Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

and

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and

Bernard George 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 ...

, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites,

online shopping Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the r ...

-related services, and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

services.

History

The company was founded by William B. Ziff Company publisher Bill Ziff Sr. with Bernard Davis. Upon Bill Ziff's death in 1953,

William B. Ziff Jr. William Bernard "Bill" Ziff Jr. (June 24, 1930 – September 9, 2006) was an American publishing executive. His father, William Bernard Ziff Sr., was the co-founder of Ziff Davis Inc. and when the elder Ziff died in 1953, Ziff took over the mana ...

, his son, returned from Germany to lead the company. In 1958, Bernard Davis sold Ziff Jr. his share of Ziff Davis to found Davis Publications, Inc.; Ziff Davis continued to use the Davis surname as Ziff-Davis. Throughout most of Ziff Davis' history, it was a publisher of hobbyist magazines, often ones devoted to expensive, advertiser-rich technical hobbies such as cars, photography, and electronics. Since 1980, Ziff Davis has primarily published computer-related magazines and related websites, establishing Ziff Davis as an Internet information company. Ziff Davis had several broadcasting properties, first during the mid-1970s, and later with its own technology network

ZDTV TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming ...

, later renamed to

TechTV TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming. ...

, that was sold to Vulcan Ventures in 2001. Ziff Davis' magazine publishing and Internet operations offices are based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. On January 6, 2009, the company sold 1UP.com to Hearst's

UGO Entertainment UGO Entertainment, Inc. was a website that provided coverage of online media in entertainment, targeting males aged 18–34. The company was based in New York, New York, United States. History The company started in 1997 as Unified Gamers Onlin ...

, a division of and announced the January 2009 issue of the long-running ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

'' magazine would be its last. Former

Time Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

executive

Vivek R. Shah Vivek R. Shah is an American businessman and chief executive officer of Ziff Davis, an American internet and digital media company. Education Shah holds a B.A. in political science from Tufts University. Career Shah began his career in 1995 at ...

, with financial backing from Boston

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

company

Great Hill Partners Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

, announced on June 4, 2010, the acquisition of Ziff Davis Inc. as the "first step in building a new digital media company that specializes in producing and distributing content for consumers making important buying decisions." On November 12, 2012, Ziff Davis Inc., was acquired by

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

services company

J2 Global J2 Global, Inc. was an American technology holding company based in Los Angeles, California. The company provided Internet services through two divisions: Business Cloud Services and Digital Media. History J2 Global was founded in December 1995 ...

for $167 million cash. According to an October 2015 ''Fortune'' article, Ziff Davis comprises 30% of parent company J2 Global's $600 million annual revenue (2014) and is increasing 15% to 20% each year. Analyst Gregory Burns of

Sidoti & Company Sidoti is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Annarita Sidoti (1969–2015), Italian race walker * Chris Sidoti, Australian human rights lawyer * John Sidoti Anthony John Sidoti is an independent Australian politician who w ...

calculates that Ziff Davis is worth $1.9 billion. In April 2021, J2 Global announced that it would spin off its cloud services business as Consensus; the transaction was approved by its shareholders in September 2021, with J2 Global consisting primarily of its media business and

VPN services A virtual private network (VPN) service provides a proxy server to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geoblocking and users who want to protect their communications against data profiling or MitM attacks on hostile networks. A wide va ...

, and subsequently taking on the Ziff Davis, Inc. name and "ZD"

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters (generally Latin letters ...

''Popular Aviation''

The William B. Ziff Company, founded in 1920, was a successful Chicago

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

that secured advertising from national companies such as

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

for virtually all

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

weekly newspapers. In 1923, Ziff acquired E. C. Auld Company, a Chicago publishing house. Ziff's first venture in magazine publishing was ''Ziff's Magazine'', which featured short stories, one-act plays, humorous verse, and jokes. The title was changed to ''America's Humor'' in April 1926."William Bernard Ziff.", ''Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 5: 1951–1955''. American Council of Learned Societies, 1977. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. Bernard George Davis was the student editor of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

