CMP Shuffles TechWeb into Business Technology Group

CMP Media Inc. Monday said it would fold its TechWeb news service into its Business Technology Group (BTG), where it will serve as a “content packager.”

Until the restructuring, TechWeb was a separate division under the BTG with its own site. In the new structure, TechWeb will package for delivery through the BTG’s media brands: Bank Systems & Technology, Financial Technology International, InformationWeek, Insurance & Technology, InternetWeek, Network Computing, Technology & Learning, and Wall Street & Technology.

“In retail and other areas of e-commerce, the notion of a pure-play Internet model has already given way to an integrated model — that’s the whole clicks-and-bricks story,” said Adam Marder, president of the BTG. “Media is no different than any other industry. Within the BTG, we are making online into an integrated component of what we offer to all of our enterprise IT customers, whether they’re readers or advertisers.”

A content packager is a business model described in a recent joint report by Ernst & Young and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. The report, “Business Redefined: Connecting Content, Applications, and Customers” said content packagers “consolidate and categorize the overabundance of available information and entertainment choices and filter them through a productive user interface to make the user experience simpler and more efficient.”

As part of the reorganization, CMP’s Byte.com and WebTools will become part of the Web offering of the Software Development Media Group, which in turn is part of CMP’s Specialized Technologies Group. CMP said other sites which don’t align with the BTG’s business technology focus, including Winmag.com and TechShopper.com, will probably be divested.

CMP said the reorganization will affect 33 employees.