Danny Sullivan Leaving SEW And SES

Money appears to be the big factor, as Sullivan cited on his personal blog that “I needed some long-term incentive for helping (Incisive Media) continue to grow and strengthen the site and conferences.”

Expect A Shake-up At Next Year’s SES
What becomes of Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine Strategies conferences without search maven Danny Sullivan’s presence behind both? Incisive Media apparently will watch the well-known and highly-regarded Sullivan depart as his contract with the company ends.

Sullivan will be around through the remainder of 2006, according to the post on his personal blog. He will write for Search Engine Watch through November 30th, and the SES Multimedia & Mobile Edition show this October in Los Angeles, then the SES Chicago show in December.

He cited chances of either writing for SEW or ever chairing another SES event as “extremely slim,” and has asked to be removed from being listed as the SES New York 2007 chair.

Although Sullivan said he was not unhappy when Jupitermedia sold SEW and SES to Incisive Media last year, he did have concerns about going forward with Incisive:

I was concerned about moving forward with Incisive, however. I’m far from the only reason behind the success of SEW and SES, but I’ve played a major role. I helped build both of those assets. Then I watched one company sell them to another without me having any formal capital stake in the sale. That left me wary of history repeating itself. I wasn’t going to help this new company grow the business out of the sheer kindness of my heart.

I explained these reservations at the very beginning of my relationship with Incisive, that I needed some long-term incentive for helping them continue to grow and strengthen the site and conferences. After over a year of talks, that’s failed to materialize. As a result, I’m departing.
Search engines have grown to be a multi-billion dollar business thanks to advertising. Coverage of Google in particular has reached the kind of proportions normally seen for Apple’s product releases. Given Sullivan’s close relationship with Google and a significant media demand for search news, we won’t be surprised to see him emerge in a lucrative columnist’s role with some prominent news outlet in the future.

—

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark Murdok:

David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.