's humor magazine, the ''Pitt Panther'', and was active in the Association of College Comics of the East. During his senior year he attended the association's convention and met William B. Ziff. When Davis graduated in 1927 he joined Ziff as the editor of ''America's Humor''."Bernard George Davis." ''Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 9: 1971–1975''. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. Ziff, who had been an aviator in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, created ''Popular Aviation'' in August 1927 that was published by Popular Aviation Publishing Company of Chicago, Illinois. Under editor Harley W. Mitchell it became the largest aviation magazine, with a circulation of 100,000 in 1929. "Monthly magazine until this month called ''Popular Aviation and Aeronautics''. With 100,000 circulation it is largest-selling of U. S. air publications." "Editor of Aeronautics is equally airwise Harley W. Mitchell, no relative of General Mitchell." The magazine's title became ''Aeronautics'' in June 1929 and the publishing company's name became Aeronautical Publications, Inc. The title was changed back to ''Popular Aviation'' in July 1930. The magazine became '' Flying'' in 1942 and is still published today by the

Bonnier Corporation Bonnier LLC (formerly Bonnier Corporation) is an outdoor adventure company that fuels passion for fishing, boating, sailing, motorsports, hunting and travel. Bonnier has the nation’s leading portfolio of experiential events and iconic media bra ...

. The magazine celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2017. The company histories normally give the founding date as 1927. This is when B.G. Davis joined and ''Popular Aviation'' magazine started. However, it was not until 1936 that the company became the "Ziff-Davis Publishing Company". (''Popular Aviation'', April 1936, was the first issue by Ziff-Davis Publishing.) Davis was given a substantial minority equity interest in the company and was appointed a vice-president and director. He was later named president in 1946. Davis was a photography enthusiast and the editor of the ''

Popular Photography ''Popular Photography'', formerly known as ''Popular Photography & Imaging'', also called ''Pop Photo'', is a monthly American consumer website and former magazine that at one time had the largest circulation of any imaging magazine, with an edit ...

'' magazine started in May 1937.

Fiction, hobbyist and bridal magazines

In early 1938, Ziff-Davis acquired the magazines ''

Radio News News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

'' and ''

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...

''. These were started by

Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publ ...

but sold as a result of the Experimenter Publishing bankruptcy in 1929. Both magazines had declined since the bankruptcy but the resources of Ziff-Davis rejuvenated them starting with the April 1938 issues. ''Radio News'' was published until 1972. The magazine ''

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 ...

'', derived from ''Radio News'', was begun in 1955 and published until 1985. ''Amazing Stories'' was a leading

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

magazine and Ziff Davis soon added a new companion, ''Fantastic Adventures'' (FA). In 1954 ''FA'' was merged into the newer magazine ''

Fantastic The fantastic (french: le fantastique) is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. Bulgarian-French structuralist literary critic Tzvetan Todorov originated the concept, characte ...

'', founded in 1952 to great initial success. ZD published a number of other

pulp magazines Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

and, later,

digest-sized Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printin ...

fiction magazines during the 1940s and 1950s, and continued to publish ''Amazing'' and ''Fantastic'' until 1965. Ziff-Davis published

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

during the early 1950s, operating by their own name and also the name Approved Comics. Eschewing

superheroes A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

, they published horror,

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

, sports,

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

, and

Western comics Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier (usually anywhere west of the Mississippi River) and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books ...

, though most titles didn't last more than a few issues.

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

co-creator

Jerry Siegel Jerome Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He is the co-creator of Superman, in ...

was the art director of the comics line; other notable creators who worked for Ziff-Davis Comics included

John Buscema John Buscema (; ; born Giovanni Natale Buscema, December 11, 1927 – January 10, 2002)Social Se ...

Sid Greene Sidney Greene (June 18, 1906 – October 1972)Sidney Greene
at the

Bob Haney Robert Gilbert Haney, Jr. (March 15, 1926 – November 25, 2004) was an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics. He co-created the Teen Titans as well as characters such as Metamorpho, Eclipso, Cain, and the Super-Sons ...

Sam Kweskin Irving Samuel Kweskin (February 24, 1924—June 23, 2005), who sometimes worked under the name Irv Wesley,Kweskin in was an American advertising and comic-book artist. Biography Early life and career Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised there ...

, Rudy Lapick,

Richard Lazarus Richard S. Lazarus (March 3, 1922 – November 24, 2002) was an American psychologist who began rising to prominence in the 1960s. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Lazarus as the 80th most cited psychologist of ...

Mort Leav Mortimer Leav (July 9, 1916 – September 21, 2005)Mortimer Leav
Paul S. Newman Paul S. Newman (April 29, 1924 – May 30, 1999) was an American writer of comic books, comic strips, and books, whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s. Credited in the '' Guinness Book of World Records'' as the most prolific comic-book wr ...

George Roussos George Roussos (; August 20, 1915 – February 19, 2000), also known under the pseudonym George Bell, was an American comic book artist best known as one of Jack Kirby's Silver Age inkers, including on landmark early issues of Marvel Comics' ''Fa ...

