Leaving Search Engine Watch

After ten
years, I’m leaving Search Engine Watch and
almost certainly leaving the Search Engine Strategies conference series as well. My contracts with their
owners Incisive Media are expiring, and we’ve not been able to agree on new
ones.

I’ll explain more about the situation below. However, let me stress that the
purpose of this post isn’t to cast blame. It’s simply to
explain directly from me to those who care about why I’m leaving the site and conference series with which I’ve been associated with for so long.

Back in 1997, I
sold Search Engine Watch to what became Jupitermedia. That
company later started the Search Engine Strategies conference series. I had a
long and prosperous association with both of those properties (USA Today
recently recounted the tale

here). I renegotiated my
contract to provide services for both of them to Jupitermedia several times without
any major issues.

Last year, Jupitermedia
sold the site and the series to Incisive Media. I
wasn’t unhappy with the sale and chose to let my contract be extended through
the end of 2006 as part of
it.

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.

I love both the site and the conference series. I hate to say goodbye to them.
They’ve also been good to me. I’ve done very well financially and enjoyed plenty of personal satisfaction
through them. I’ve written things that people have told me have helped them
immensely. At our conferences, it’s great to hear from so many people that
they’ve learned a lot or far more than they were expecting.

In terms of Search Engine Watch, I’ll be serving as editor-in-chief through
November 30, 2006. As of December 1, I’m gone, except for an extremely slim
chance I might do some columns for them going forward. It’s so slim that no one
should be expecting that it will happen.

As for SES, I’ll still be chairing the

SES Multimedia & Mobile Edition show this October in Los Angeles, then the
SES Chicago
show in December. After that, I’d say there’s another extremely slim chance that I might
do SES events on a case-by-case basis (again so slim that I’m not expecting it
will happen). At the moment, I’m not contracted for any
thing beyond those named (I’m currently listed as chairing the
SES NY 2007
event, and I’ve asked that I be removed from the site).

Aside from SEW and SES, it’s far more likely I’ll be doing writing and conferences
elsewhere. This might be for other companies, depending on what happens in the next few
weeks. I’ve
also entertained the notion of
simply expanding my own consulting company and going it on my own with a new
site and/or conferences. We’ll see.
Somewhere in there, I might even finally do that book I’ve been
threatening to
do.

Overall, I’m sorry to leave many of the people at Incisive, especially
those I’ve worked with for such a long-time on the conference side that came
from Jupitermedia. I’ll be extremely sorry to say so long to my ClickZ and Search Engine
Watch friends and colleagues: Elisabeth Osmeloski my managing editor, the
correspondents that have
come onto the SEW Blog, the hard-working volunteer
moderators in our SEW Forums,
the many speakers I’ve worked with for SES events and most of all Chris
Sherman, my partner in search crime for the
past five years.

Whatever I do, I’ve tried to make it a hallmark to always to be inclusive of
content, people, web sites or organizations that will help my readers, even if I
might technically be competing with them. Whatever I end up doing, you can
expect I’ll still be pointing at Search Engine Watch as appropriate and wish
those that remain a part of it the very best.

To keep up on my future plans, here are some suggestions:

• Keep checking back here to my personal blog, Daggle — or take the
  Daggle feed, to be notified of
  new postings automatically. The downside to watching Daggle is that I post
  about things other than work. So if you’re not into reading about my gadgets,
  travel tips or whatever, then….
   
• Send an email to
  dannysullivan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit the mailing list I’ve
  started at Yahoo Groups here to sign-up. I’ll let
  anyone who signs-up know what I’m up to specifically in the world of search,
  as my plans develop.

As for the Daily SearchCast, I’m happy to say I’ll be continuing to produce
that show as I’ve been doing with WebmasterRadio.FM since it began. The site moves
to a new location, the appropriately named DailySearchCast.com.

Comments, questions, concerns? I’ll be happy to address them as best I can
below. Just be aware that at this time, I have no idea who will take over from
me at Search Engine Watch or for the SES events that I usually do.

Postscript: I’ve also added some further thoughts in The Day After & Many Thanks!