Why Ziff Davis is a player to watch

Ziff Davis might be primarily known as the publishing company behind PCMag, Mashable, IGN Entertainment and other brands. But it's also working to build out a connectivity business that network operators and others can use to better understand their operations – and then also improve them.

"We intend to use proprietary data to provide actionable insights, tools and recommendations to help businesses and other organizations deliver the best networks and the best connected experiences possible," Stephen Bye, president of the Connectivity division of Ziff Davis, wrote in response to questions from Light Reading.

The latest: Longtime wireless networking executive Neville Ray joined Ziff Davis' board of directors. Ray is well known as the former networking chief for T-Mobile, where he oversaw the operator's acquisition of Sprint and its subsequent buildout of 5G.

"Neville's background speaks for itself," Bye wrote. "His experience in deploying and operating wireless networks for more than 30 years and leading the network organization at one of the world's most respected telecom companies gives him an invaluable perspective into the needs of all of the businesses within Ziff Davis."

Bye, most recently, was the chief commercial officer of Dish Network, which continues to struggle to build a nationwide 5G network to replace Sprint. Prior to his stint at Dish, Bye headed up wireless network operations at Sprint, C Spire, Cox Communications and Connectivity Wireless, among other companies.

Unifying the business

Like many publishing companies, Ziff Davis primarily derives advertising and subscription revenues from its various media brands, which stretch from Everyday Health, BabyCenter and What to Expect to RetailMeNot and Humble Bundle.

But the company is also building a Connectivity division. Bye is working to connect the dots in that business. Among the brands in that division:

"All of the information and data we collect through Speedtest, Downdetector, RootMetrics and Ekahau can be combined to provide actionable insights for mobile, fixed and converged service providers," Bye explained. "The quality of these connections enhances everything people do, including social networking, gaming, entertainment, commerce and future services yet to be developed. ... At Ookla, we are using data we collect to develop tools and provide better insights and solutions to help our customers deliver better networks that offer better customer experiences."

Next steps

"We intend to use proprietary data to provide actionable insights, tools and recommendations to help businesses and other organizations deliver the best networks and the best connected experiences possible," Bye summarized. 

He said that means Ziff Davis will focus on offering consumer apps and tools to help people understand and navigate the connectivity services available to them.

But beyond that, the company will also focus on commercial solutions that will help operators understand how they can plan, build, and optimize networks in the most elegant and efficient way possible.

Other offerings will be targeted at government users to help policymakers deliver connectivity to their constituents.

"You should also expect to see us leverage what we own, as well as next-generation AI and machine learning systems, to unlock more actionable insights for the next generation of services, including immersive gaming, entertainment, and social networking enabled by AR and VR systems," Bye said.