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Rumor has it that industry icons EE Times and other sister publications (part of UBM) now belong to component distributor Arrow Electronics. I was told that UBM will focus on events and other more profitable ventures.
EETimes was launched in 1972 which was before my time but I do remember reading the weekly print version and getting ink on my hands. The print edition stopped in 2012 when digital media (SemiWiki.com) was in full swing. CMP Publishing started it and sold it to UBM for $900M in 1999 according to the wiki page:
I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. Arrow makes money as a chip distributor so they don't have to rely on the dying advertising revenue model. Hopefully Arrow will staff it back up with professional semiconductor reporters like the good old days.
I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. Arrow makes money as a chip distributor so they don't have to rely on the dying advertising revenue model. Hopefully Arrow will staff it back up with professional semiconductor reporters like the good old days.
I stand corrected. The word at the Design Automation Conference this week is that this sale is the end of EETimes as we once knew it. And this comes from people who worked there for many years.
The problem is that advertising based business models have failed. It is too easy to game the system. And now with ad blockers ramping up the ad gamers have stepped up their atrocities.
With this acquisition, Arrow electronics now has access the largest electronics customer database and no firewall will keep that safe from greedy corporate behavior.
Bottom line: Arrow paid $20M+ and will have to show stakeholders the ROI at some point in time, right?
Rob Dautel Agreed. At this point who's left that independent? What do others think- is this an indicator of Arrow growing it's own media channel, or is this an industry turn of media companies exiting with the decline of print and trade mags - or both?
Steve Leibson Arrow's Aspencore, which made the purchase, bought Electronic Products many months ago and Arrow seems to be hands-off on the editorial so far. So, the jury's still out (says the former EDN Editor in Chief).
After careful investigation Digi-Key has determined that they need an independent semiconductor news site telling the true semiconductor distribution story. So we bought SemiWiki.com to further...
I see Xilinx as a sponsor but I read some critical posts on EE Journal on the magical logic gates numbers of their FPGAs produced by them. Also, for example, the Xilinx vs. Altera discussions are much more balanced than the 'Xilinx is crushing Altera' opinions you can find on SemiWiki.
Also when new tools are discussed based on new releases from Cadence, Mentor (also sponsors) you typically find a rehash of the good points from the press release here on SemiWiki but in the EE Journal article you'll also typically find the limitations, history and the state where the competition is.
I see Xilinx as a sponsor but I read some critical posts on EE Journal on the magical logic gates numbers of their FPGAs produced by them. Also, for example, the Xilinx vs. Altera discussions are much more balanced than the 'Xilinx is crushing Altera' opinions you can find on SemiWiki.
Also when new tools are discussed based on new releases from Cadence, Mentor (also sponsors) you typically find a rehash of the good points from the press release here on SemiWiki but in the EE Journal article you'll also typically find the limitations, history and the state where the competition is.
Well we are going to have to agree to disagree here. The rule of journalism is to NOT bite the hand that feeds you and ALL major online publications follow that rule, absolutely.
One thing I can tell you is that when I started SemiWiki I did not know anything about publishing and have learned many things the hard way. There is so much going on behind the scenes with media websites, some of which are VERY hard to believe.
Today SemiWiki is truly an open forum for semiconductor professionals. Anyone can post anything semiconductor related on here and they do. But of course you have to use your real name when you register and be able to defend what you post in the comments section. The other big difference is that most of SemiWiki bloggers are industry insiders which is a double edged sword. Yes we actually know what we are writing about so vendors can't pull fast ones on us. We pass up paid writing opportunities all the time when it is marketing nonsense or something we do not believe in because we have reputations to protect.
You should also know that Intel is a sponsor and my beef with them is well known and writing controversial articles about a company is not necessarily a bad thing. As the saying goes "There is no such thing as bad press". You could also say that no press is the worst press.
To be clear, I do not tell bloggers on SemiWiki what to write nor do I edit their blogs. If they want to pick a fight they are welcome to do so. In fact, picking fights gets clicks and raging discussions in the comment section boosts registration so being a jerk does have it's rewards.
But what I have found in working with semiconductor professionals that also blog is that they follow a different rule: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" because they don't have time for the ensuing trolling and personal attacks of today's internet.
Also when new tools are discussed based on new releases from Cadence, Mentor (also sponsors) you typically find a rehash of the good points from the press release here on SemiWiki but in the EE Journal article you'll also typically find the limitations, history and the state where the competition is.
