Editor's//Comment
New Horizons
By David Riggs
Sometimes being in the right place at the right time really does pay off. Like catching a foul ball at a Giants game. Or having a chance encounter with the person with whom you ll spend the rest of your life. Or deciding to take that interview with a small, family-run publishing company just to humor an old friend.
I had just returned to the Sacramento area when I interviewed at Informant Communications Group at the behest of a long-time family friend. She said they needed an editorial assistant and I needed a job. I figured I could work there briefly while I got my bearings and decided what I wanted to do. That was in the fall of 1995. I guess I found my bearings. I was new to publishing, but I soon got in a groove. I enjoyed the process of taking raw text and transforming it into a finished publication, as well as the camaraderie of working with writers, editors, and artists.
When I came on board we published Paradox Informant and Delphi Informant. Over the years we published several additional titles, developed Web sites, published a book from start to finish, and produced tradeshows all over the world. Those were good times, and provided great experience. But times change.
The past five years or so we ve concentrated solely on asp.netPRO, the premier information resource for the ASP.NET developer community. We provide cutting-edge content, as well as nuts n bolts substance targeting a world-class audience of professional software developers. Informant Communications Group is proud to have served the developer community for more than 15 years. But times change.
In January, Penton Media, Inc. acquired asp.netPRO and our related media products, including http://www.aspnetpro.com and asp.netNOW. Headquartered in New York City, Penton Media (http://www.penton.com) is the largest independent business-to-business media company in the US, serving more than six million business professionals every month. Their market-leading brands are focused on 30 industries and include 113 trade magazines, 145 Web sites, 150 industry tradeshows and conferences, and more than 500 information data products.
asp.netPRO will further strengthen Penton s portfolio of products serving the developer Information Technology community, including Windows IT Pro, SQL Server Magazine, System iNetwork, and all associated Web sites. This acquisition builds a more robust offering from Penton in the Microsoft development space by tightly aligning with Penton s http://www.WinDevPro.com Web site and current, twice-monthly e-newsletter, WinDevPro UPDATE.
The asp.netPRO products nicely complement our online, in person, and print media offering serving the software development professional, said Kim Hansen, publisher of Penton s IT Developer group. Developer readers and vendors will continue to enjoy the high-quality content of asp.netPRO products produced by its staff and contributors; plus they will now have access to the WinDevPro UPDATE newsletter with its 88,000 subscribers. Expect to see great synergy between the asp.netPRO and WinDevPro content offerings and Penton s DevConnections conferences in Orlando (March 22-25, 2009) and Las Vegas (November 9-12). The asp.netPRO audience also can look forward to expanded offerings, such as webcasts and podcasts, and we invite them to become active participants in building an online developer community through forums, blogs, online training, and virtual events.
Indeed, change is in the air. But what will not change is our commitment to providing the very best content and coverage of what you need to know to excel in your day to day ASP.NET development efforts.
That baseball is still on the mantle in the home I share with my wife of 20 years. And I m glad I showed up for that interview almost 14 years ago. Welcome to a new chapter in the life of asp.netPRO. Thanks for reading.
David Riggs is editor-in-chief of asp.netPRO and its companion e-newsletter, asp.netNOW. Reach him at mailto:[email protected].
