IDG TechNetwork, Ziff Davis Enterprise Form Business Partnership

The first phase of the agreement adds ZDE's Developer Shed Network to IDG's media and ad network.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

IDG TechNetwork, b-to-b publisher IDG’s media and ad network, announced today that it has signed an agreement with competitor Ziff Davis Enterprise designed to "help technology marketers and agencies reach a larger audience with their branding, product launch and lead generation programs." For the first phase of the agreement, ZDE’s Developer Shed Network, a portfolio of Web sites and online resources for the developer community, will join the IDG TechNetwork.

The Developer Shed Network, which features 16 Web sites, targeted sections, blogs, virtual events and a library of editorial and user-generated content, currently has 8 million monthly unique visitors and was previously represented by Federated Media when IDG TechNetwork approached them.

“It’s the goal of most networks to try and get the best content out there, so it was a natural thing for us to go after them,” Peter Longo, CEO, IDG Syndication and Networks, told AD. “I worked at ZDE for 15 years and I know a lot of people there, so everything kind of grew from there. And even though we are competitors, if you think of how the Web works, it makes total sense.”

Longo declined to share the actual terms of the agreement, but said that the company has a “standard revenue sharing model with ZDE and will represent the inventory for Developer Shed to advertisers targeting their unique audience of development professionals.”

Several future collaborations between the two companies also being planned, but details are being kept under wraps. “Our agreement with ZDE allows us to expand our relationship in the future, but for now our focus is on making our relationship with the Developer Shed Network as successful as possible,” Longo says.

IDG TechNetwork debuted in March 2008, and by December, had 120 million page views per month and 40 million monthly unique visitors. It currently reaches 75 million unique visitors a month and has more than 200 non-IDG publishers in its network.