Mike Sekowsky Michael Sekowsky (; November 19, 1923 – March 30, 1989) was an American comics artist known as the penciler for DC Comics' ''Justice League of America'' during most of the 1960s, and as the regular writer and artist on ''Wonder Woman'' during t ...

Ernie Schroeder Ernest C. Schroeder (January 9, 1916 – September 20, 2006)Ernest C. Schroeder
...

, and

Ogden Whitney John Ogden Whitney (May 1, 1919 – August 13, 1975) was an American comic-book artist and sometime writer active from the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of comics through the 1960s Silver Age. He is best known as co-creator of the aviator hero Skym ...

. In 1953, the company mostly abandoned comics, selling its most popular titles—the romance comics ''Cinderella Love'' and ''Romantic Love'', the Western ''Kid Cowboy'', and the jungle adventure ''Wild Boy of the Congo''—to

St. John Publications St. John Publications was an American publisher of magazines and comic books. During the 1947-1958 existence of its comic-book division, St. John established several industry firsts. Founded by Archer St. John, the firm was located in Manhattan a ...

. Ziff-Davis continued to publish one title, ''

G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), Ac ...

'', until 1957, a total of 51 issues. From 1958, under the direction of sole owner Bill Ziff Jr., a

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

with a

photographic memory Eidetic memory ( ; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only onceThe terms ''eidetic memory'' and ''pho ...

, Ziff-Davis became a successful publisher of enthusiast magazines, purchasing titles like ''

Car and Driver ''Car and Driver'' (''CD'' or ''C/D'') is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was fou ...

'', and tailoring content for enthusiasts as well as purchasing agents ("brand specifiers"); the company was able to attract advertising money that other, general-interest publications were losing. In 1958, Ziff-Davis began publishing a magazine, ''HiFi and Music Review'', for the growing hobby of high fidelity equipment. Ultimately, the magazine evolved into ''

Stereo Review ''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...

''. ZD also became a prolific publisher of photography and boating magazines during this period, and such magazines as ''

Modern Bride Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosoph ...

''; after the sale of ''Fantastic'' and ''Amazing'' in 1965, their editor

Cele Goldsmith Lalli Cele Goldsmith Lalli (1933 – January 14, 2002) was an American editor. She was the editor of ''Amazing Stories'' from 1959 to 1965, ''Fantastic'' from 1958 to 1965, and later the Editor-in-Chief of ''Modern Bride'' magazine. Biography Golds ...

began working on the bridal magazines, becoming a notable and influential editor in that field before retirement. During the 1970s and 1980s, the company's success increased with this strategy, and a rapidly expanding interest in electronics and computing. With titles such as ''

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 ...

'', ''

'', and '' Computer Shopper'', Ziff Davis became the leading technology magazine business. Ziff Davis sold the majority of its consumer magazines to

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and its trade magazines to

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

in 1984, keeping its computer magazines.

Television stations

In 1979, Ziff Davis expanded into broadcasting, after an acquisition of television stations originally owned by greeting card company Rust Craft. Ziff Davis's stations included

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

affiliates

WROC-TV WROC-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Humboldt Street in downtown Rochester, and its transmitter is locate ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

and

WRCB-TV WRCB (channel 3) is a television station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with NBC. The station has been owned by Sarkes Tarzian, Inc. since 1982. WRCB's studios are located on Whitehall Road on Chattanooga's north side; its ...

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

affiliates

WEYI-TV WEYI-TV (channel 25), branded on-air as NBC 25, is a television station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, which maintains a shared services ...

Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

WRDW-TV WRDW-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Augusta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power, Class A NBC affiliate WAGT-CD (channel 26). Both stations share studios at ...

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

and WSTV-TV in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a 1 ...

(which changed its name to WTOV-TV and its network affiliation to NBC after Ziff Davis assumed control of the station), and

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate WJKS-TV in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

(which would also switch to NBC soon after its acquisition was finalized). These stations would be sold to other owners by the mid-1980s—most of these would become owned by a new ownership group, "Television Station Partners", the exceptions being WRCB (which would be sold to

Sarkes Tarzian Sarkes Tarzian (October 5, 1900 – October 7, 1987) was an Ottoman-born American engineer, inventor, and broadcaster. He was ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire. He and his family immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States i ...

) and WJKS (which was acquired by

Media General Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch' ...

