Overview
After nearly 30 years of trying to grow a company, the founder of the world’s largest Internet Media company explains how his perseverance paid off.
The Internet – It’s the End of the World as We Know It
One of the most powerful events in the twentieth century, that revolutionized both business and global communications, was the birth and commercialization of the Internet. What started as a United States Department of Defense project to network computers throughout the United States, now penetrates most parts of the world. Our world has changed immeasurably, as people can sit in front of their personal computer(PC) linked to the Internet, and surf to another computer anywhere on the globe, to find information about any imaginable topic. If the computer masters of the world, such as Larry Ellison, Bill Gates and Marc Andreessen, have their way, the Internet will permeate our society beyond the PC: to “net-ready” appliances connecting our televisions and telephones, and maybe our toasters, to the Net.
Millions of people across the globe have jumped on the Net bandwagon to participate in this virtual world. The Net is growing daily by leaps and bounds. This excitement and participation has spawned thousands of companies, who want to capitalize on the consumer demand for products and services. This relatively young industry has made more shareholders of companies – such as Netscape Communications, Cisco Systems and UUNet- into millionaires than Apple Computer and Microsoft combined. Even so,this industry continues to struggle with its growth and the regulatory battle between companies and government agencies. Many of the interested parties are working to establish technological standards and business practices to improve upon the quality and stability of this nascent technological infrastructure.
News and multimedia companies are attempting to organize this burgeoning information behemoth. The media business stands to benefit greatly from this opportunity, by supplying consumers with comprehensive sources of data. In this frantically developing industry, the Mecklermedia Corporation has become the premier Internet media company. With print magazines, including Internet World, Web Week and Web Developer, and the paramount Internet trade show, Internet World, this organization has seized the opportunity to become the leader in this information market.
Alan Meckler is the founder of Mecklermedia. He realized the potential of the Internet in the early 1990’s; long before any of the preeminent media companies. When Alan approached these groups for funding or the offer of a joint venture to promote his media resources on the Internet, he was turned down and considered “nuts” for pursuing this idea. With a simple newsletter and two decades of experience in creating media resources and trade shows for less mainstream topics, Alan has built Mecklermedia into the leading provider of Internet news and analysis. He company had gross revenues of $14.5MM in 1995. Located in Westport, Connecticut, Mecklermedia has grown from thirty employees in the early 1990’s to 135 employees in the summer of 1996. His three magazines have a combined paid and controlled circulation of over 400,000, and his trade shows are held in over twenty-five countries. The EM met with Alan to discuss Mecklermedia’s meteoric rise, the strategy and wisdom he developed along the way, and how he survived for over twenty years in search of the almighty “big one” of a business opportunity.
Mecklermedia Publications and Trade Shows
Mecklermedia’s media resources includes magazines, trade shows and its Web site. Each resource is managed by a separate division. The following list offers a brief description of the media resources and clarifies their scope of activities:
- Magazines –
Internet World supplies information and analysis about issues, trends and technologies that are shaping the Internet. The estimated paid subscription base of Internet World is 302,000. Web Week is a controlled-circulation periodical, providing over 100,000 subscribers with news and analysis about the latest Internet and Web technologies. Web Developer assists technical professionals and programmers to build, design and maintain Web sites, by offering in-depth tutorials, product testing reviews, case studies, programming tips, and interviews. The paid circulation base is approximately 30,000. - Trade Shows –
Internet World is the largest trade show in the world presenting products, companies and information about the Internet. Started in the fall of 1993, this trade show is now held in over twenty-five countries, with the attendance for each venue numbering over 10,000. Web Developer is the first trade show devoted to the technical considerations of Web site planning and strategy. Web Interactive is the first conference and exhibition dedicated to interactive multimedia and Virtual Reality on the Internet. - Web Site –
iWORLD is an electronic newspaper that provides news, information, and resources necessary for conducting business on the Internet. Daily news is provided by iWORLD’s editors, and iWORLD also hosts the online versions of Mecklermedia’s publications. File libraries of Internet tools and programs, and links to commercial products are stored on the Web site. iWORLD ‘s Web site traffic is estimated by Mecklermedia to be three million page views per month.
Mecklermedia Beginnings
“I was working for a scholarly book publisher who was in the microfiche and microfilm industry, and it was a very new area for the world and for universities.” The job with the publisher was one of the two publishing jobs Alan held within the span of two years, after graduating from Columbia University in 1968, with a Master of Arts in American History. Ultimately, he received his Ph.D in 1980. “I recognized after watching the library publishing business for one to two years that there was a need for a publication that reviewed publications that came out from this medium for libraries.” Alan left his first job to start Mecklermedia. The company started in 1971, as a publisher of professional journals for microfilm and microfiche technology.
His work in publishing laid the foundation for Mecklermedia’s commercial offerings. “We published information about microfiche and branched out doing other scholarly reference type works like newsletters and journals and database directories in a variety of fields to include computers, legal, baseball, and business information.” At one point, Mecklermedia was publishing nearly thirty newsletters and magazines, with none of them having a circulation greater than 3,000. “All of these still exist, I think I started 27 to 30 newsletters and all have been sold and thrive under the banners of other companies.” Mecklermedia also published twenty different annual directories for university, corporate, and public libraries. “My modus operandi was to find a subject, hopefully not too esoteric, where it was required for someone to have a body of information presented to their desk by print means mostly. I would either start a newsletter or a magazine if it lent itself to being a magazine. We would then try to create a marketplace or database directory of all the organizations or products in that area. Then when possible we would try to create a seminar or trade show in that area.”
Alan’s publishing approach was to become an authority on an industry, and then to create a publication to provide that industry with timely information. He wanted his organization to understand the industry, so it would be attuned to its readers’ needs. Alan had great faith in his abilities to present the detailed facets of an industry, so his publication would appeal to its target audience. “Because of my background as a historian and trained scholar I feel I have the ability to recognize what was and was not necessary.” His ideas for new publications and media resources come from his wide-range of reading interests and to speaking with people. “When it came to learning about how to publish a magazine or put on a trade show I was always naive and thought I could pick it up quickly. I used to get on the job training by going to other shows and learning what they would do. I learned that direct mail was the key to obtaining people to come or register to seminars. Selling booth space was like selling ad space and that was fairly obvious with what to do.”
This strategy was the foundation of Mecklermedia through the 1990’s, until it began the ride on the Internet. “We had a nice little business and were considered one of the best in the field.” In the 1970’s, the organization consisted of Alan and his wife; it had grown to six employees by the end of the decade. From the 1980’s to the early 1990’s, the company grew from fifteen employees to nearly thirty. Alan’s extensive media experience allowed him to continually funnel opportunities through his company, which eventually led to his introduction to the Internet, “It was because of this background that I learned about the Internet in 1990.”