William Lohse, a pioneer in the technology industry and veteran of high-tech
publishing, formed NetWeb, a new company that
will offer Web site builders a suite of advertising, sales, marketing, and
digital commerce services.
Lohse said San Francisco-based NetWeb will focus on serving the needs of Web
sites rather those of their customers. The successful public offering of
DoubleClick, the valuation of GeoCities at over $250 million, and the
growth of
LinkExchange suggest that a fundamentally new market has emerged for the
Internet, he said.
“The time has come for each site to prove the return on the investment in
it. We are just now seeing the rise of companies serving site publishers.
This new segment will have the same success trajectory as those companies
focused on visitors because management is demanding that sites turn a
profit, investors are requiring it and Web publishers are committed to
making it happen,” said Lohse.
Lohse was the turnaround publisher of PC Magazine, founding
publisher of PC Computing, and president of Ziff-Davis Publishing
in the 1980s. He helped start several software companies, including
Breakthrough Software (now part of
Symantec), ACCPAC (now part of Computer Associates), Wordstar, and Knowledge
Adventure.