Technology magazines and web properties

Ziff Davis first started technology-themed publications during 1954, with ''

'' and, more briefly, '' Electronics World''. This resulted more or less directly in its interest in home-computer magazines. From that time, Ziff Davis became a major publisher of computer and Internet-related publishing. It acquired ''

'' in 1982, and the

trade journal A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for this ...

MacWEEK ''MacWEEK'' was a controlled-circulation weekly Apple Macintosh trade journal based in San Francisco founded by Michael Tchong, John Anderson, Glenn Patch, Dick Govatski, and Michael F. Billings. It featured a back-page rumor column penned by the ...

'' in 1988. In 1989, the company initiated the

ZDNet ZDNET is a business technology news website owned and operated by Red Ventures. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991, as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication. Hist ...

site. In 1991 ZDNet on

CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...

and on the early Internet were augmented by the purchase of Public Brand Software, the main shareware disk provider. In 1995 it initiated the magazine ''

Yahoo! Internet Life ''Yahoo! Internet Life'' was a monthly magazine published by Ziff Davis, which licensed the name from Yahoo!, the well-known web portal and search engine website. It was created and launched by G. Barry Golson, the former executive editor of ''P ...

'', initially as ''ZD Internet Life''. The magazine was meant to accompany and complement the site

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

. Owner

William Bernard Ziff Jr. William Bernard "Bill" Ziff Jr. (June 24, 1930 – September 9, 2006) was an American publishing executive. His father, William Bernard Ziff Sr., was the co-founder of Ziff Davis Inc. and when the elder Ziff died in 1953, Ziff took over the mana ...

had wanted to give the business to his sons—Daniel, Dirk and Robert—but they didn't want the responsibility. In 1994, he announced the sale of the publishing group to

Forstmann Little & Company Forstmann, Little & Company was a private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts (LBOs). At its peak in the late 1990s, Forstmann Little was among the largest private equity firms globally. Ultimately, the firm would suffer from the burs ...

for US$1.4 billion. It was then sold to

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

a year later. In 1998, Ziff Davis started the ZDTV channel, a technology-themed

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

. From 1999 through 2000, as part of an effort to restructure Ziff-Davis Inc,

would sell ZDTV to

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which h ...

Vulcan Inc. Vulcan LLC is a privately held company founded by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his sister Jody Allen in 1986 to establish and oversee the family's diverse business activities and philanthropic endeavors. It includes Vulcan Real Estate ...

which would later be renamed to

, and spin off ZD and ZDNet. Since 2004, Ziff Davis has annually hosted a

trade show A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and cu ...

in New York City known as DigitalLife. DigitalLife showcases the newest technology in consumer electronics, gaming and entertainment. Unlike

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...

or the

Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in t ...

, DigitalLife is open to the public. In November 2006, Ziff Davis announced the cancellation of '' Official PlayStation Magazine''. They cited a lack of interest in the magazine (and its demo disk) due to digital distribution. ''OPM'' had begun in 1997.

Ziff Davis Media Inc.

In 2001, the new company Ziff Davis Media Inc., a partnership of

Willis Stein & Partners Willis Stein & Partners is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions for middle-market companies. The firm's most notable investments have included Ziff Davis, Roundy's, Jays Foods, Lincoln Snacks Company and Petersen Pub ...

and James Dunning (former Ziff Davis CEO, chairman, and president), made an agreement with

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

Networks Inc. and ZDNet to acquire the URLs of Ziff Davis. Ziff Davis Media Inc. gained thereby the online content licensing rights to 11 publications, including ''PC Magazine'', ''CIO Insight'', and ''

eWEEK ''eWeek'' (''Enterprise Newsweekly'', stylized as ''eWEEK''), formerly PCWeek, is a technology and business magazine. Previously owned by QuinStreet; Nashville, Tennessee marketing company TechnologyAdvice acquired eWeek in 2020. The print edi ...

'', webpage of industry insider Spencer Katt. In July 2007, Ziff Davis Media announced the sale of its enterprise (B2B or business-to-business) division to

Insight Venture Partners Insight Partners (previously Insight Venture Partners) is an American venture capital and private equity firm based in New York City. The firm invests in growth-stage technology, software and Internet businesses. History Insight Partners was fo ...

. The sale included all B2B publications, which include ''eWeek'', Baseline, and CIOinsight, and all related online properties. The enterprise division is now an independent company named Ziff Davis Enterprise Group (ZDE). On March 5, 2008, Ziff Davis Media Inc. announced it had filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whet ...

in order to restructure its debt and operations. and emerged, after a court supervised

corporate restructuring Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons ...

in July 2009. In conjunction with this announcement they also stated that they are discontinuing their print copy of PC Magazine. According to BtoBonline, Ziff Davis Media made an agreement with an ad hoc group of noteholders, who will provide $24.5 million to fund the company's operations and help plan the restructuring.

