magazine publishing internet information provider founded august 1927 ; 89 years ago 1927 08 chicago illinois u.s. founder william b. ziff sr. bernard g. davis headquarters new york city new york u.s. key people vivek shah ceo steve horowitz coo joey fortuna cto products websites media data podcasts video podcasts revenue us 216.1 million 2015 number of employees 600 parent j2 global website ziffdavis.com ziff davis llc is an american publisher and internet company . it was initiated during 1927 in chicago illinois by william b. ziff sr. and bernard g. davis . contents 1 history 1.1 popular aviation 1.2 fiction and hobbyist magazines 1.3 television stations 1.4 technology magazines and web properties 1.5 ziff davis media inc. 1.6 acquisition 1.7 international growth 2 current properties 3 sold properties 4 discontinued magazines and websites 5 notes 6 references 7 further reading 8 external links history edit throughout most of ziff davis history it was a publisher of hobbyist magazines often ones devoted to expensive advertiser rich technical hobbies such as cars photography and electronics . however since 1980 ziff davis has primarily published computer related magazines and its websites derived from its magazines have established ziff davis as an internet information company . ziff davis had several broadcasting properties first during the mid 1970s and later with its own technology network zdtv later renamed to techtv that was sold to vulcan ventures during 2001 . ziff davis magazine publishing and internet operations offices are based in new york city massachusetts and san francisco . on january 6 2009 the company sold 1up . com to ugo entertainment a division of hearst corporation and announced the january 2009 issue of the long running electronic gaming monthly magazine as the final one . 1 former time inc. executive vivek shah with financial backing from boston private equity company great hill partners announced on june 4 2010 the acquisition of ziff davis inc. as the first step in building a new digital media company that specializes in producing and distributing content for consumers making important buying decisions . 2 on november 12 2012 ziff davis inc. was acquired by cloud computing services company j2 global of hollywood calif. for 167 million cash . 3 according to a late 2015 fortune article ziff davis comprises 30 % of parent company j2 global s 600 million annual revenue 2014 and is increasing 15 % to 20 % each year . analyst gregory burns of sidoti & company calculates that ziff davis is worth 1.9 billion . 4 popular aviation edit an early june 1928 issue of popular aviation ; the first magazine published by ziff davis . the covers were paintings for the first decade . the william b. ziff company founded during 1920 was a successful chicago advertising agency that secured advertising from national companies such as procter & gamble for virtually all african american weekly newspapers . during 1923 ziff acquired e. c. auld company a chicago publishing house . ziff s first venture in magazine publishing was ziff s magazine which featured short stories one act plays humorous verse and jokes . the title was changed to america s humor during april 1926 . 5 6 bernard george davis was the student editor of the university of pittsburgh s humor magazine the pitt panther and was active in the association of college comics of the east . during his senior year he attended the association s convention and met william b. ziff . when davis graduated during 1927 he joined ziff as the editor of america s humor . 7 8 ziff who had been an aviator in world war i created a new magazine popular aviation during august 1927 that was published by popular aviation publishing company of chicago illinois . managed by editor harley w. mitchell it became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100 000 during 1929 . 9 the magazine s title became aeronautics for june 1929 and the publishing company s name became aeronautical publications inc. the title was changed back to popular aviation for july 1930 . the magazine became flying during 1942 and is still published today by the bonnier corporation . the magazine celebrated its 80th anniversary during 2007 . the company histories normally give the founding date as 1927 . this is when b.g. davis joined and popular aviation magazine started . however it was not until 1936 that the company became the ziff davis publishing company . popular aviation april 1936 was the first issue by ziff davis publishing . davis was given a substantial minority equity interest in the company and was appointed a vice president and director . he was later named president during 1946 . davis was a photography enthusiast and the editor of the popular photography magazine started during may 1937 . 8 fiction and hobbyist magazines edit during early 1938 ziff davis acquired the magazines radio news and amazing stories . 10 these were started by hugo gernsback but sold as a result of the experimenter publishing bankruptcy during 1929 . both magazines had declined since the bankruptcy but the resources of ziff davis rejuvenated them starting with the issue april 1938 . radio news was published until 1972 . during 1955 the magazine popular electronics derived from radio news was begun and published until 1985 . amazing stories was a major science fiction magazine and ziff davis soon added a new companion fantastic adventures fa . during 1954 fa was merged into the newer magazine fantastic founded during 1952 to great initial success . zd published a number of other pulp magazines and later digest sized fiction magazines during the 1940s and 1950s and continued to publish amazing and fantastic until 1965 . ziff davis published comic books during the early 1950s operating by their own name and also the name approved comics . eschewing superheroes they published horror crime sports romance and western comics though most titles