Mecklermedia

Mecklermedia Corporation

Company type	Public
Industry	recruitment, event promotion
Predecessor	Jupitermedia
Founded	Westport, Connecticut (1994)
Defunct	2015
Fate	Liquidated
Headquarters	Darien, Connecticut, New York , United States
Key people	Alan M. Meckler, CEO/Director

Mecklermedia—previously known as Internet.com LLC, Jupitermedia Inc., Mediabistro Inc., and WebMediaBrands Corporation—was an American enterprise established in 1994 by founders Alan M. Meckler and Tristan Louis. Based in New York City, the company specialized in B2B offerings tailored for professionals in creative, business, and IT sectors, including recruitment services and event marketing.

Up until 2014, it managed a portfolio of websites serving the B2B media market. In August of that year, Mediabistro divested its editorial divisions to Prometheus Global Media, a Guggenheim Partners subsidiary, for $8 million.

The firm declared its liquidation on December 22, 2015.

History

Alan Meckler initiated MecklerWeb in 1994 as an extension of his print media and conference activities. The following year, with Tristan Louis at the helm, the platform was rebranded as iWorld to concentrate on Internet industry news. The company expanded by acquiring technology-centric websites such as Webopedia and SearchEngineWatch. By 1997, after securing the internet.com domain, the online segment was renamed accordingly.

In 1998, Penton Media acquired Mecklermedia; its digital assets were separated into Internet.com LLC. Internet.com went public on NASDAQ under the ticker INTM in 1999, launched the Search Engine Strategies conference series, and acquired Earthweb in 2000. The acquisition of Jupiter Research came in 2002, prompting a rebranding to Jupitermedia (JUPM).

By 2004, Jupitermedia had ventured into stock photography through Jupiterimages, managing platforms such as stock.xchng and StockXpert. It sold SearchEngineWatch in 2005 and JupiterResearch in 2006. The company operated two main branches: JupiterImages and Jupiter Online Media. Mediabistro.com was honored with the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award in 2007.

In 2008, Forrester Research purchased JupiterResearch. Later that year, Jupitermedia sold Jupiterimages to Getty Images for $96 million; the transaction concluded in early 2009. Subsequently, Jupitermedia adopted the name WebMediaBrands Inc.

Quinstreet acquired the Internet.com division in August 2009 for $18 million, including properties like InternetNews.com and Webopedia.

In June 2013, WebMediaBrands rebranded itself as Mediabistro.

Mediabistro sold its publishing operations to Prometheus Global Media for $8 million in May 2014 but maintained control over trade show activities under the Mecklermedia name.

In September 2015, Mecklermedia collaborated with Sagamore III LLC to purchase 3DPrint.com along with related assets, including a 25% ownership interest in 3DPrintBoard.com.

By December 2016, GalleyCat—the former publishing blog of Mediabistro—ceased operations.