Acquisition

In June 2010, Boston private equity firm, Great Hill Partners, purchased Ziff Davis, with online media executive Vivek Shah. At the time, Ziff Davis properties consisted of PCMag.com, ExtremeTech, GearLog, GoodCleanTech, DLtv, AppScout, CrankyGeeks, Smart Device Central and TechSaver.com, and reached over 7 million users a month. Shah, with intentions of revitalizing the business, serial purchased logicbuy.com, geek.com, computershopper.com, toolbox.com, and Focus Research. Focus Research was a major provider of online research to enterprise buyers and high-quality leads to IT vendors. It was later renamed to "Ziff Davis B2B Focus" and operated as a stand-alone unit within Ziff Davis. Niche sites of the Ziff Davis B2B Focus network include ITManagement.com, ITSecurity.com, VOIP-News.com and InsideCRM.com. On November 16, 2012 Great Hill sold the company to j2Global, a provider of cloud services. The purchase price was $175 million, approximately 2.9 times the estimated 2013 revenue. j2 Global actually paid $167 million in an all-cash deal.

Digital media growth

On February 4, 2013, Ziff Davis acquired

IGN Entertainment ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and Mass media, entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San ...

from

. Soon afterward, Ziff Davis announced the discontinuation of the 1UP.com,

UGO.com UGO Entertainment, Inc. was a website that provided coverage of online media in entertainment, targeting males aged 18–34. The company was based in New York, New York, United States. History The company started in 1997 as Unified Gamers Online ...

, and

GameSpy.com GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the Game ...

sites in order to " ocuson our two flagship brands, IGN and AskMen". In May 2013, Ziff Davis acquired NetShelter, a display advertising network oriented towards consumer electronics and technology publishers, from ImPowered. In November 2013, Ziff Davis acquired TechBargains.com, a deal aggregation site for consumer electronics. In June 2014, Ziff Davis acquired eMedia Communications from

Reed Business Information RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...

. In December 2014, Ziff Davis acquired Ookla, owner of Speedtest.net. In December 2015, Ziff Davis acquired

Offers.com Offers.com is an online marketplace that connects consumers with coupons, coupon codes, product deals, and special offers from about 16,000 retailers and brands. History Offers.com was founded in 2009 by Steve Schaffer. In 2010, the company rec ...

an online source of offers, deals, coupons, coupon codes, promos, free trials, and more. In December 2017, Ziff Davis acquired

Mashable Mashable is a digital media platform, news website and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2005. Early iterations of the site were a ...

, an American entertainment, culture, tech, science and social good digital media platform, for $50 million. Following its acquisition of Mashable, Ziff Davis announced that it would implement longer, more in-depth content to boost the site's search traffic and restructure the platform to reduce costs. In 2018, Ziff Davis had 117 million readers, reaching 115 countries with 60 international editions. Most of Ziff Davis' international editions are partnerships with local publishers, all of whom use a domestic content management system. The common CMS lets oversea editions get content from Ziff Davis' owned-and-operated markets and re-purpose it for their own editions. To establish itself in foreign markets, Ziff Davis asks its local partner to hold events. Popular past events include

IGN Convention IGN Convention (IGN Con) is a video games, movies, comics and pop culture convention held in various cities in the Middle East. The event generally includes celebrities, video game tournaments, table top games, card games, movie previews, com ...

Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. In September 2019, Ziff Davis acquired

Spiceworks Spiceworks is a professional network for the information technology (IT) industry that is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company was founded in January 2006 by Scott Abel, Jay Hallberg, Greg Kattawar, and Francis Sullivan to build IT manage ...

, a professional network for the information technology industry. In November 2020, Ziff Davis acquired

RetailMeNot RetailMeNot, Inc. (formerly Whaleshark Media) is an American multinational company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that maintains a collection of coupon web sites. The company was founded by Cotter Cunningham. The company owns RetailMeNot.com and ...

for $420 million, an aggregator of coupon offers across multiple website properties.

Current properties

AskMen AskMen is a free online men's web portal, with international versions in Australia, Canada, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and the United States. It is owned by Ziff Davis and operates through the IGN Entertainment unit. History AskMen was ...

