If you want to understand change and strategy at Hearst Business Media, just look at the significant change of some key numbers. Fifteen years ago, 77 percent of the Company’s products were print. Now that number is 15 percent.

That transposition, said Malloch, is a useful summary of a changing industry. “Research from the University of California says that 800 megabytes of information are produced and stored each year for every member of the human race. That is about double the amount just three years ago. In many ways today, information is a commodity. The value is in finding information, testing it, analyzing it, formatting it—and then making it available when, where and how the user needs it. Every business today lives or dies on the quality, speed and accessibility of what it knows, what it can find out and what it understands.”

Providing that knowledge, Malloch said, takes more than being a passive supplier. Hearst Business Media is creating technologies, products and relationships to become part of the customer’s business.

With health care pressured on all sides in everything from costs to quality, most see better, faster information as an answer. Ironically, one of the world’s highest-technology businesses is one of the last to embrace IT on a mass scale. For Business Media, that’s an opportunity.

The year 2006 was one of record growth for Zynx Health, a provider of scientific research and best practices to hospitals and other health-care providers across the U.S. In its second full year as a Hearst company, Zynx posted record sales for its flagship product, ZynxOrderTM—a Web-based knowledge management system that brings evidence-based best practices into the clinical work flow.

“Hospitals have found that the use of ZynxOrder within their clinical information systems has led to significant improvements in the treatment of patients,” said Malloch.

Zynx also registered more than 100 hospitals in the first year for its newest product, ZynxCareTM, a clinical decision-support tool for nurses and care teams. “One of ZynxCare’s first clients, Pinnacle Health, found major reductions in the time its nurses spend researching information and major increases in the time its nurses spend helping patients,” explained Malloch. “They are using the product to tackle some of its most pressing patient issues—including managing pain and preventing falls.”

With the upcoming launch of Zynx OncologyCareTM, Zynx hopes to help make a measurable impact on the quality of cancer treatment.

Another key Business Media medical focus is pharmaceuticals, where First DataBank is leading the drive for computerization of a largely paper-based— and error-prone—system.

The year marked the 10th consecutive year of record profits for First DataBank’s NDDF PlusTM product line, reflecting growing demand for integrated drug information that enhances clinical decision-making and improves patient safety and outcomes.

In 2006, the company released OrderView Med Knowledge BaseTM, which targets improved clinical ordering and enables computerized order entry. Several information systems developers and major health-care institutions— including Mayo Clinic and Partners HealthCare—have begun to incorporate this data.

The company also announced the release of FormulistTM, a new software product incorporating First DataBank drug content for use by pharmacy benefit managers, health plans and drug manufacturers in performing complex drug-product competitive analysis and management.

First DataBank Europe (FDBE) also achieved record results in 2006. The company is playing a key role in the U.K. National Health System’s Connecting for Health, the largest information technology program of its kind in the world. FDBE was influential in the creation of the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices, the NHS’s standard drug vocabulary.

In 2006, the Division entered the financial services market by taking a 20 percent equity stake in Fitch Group, the parent company of Fitch Ratings and Algorithmics.

Fitch Ratings is a global rating agency that provides the world’s credit markets with credit opinions. It covers 3,800 financial institutions and more than 1,700 corporate issuers. It also rates the debt of more than 90 countries and keeps tabs on more than 78,000 municipal debt issues.

Algorithmics is the world’s leading provider of risk management solutions and services to help financial institutions understand and manage their financial risk.

“Fitch is a big leap for us into a global growth market,” said Malloch. “It’s also an important and strategic diversification of our business.”

The Motor Information Group in 2006 navigated a tough market, continuing to turn in growth and profits. Motor Information Systems, a leading supplier of automotive data, achieved its 12th consecutive year of record revenue and profits. It supports the automotive service and repair industry with print and electronic products—from specialty databases to analytical tools to a monthly trade magazine for shop owners and technicians. For example, CCC Information Services utilizes a Motor database to process 14 million car repair insurance claims per year. This equates to $9.2 billion in parts and $6.1 billion in labor.

The company also expanded its position in the aftermarket parts business with the acquisition of Technologue, Inc., which strengthens the Motor brand, according to Malloch. “It shows our commitment to providing the most accurate and up-to-date information on aftermarket parts,” he said.

In 2006, National Auto Research (NAR) extended its streak of record revenue and profits to 15 consecutive years. Strong adoption of electronic tools, fueled by a healthy product development pipeline, offset a continued gradual decline in print revenue.

In a key move to broaden services, NAR formed a strategic alliance with Veretech Holdings, Inc., an Internet-based provider of retail customer prospect leads to dealerships, to furnish the used-car trade-in values that are the basis for this service. By the end of 2006, an agreement had been reached to acquire Veretech and the transaction was completed in March 2007.

“This is a big move,” said Malloch, “because we have had limited visibility in the retail space. Veretech has a very strong foothold in the U.S. and the growth potential is substantial. Part of that potential ties directly to our strategy of building customer relationships through customized products and services beyond data. We want to be the remarketing industry standard.”

It was also a big year in new products. New BlackBerry® smart phone applications now deliver information to handheld devices. The Inventory Wizard provides a program to allow dealers to accurately value their entire used-car inventory. A Commercial Vehicle Guide and a Commercial Vehicle Index give the remarketing industry a tool for benchmarking information and values for fleet vehicles. And Auction Run List allows users who attend several major national auto auctions to load and value inventory in advance of the actual auction.

United Technical Publishing (UTP) met revenue and profit goals by continuing the drive for new product development. UTP’s joint venture with IDG China acquired 21IC.com, the largest portal for electronic engineers in China. This acquisition makes UTP No. 1 in the Chinese electrical engineering market. Electronic Products magazine hit its highest market share ever in 2006. In a market that grew 1 percent in pages, Electronic Products grew 12 percent. The next closest competitor: just 2 percent.

In 2006, UTP partnered with Avnet Electronics, a global distributor of electronic components, to develop eeTechBrief.com, a Webcast that allows users to get the information they want more quickly, and in turn allows them to view more vendor choices.

Diversion, a monthly travel and lifestyle magazine, is designed to reflect doctors’ interests outside their offices and clinics. Core primary physician readership numbers were up 13 percent, and ad exposure increased 21 percent—the best numbers in years.

Diversion now ranks among the top five magazines in the category in ad exposures. The magazine received the Silver Award for best health-care business publication at the annual Medical Marketing & Media Awards.

A special 30th-birthday issue gave readers the definitive Diversion take on 30 trips of a lifetime, 30 food experiences and 30 top travel tips. Diversion also launched two new clinically focused quarterly publications and accompanying Web sites: Oncology Meeting Preview and Neurology Meeting Preview.

Floor Covering Weekly (FCW) in 2006 swam against the tide of a tightening housing market affected by higher interest rates, a slowdown in new construction and rising inventories. Its most significant move this year was the acquisition of OneSourceFlooring.com. The site offers a comprehensive database of U.S. specialty flooring retailers searchable by either ZIP code or area code. The group’s two electronic newsletters, FCW Prime and FCW Global, launched in late 2005, were well received in 2006 and are poised for growth in 2007.