didn t last more than a few issues . superman co creator jerry siegel was the art director of the comics line ; other notable creators who worked for ziff davis comics included john buscema sid greene sam kweskin rudy lapick richard lazarus mort leav paul s. newman mike sekowsky ernie schroeder and ogden whitney . during 1953 the company mostly abandoned comics selling its most popular titles the romance comics cinderella love and romantic love the western kid cowboy and the jungle adventure wild boy of the congo to st. john publications . ziff davis continued to publish one title g.i. joe until 1957 a total of 51 issues . william b. ziff sr. died during 1953 and son william b. ziff jr. returned from germany to assume his role in the company . during 1958 bernard g. davis sold his share of ziff davis to found davis publications although ziff davis continued to use his surname . with the younger ziff s direction zd soon became a successful publisher of enthusiast magazines . ziff davis purchased titles like car and driver and by intending content for enthusiasts and readers who made purchasing decisions for their companies brand specifiers the company was able to attract advertising money that other general interest publications were losing . during 1958 ziff davis began publishing a magazine hifi and music review for those who were interested in the growing hobby of high fidelity equipment . ultimately the magazine evolved into stereo review . during the 1970s and 1980s the company s success increased with this strategy and a rapidly expanding interest in electronics and computing . with titles such as pc magazine popular electronics and computer shopper ziff davis became the main technology magazine business . ziff davis sold the majority of its magazines to cbs during 1984 keeping its computer magazines . 11 television stations edit during 1979 ziff davis expanded into broadcasting after an acquisition of television stations originally owned by greeting card company rust craft . ziff davis s stations included nbc affiliates wroc tv in rochester new york and wrcb tv in chattanooga tennessee cbs affiliates weyi tv in saginaw michigan wrdw tv in augusta georgia and wstv tv in steubenville ohio which changed its name to wtov tv and its network affiliation to nbc after ziff davis assumed control of the station and abc affiliate wjks tv in jacksonville florida which would also switch to nbc soon after its acquisition was finalized . these stations would be sold to other owners by the mid 1980s most of these would become owned by a new ownership group television station partners the exceptions being wrcb which would be sold to sarkes tarzian and wjks which was acquired by media general . market station channel tv rf years owned current ownership status jacksonville florida wjks tv 17 34 1979 82 the cw affiliate wcwj owned by nexstar broadcasting group augusta georgia wrdw tv 12 12 1979 83 cbs affiliate owned by gray television saginaw flint michigan weyi tv 25 30 1979 83 nbc affiliate owned by howard stirk holdings operated through a lma by sinclair broadcast group rochester new york wroc tv 8 45 1979 83 cbs affiliate owned by nexstar broadcasting group steubenville ohio wheeling west virginia wstv tv wtov tv 9 9 1979 83 nbc affiliate owned by sinclair broadcast group 12 13 chattanooga tennessee wrcb tv 3 13 1979 82 nbc affiliate owned by sarkes tarzian inc. technology magazines and web properties edit ziff davis first started technology themed publications during 1954 with popular electronics and more briefly electronics world . this resulted more or less directly in its interest in home computer magazines . from that time ziff davis became a major publisher of computer and internet related publishing . it acquired pc magazine during 1982 and the trade journal macweek during 1988 . during 1989 the company initiated the zdnet site . during 1991 zdnet on compuserve and on the early internet were augmented by the purchase of public brand software the main shareware disk provider . during 1995 it initiated the magazine yahoo internet life initially as zd internet life . the magazine was meant to accompany and complement the site yahoo . owner william bernard ziff jr. had wanted to give the business to his sons daniel dirk and robert but they didn t want the responsibility . during 1994 he announced the sale of the publishing group to forstmann little & company for us 1.4 billion . 14 during 1998 ziff davis started zdtv a technology themed television network . zdtv was sold to paul allen s vulcan inc. during 2000 and was renamed to techtv . during 2000 ziff davis inc. was sold with its urls to the company softbank . since 2004 ziff davis has annually hosted a trade show in new york city known as digitallife . 15 digitallife showcases the newest technology in consumer electronics gaming and entertainment . unlike e3 electronic entertainment expo or the worldwide developers conference digitallife is open to the public . during november 2006 ziff davis announced the cancellation of official playstation magazine . they cited a lack of interest in the magazine and its demo disk due to digital distribution . opm had begun during 1997 . ziff davis media inc. edit during 2001 the new company ziff davis media inc. a partnership of willis stein & partners and james dunning former ziff davis ceo chairman and president made an agreement with cnet networks inc. and zdnet to acquire the urls of ziff davis . ziff davis media inc. gained thereby the online content licensing rights to 11 publications including pc magazine cio insight and eweek webpage of industry insider spencer katt . during july 2007 ziff davis media announced the sale of its enterprise b2b or business to business division to insight venture partners . 16 the sale included all b2b publications which include eweek baseline and cioinsight and all related online properties . the enterprise division is