UBM Tech Reinvents Tech Media with New InformationWeek Community Model

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- UBM Tech makes its biggest move yet towards reinventing technology media with the announcement of a new community-driven InformationWeek. Combining the brand's world renowned content, over 200 new expert contributors, fresh content-sharing tools, and a proven, editorially-facilitated engagement platform, the iconic 34-year old media brand is unlocking the ability for its community members – senior IT professionals – to digitally connect around the most pressing market issues they face. Users will be able to freely share ideas, gather peer feedback, and ultimately help shape the future of the technology market. Start engaging at InformationWeek.com.

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"The new InformationWeek community platform is changing the tech media landscape by connecting people, ideas and knowledge online and through events. Our site will continue to cover a broad range of topics, from mobility to big data to cloud, but the new platform will make it easier for IT pros to connect with one another, as well as with our editors and expert contributors," said Rob Preston, VP & Editor In Chief, InformationWeek. "The old model was one of one-way, broadcast communications. The new model – introduced with huge success with other UBM Tech properties – engages community members in conversations online and live."

As part of its new community approach, InformationWeek will host live radio shows featuring CIOs and other IT executives, who will share their strategies and challenges. The first radio series will include CIOs from top ranking companies in the 2013 InformationWeek 500: UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), Penske Truck Leasing and Conoco Phillips. The Gap Inc.'s CIO will talk about the retailer's IT preparations in conjunction with Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, among other issues.

InformationWeek has also lined up several high-profile executive interviews for the new site, including Cisco CEO John Chambers, SAP CEO Bill McDermott and Hewlett-Packard CIO Ramon Baez.

InformationWeek's community model complements its award-winning editorial with insightful content from a 'virtual masthead' of over 200 market experts around the industry. InformationWeek community contributors include:

• Jonathan Feldman, CIO, Asheville, N.C
• Mike Capone, CIO, ADP
• Mike Altendorf, CIO, Do It Best Corp.
• Chris Laping, CIO, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers 
• Douglas Stone, Senior VP of Innovation, Maddock Douglas
• Larry Stofko, Executive VP, The Innovation Institute
• Keith Fowlkes, CIO, Centre College
• Dr. Mark E. Johnson, Professor of Statistics, University of Central Florida, Orlando
• John Lucker, leader of Deloitte Consulting Global Advanced Analytics & Modeling
• Randy Bias, CTO, Cloudscaling
• Cindi Howson, Principal, BI Scorecard
• Stephanie A. Bond Huie, PhD, Vice Chancellor ad interim, University of Texas
• David Johnson, Analyst, Forrester

InformationWeek provides millions of business technology executives worldwide with the insight and analysis they need to drive technology-based competitive advantage and advance their careers. The new InformationWeek provides users with the mission critical content they've always trusted, whilst bringing the IT community together online, and at UBM Tech events like Interop, Enterprise Connect, Black Hat and Cloud Connect. UBM Tech's community strategy focuses on providing technology decision makers with the ability to have live conversations online and offline, year-round.

Among the new and enhanced features on the InformationWeek community:                           

• New responsive design automatically resizes stories and other content to fit users' computer/laptop, tablet or smartphone.
• The "Editors' Choice" feature lets editors tag and play up interesting, insightful and provocative comments from community members.
• A new "Steal This Slide" feature gives IT pros easy-to-grab slides, based on InformationWeek's market-leading research, that they can use for their own presentations.

Mike Cuddy, VP and CIO of Toromont Industries, said: "I've been reading InformationWeek for many years. It's always been my go-to site for business IT news and analysis, but more important, it's where I go to learn what my peers are doing and thinking about. This new community orientation and platform will only enhance that interaction. It's exciting."

The underlying site platform and community engagement tools for InformationWeek were developed by UBM Tech's sister company DeusM, which has a proven track record for developing communities. InformationWeek is the third in a series of groundbreaking online community-based launches for UBM Tech throughout 2013 and planned for 2014. The Light Reading community platform launched in August and the EE Times community platform launched in July.  

The InformationWeek editorial team is led by Rob Preston. Other editorial team members include:

• Chris Murphy, Editor, InformationWeek and leader of the Strategic CIO community
• Wyatt Kash, Editor, InformationWeek Government and leader of the Government community
• David Carr, Editor, InformationWeek Healthcare and leader of the Healthcare community
• Doug Henschen, Executive Editor and leader of the Big Data and Software community
• Charles Babcock, Editor At Large and leader of the Cloud community   
• Thomas Claburn, Editor At Large and leader of the Mobility community 
• Laurianne McLaughlin, Editor In Chief, InformationWeek.com
• Lorna Garey, Content Director, InformationWeek Reports

InformationWeek invites professional technology decision makers, subject matter experts and other market experts to help shape the future of the technology industry on its site, InformationWeek.com, on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

For InformationWeek editorial inquiries contact Rob Preston at [email protected]; for marketing, partnership and other general inquiries, contact Winnie Ng at [email protected].

About UBM Tech  
UBM Tech is a global media business that brings together the world's technology communities through live events, online properties and custom services. UBM Tech's community-focused approach provides its users and clients with expertly curated research, education, training, community advocacy, user-generated content and peer-to-peer engagement opportunities that serve the Electronics, Security, Enterprise Communications, Network Infrastructure and Applications, Game and App Developers, and Tech Marketing communities. UBM Tech's brands include Black Hat, DesignCon, EE Times, Enterprise Connect, Game Developers Conference (GDC), HDI, InformationWeek, Interop, and Light Reading. Create, a UBM Tech full range marketing services division, includes custom events, content marketing solutions, community development and demand generation programs based on its content and technology market expertise. UBM Tech is a part of UBM (UBM.L), a global provider of media and information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion. For more information, go to tech.ubm.com; follow us on Twitter at @UBMTech.

SOURCE UBM Tech