William Bernard Ziff, Junior. was an American publishing executive.
Background
His father, William B. Ziff, Senior, was the co-founder of Ziff Davis Incorporated. and when the elder Ziff died in 1953, Ziff took over the management of the company. He was born on June 24, 1930 to William B. Ziff, Senior, a Jewish American publishing executive, author, and vocal proponent of Revisionist Zionism. In 1953, after the death of his father, he moved to New York City to take command of Ziff Davis Incorporated.
One of his first moves after taking his father"s place was buying out co-founder Bernard Davis who sold Ziff his share to start his own publishing company.
Education
He graduated from Rutgers University in 1951 and then went to study philosophy in West Germany.
Career
He was mostly raised in Miami and then moved with his family to Sarasota in 1947. re-directed the company toward enthusiast magazines and trade publications with the acquisition of such titles as Carolina and Driver, Popular Electronics, Personal Computer Magazine, World Aviation Directory and Computer Shopper. By focusing on specialist/enthusiast publications, "s salesmen were able to directly target advertisers who wanted to market to a specific audience. His approach was very successful: manufacturers and retailers were eager to advertise in his magazines at a time when general-interest publications were largely suffering from declining advertising sales.
In 1978, learned that he had prostate cancer and was told he had only a few years to live.
In 1984, he sold most of the consumer and business magazines for United States$712.5 million keeping a few computer titles like Personal Computer Magazine. His computer magazines pioneered the format of conducting sophisticated technical tests of computer products.
As a result, their reviews would often make or break the introduction of new personal computers, modems, or Civil Defense-ROM drives. Riding the wave of rapid growth in personal computing, his company quickly became the dominant computer publishing firm in the world.
In 1994, he announced the sale of the publishing group to Forstmann Little & Company for United States$1.4 billion.
The sale of the electronic publishing unit occurred later. In 1963, married Barbara Ingrid Beitz in a Methodist ceremony. They had three sons: Dirk Edward (b 1965).
Robert Doctorate. (b 1967).
Daniel M. (b 1973).