* BlackFriday.com * BestBlackFriday.com * Downdetector * Ekahau * emedia *

eVoice eVoice is a telecommunications service owned by j2 Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM). The company manages incoming and outgoing calls using virtual phone numbers. The service was initially founded by Wendell Brown, Mark Klein, and Craig Taro Gold in ...

ExtremeTech ExtremeTech is a technology weblog, launched in June 2001, which focuses on hardware, computer software, science and other technologies. Between 2003 and 2005, ExtremeTech was also a print magazine and the publisher of a popular series of how- ...

Everyday Health Everyday Health Group is a digital media company which owns websites and produces content relating to health and wellness for consumers and medical professionals. For consumers, its brands include Everyday Health, Diabetes Daily, Migraine Again, ...

Geek.com Geek.com is a technology news weblog about hardware, mobile computing, technology, movies, TV, video games, comic books, and all manner of geek culture subjects. It was founded in 1996 and was run independently until 2007 when it was sold to N ...

* HowLongToBeat.com *HR Technologist *

Humble Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and t ...

* ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' *

IPVanish IPVanish VPN (also known as IPVanish) is a VPN service based in the United States, with applications for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Fire TV. Manual configuration is available for ChromeOS, Windows Phone, Linux, and DD-WRT rout ...

* Line2 *

Livedrive Livedrive is an online cloud backup and sync storage service owned by j2 Global. The company provides users with unlimited backup space and 2,000 GB or more of sync storage. Livedrive enables users to access their data from mobile phones and ...

* MarTech Advisor * Moz.com *

* ''

PCMag ''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 ...

'' *

* Salesify *

SMTP The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typical ...

* Speedtest.net by Ookla * MapGenie *

StrongVPN J2 Global, Inc. was an American technology holding company based in Los Angeles, California. The company provided Internet services through two divisions: Business Cloud Services and Digital Media. History J2 Global was founded in December 1995 ...

SugarSync SugarSync is a cloud service that enables active synchronization of files across computers and other devices for file backup, access, syncing, and sharing from a variety of operating systems, such as Android, iOS, Mac OS X, and Windows devices. F ...

* Techbargains.com *

Toolbox.com Toolbox.com is a network of online business-to-business communities geared at professionals working in the information technology, human resources, and finance fields, allowing online collaboration between professionals utilizing discussion gr ...

VIPRE VIPRE Security Group, (also known as VIPRE or VIPRE Security) a brand of Ziff Davis, is a privately held cybersecurity company headquartered in New York. VIPRE develops cybersecurity products focused on endpoint and email security along with adv ...

* Ziff Davis Tech * Ziff Davis B2B

Sold properties

* DeveloperShed.com * eSeminars (sold to QuinStreet) * ''

'' (sold back to magazine founder Steve Harris) * FileFront * GameTab.com * GameVideos.com * eWeek, Linux-Watch (sold to QuinStreet) * Linuxdevices.com (sold to QuinStreet) * Microsoft Watch (sold to QuinStreet) * MyCheats.com * PDF Zone (sold to QuinStreet) * Publish (sold to QuinStreet) *

(sold to

, their biggest rival)

Discontinued properties

* ''1Up.com'' * ''A+ Magazine'' * ''Computer Gaming World'' * ''Creative Computing'' * ''GameNOW'' * ''Games for Windows: The Official Magazine'' * GameSpy (formerly part of IGN Network) * ''GameTrailers * ''GMR (magazine), GMR'' * ''MacUser (US edition), MacUser'' (US Edition, 1985–1997) * ''Microsystems (magazine), Microsystems'' * ''Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine'' * Patch Management * ''

'' – continues online * ''PC/Computing'' (formerly ''Ziff-Davis Smart Business'') * Small Business Center * Sm@rt Partner * UGO Networks * Vault Network * ''Windows Sources'' * Xbox Nation * ''

References

External links

*
Ziff Davis at comics.org

Ziff Davis at comicbookdb.com
{{Authority control 1927 establishments in Illinois American companies established in 1927 Companies listed on the Nasdaq Publishing companies established in 1927 Mass media companies established in 1927 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 Mass media companies based in New York City Online mass media companies of the United States Magazine publishing companies of the United States Defunct comics and manga publishing companies History of Chicago 2012 mergers and acquisitions

History

''Popular Aviation''

Fiction, hobbyist and bridal magazines

Television stations

Technology magazines and web properties

Ziff Davis Media Inc.

Acquisition

Digital media growth

Current properties

Sold properties

Discontinued properties

References

Further reading

External links