For much of the media and information industry, 2020 has replaced the 2008 recession as the new standard for hard times.

Earlier this month, Questex announced the creation of a “modern” information services model that leverages audience data to tie content and events closer together to create a year-round customer engagement framework.

Laissez bon temps rouler! The 2020 Connectiv Executive Summit returns to New Orleans May 13-May 15 and we’re proud to announce the full program, focused on the theme of “Continuous Transformation” and featuring inspirational keynotes, actionable best practices and peer-to-peer discussions about what’s driving business today, from unscrambling your datapalooza to the rise of membership models to understanding the new economics of content.

Business-to-business media is about connecting buyers and sellers but increasingly publishers are embracing the wider corporate trend of social purpose—standing for something bigger than just the business objectives.

In 2015, Winsight acquired Technomic, a provider of primary and secondary market information and advisory services to the food industry, as way to jumpstart a data and business intelligence service that could complement Winsight’s media and events properties.

Editor’s Note: On Sept. 26 at 11am ET, Connectiv’s Digital Media Council will host ALM’s Matt Weiner and Joann Kropp talking about how ALM put its first-party data to work and created Audience First. The meeting can be attended remotely. Click here to register or email mkinsman@conectivb2b.net. 

Editor’s Note: See Questex CEO Paul Miller and Group President John Siefert talking about creating a new chapter for events and digital at the 2019 Business Information & Media Summit, Nov. 12 in Hollywood, FL.

Connectiv is excited to roll out a new series of peer-to-peer networking councils that will give Connectiv members the opportunity to directly engage and learn from their fellow B2B media and information professionals. The councils are focused on Revenue Generation, Digital Media and Technology, Data Information and Monetization and Editorial and Content.

After several years of rampant M&A in the B2B media space, which included the $5 billion sale of UBM to Informa, the estimated $180 million sale of Questex to MidOcean and the acquisition and merger of Hanley Wood into Meyers Group (also under MidOcean), M&A has slowed considerably in 2019--and not just in B2B. The $29 billion merger of Refinitiv and London Stock Exchange notwithstanding, the number of deals across data and information services, consumer media, events and even software and technology have plummeted.

On January 21, 2019, the French National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) fined Google Euros 50 million for not complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).   There will be a legal challenge, but this blog focuses on the policy considerations surrounding the decision.  There are at least three initial takeaways from the CNIL decision.  First, this enforcement action demonstrates that the GDPR should not be replicated word for word in a possible U.S. federal privacy law.  Some notion of consumer harm should enter the calculation when a fine is considered.  Second, DPAs should be more forthcoming with guidance on how to comply with the GDPR, especially when companies are making a good faith effort to comply with the law.  Third, there is a risk that the one-stop-shop is going to become effectively meaningless.  As U.S. policymakers consider a federal privacy law, this should be a key co ...