazine p ...
, was the co-founder of Ziff Davis Inc. and when the elder Ziff died in 1953, Ziff took over the management of the company. After buying out partner
Bernard G. Davis Bernard George Davis (December 11, 1906 – August 28, 1972) was an American publishing executive. He and William Bernard Ziff Sr. founded Ziff Davis Inc. in 1927. In 1957, he sold his ownership share of Ziff-Davis to William Ziff Jr., and le ...
, he led Ziff Davis to become the most successful publisher of technology magazines in the 1970s and 1980s.


Biography

He was born on June 24, 1930 to Bill Ziff Sr., a
Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...
publishing executive, author, and vocal proponent of
Revisionist Zionism Revisionist Zionism is an ideology developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who advocated a "revision" of the "practical Zionism" of David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann which was focused on the settling of ''Eretz Yisrael'' (Land of Israel) by independent ...
, and his second wife, Amelia Mary Morton. He was mainly raised in Miami, and then moved with his family to Sarasota, in 1947. A polymath with a photographic memory, he graduated from Rutgers University in 1951, then studied philosophy in West Germany. In 1953, after the death of his father, he moved to New York City to lead Ziff Davis Inc. Four years later, he bought out co-founder Bernard Davis, who then launched Davis Publications Inc. Ziff then re-directed the company toward enthusiast magazines and trade publications, with the acquisition of such titles as '' Car and Driver'', ''
Popular Electronics ''Popular Electronics'' was an American magazine published by John August Media, LLC, and hosted at TechnicaCuriosa.com. The magazine was started by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company in October 1954 for electronics hobbyists and experimenters. It soo ...
'', ''
PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...
'', ''World Aviation Directory'' and '' Computer Shopper''. By focusing on enthusiast and trade publications, Ziff's salesmen were able to directly target advertisers who wanted to market to a specific audience. His approach was very successful: manufacturers and retailers were eager to advertise in his magazines at a time when general-interest publications were largely suffering from declining advertising sales. In 1978, Ziff was diagnosed with
prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
, with a
prognosis Prognosis (Greek: πρόγνωσις "fore-knowing, foreseeing") is a medical term for predicting the likely or expected development of a disease, including whether the signs and symptoms will improve or worsen (and how quickly) or remain stabl ...
of only a few years to live. In 1984, he sold most of the consumer and business magazines for US$712.5 million keeping a few computer titles like ''PC Magazine''. His computer magazines pioneered the format of conducting sophisticated technical tests of computer products; as a result, their reviews would often make or break the introduction of new personal computers, modems, or CD-ROM drives. During the rapid-growth genesis of personal computing, Ziff Davis quickly became the dominant computer publishing firm in the world. Ziff had wanted to turn the business over to his sons- Daniel, Dirk and Robert -but they did not desire the responsibility. In 1994, he announced the sale of the publishing group to Forstmann Little & Company for US$1.4 billion. The sale of the electronic publishing unit occurred later.


Personal life and death

In 1963, Ziff married Barbara Ingrid Beitz in a Methodist ceremony. She was the daughter of the German industrialist Berthold Beitz and his wife Elsa, who were recognized by Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority) as " Righteous among the Nations", for being the rare example among ethnic Germans by providing refuge and risking their lives to save Jews during World War II. They had three sons:
Dirk Edward Ziff Dirk Edward Ziff (born 1965) is an American billionaire businessman, the eldest son of publishing magnate William Bernard Ziff Jr. and grandson of William Bernard Ziff Sr. He and his two brothers inherited the family fortune in 1994. Early life ...
(b. 1965);
Robert D. Ziff Robert D. Ziff (born 1967) is an American billionaire, and the middle son of publishing magnate William Bernard Ziff Jr. and grandson of William Bernard Ziff Sr. He and his two brothers inherited the family fortune in 1994. Early life and educat ...
(b. 1967);
Daniel M. Ziff Daniel Morton Ziff (born 1973) is an American billionaire heir, and the youngest son of publishing magnate William Bernard Ziff, Jr. and grandson of William Bernard Ziff Sr. He and his two brothers inherited the family fortune in 1994. As of Septe ...
(b. 1973). His sons are principals of Ziff Brothers Investments, in Manhattan and Greenwich, Connecticut; they were named on the 2012 Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, with an aggregate net worth of approximately $12.6 billion. Ziff later married future Metropolitan Opera chair Tamsen Ann Kojis, daughter of Dr. Ferdinand Kojis and Harriet Henderson (also known as noted opera soprano Harriet Henders who performed with famed conductors
Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...
and George Szell). Ziff died from prostate cancer in Pawling, New York, where he lived with Kojis.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziff, William B. Jr. 1930 births 2006 deaths American magazine publishers (people) People from Pawling, New York Deaths from prostate cancer Rutgers University alumni Deaths from cancer in New York (state) American people of Jewish descent Businesspeople from Miami William B. Jr. 20th-century American businesspeople