600 Community Drive Manhasset, NY 11037, http://www.varbusiness.com
The Wind-Up
CMP Media's VARBusiness provides strategic management advice for executives who are at the crossroads on how to better run their business from technical, sales and operational
standpoints. The biweekly, which launched in 1987, appeals to a smorgasbord of computer specialists: IT integrators, systems integrators, application developers and global
computer consultants. VARBusiness and its affiliate publication CRN "provide small, medium and large corporations with their final IT solutions," says Robert DeMarzo, editorial
director of VARBusiness. Circulation stands at 107,500. In addition to general news, the publication writes on computer strategy, customer issues and research topics. Advertising
mainstays include Cisco, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Microsoft. Still, the publication has not been immune to the b-to-b ad recession, with ad pages down 7.6% through the first quarter
compared with the same period last year, according to min's b2b, a sister publication of PR NEWS. While the publication has no Brand X, it competes for ad dollars with The Wall
Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune and other business-oriented titles. "We bang heads against the big boys," DeMarzo says.
The Pitch
DeMarzo emphasizes that in order to break into the publication, PR pros should
directly contact the magazine's stable of reporters, all of who prefer e-mail
and then voice mail for follow-ups. For reviews of computer products and new
technology trends, contact David Strom, [email protected];
for industry trends and corporate profiles, as well as unusual technology stories,
your man is T.C. Doyle, [email protected];
for strategic management pieces, contact Steven Lang, [email protected]. Research pitches should go to Bonnie
Markowitz, [email protected]. Markowitz
also covers the mid-size business market, or companies with 100-900 employees.
"Our guys are looking at trends and putting them into perspective for readers,"
DeMarzo says. "Get the editorial calendar, get to know the reporters, know what
they're looking for and develop innovative pitches," DeMarzo says, adding that
Big Picture-type stories should go to him, [email protected]. "Don't send blind e-mails
so we have to fill in the blanks," he adds. "It doesn't take too long to study
our Web site and get to know our audience." Lead times are three months out,
so if you're shooting for a piece to run in the fall, start planting the seeds
this summer. Another CMP route is to pitch GovernmentVAR, a monthly knockoff
of VARBusiness that launched last year (67,500-circ.) and explores IT trends
at the Federal, state and local levels. "There was a demand from advertisers
and readers that we focus on those markets," DeMarzo says. Eight issues of GovernmentVAR
will be published this year.
The Follow-Through
A lot of attention in upcoming issues will be paid to custom software development. The publication's Annual Report Card, which rates 80 of the top technology vendors, runs in
October, while the State of the Market Report hits in November featuring "everything you need to know about selling IT," DeMarzo says. There may be ample opportunity to get
exposure for your technology product and/or service in the December issue, which will tackle the State of Technology. It will run the gamut, from the proliferation of wireless
computers to the latest PDAs. Demarzo says PR people pitching the magazine should not be pigeonholed into a b-to-b corner. "They're certainly b-to-b stories that have a consumer
bent and some consumer stories that can be turned into a business application story."