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Ziff Davis brings readers to technology, shopping, gaming and health content through brands such as PCMag, RetailMeNot, IGN and Everyday Health. Advertisers pay to reach those audiences through display and video ads or to receive potential-customer leads. Online merchants also pay commissions when readers follow product or deal links and buy. These advertising and purchase-driven marketing activities supply most of the company’s revenue.
A second substantial business sells access to internet data and software. Ookla, known for Speedtest, provides network-performance data and tools that businesses use to test, design and manage networks. VIPRE Security Group and MOZ Group sell consumers and businesses security and digital-marketing services. These businesses earn mainly subscription and licensing fees, while media products such as Lose It! and Humble Bundle also have paid subscriptions.
The media business depends on attracting visitors, including through search engines, and showing advertisers that campaigns deliver results. Everyday Health Group leans heavily on healthcare-industry advertisers and sponsors. Privacy rules and users’ rights to opt out of personal-data sales or targeted advertising constrain how Ziff Davis uses audience data; healthcare advertising laws can also require it to change or stop certain promotional activities.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Ziff Davis’s results hinge on specialist digital advertising, shopping referrals and subscription services, with Future PLC and RVO Health important media rivals missing from this list.
Doximity competes with Ziff Davis’s Everyday Health Group to sell healthcare marketers and recruiters access to medical professionals. Watch Doximity’s marketing subscriptions sold to pharmaceutical manufacturers and health systems for a read on spending to reach that audience.
TechTarget competes with Ziff Davis for technology vendors’ spending on content marketing and finding potential buyers. Its results in lead generation—supplying vendors with prospective customers—are the relevant comparison for Ziff Davis’s IT-services advertising leads.
BuzzFeed and Ziff Davis both earn money from advertisers around consumer content and from merchants when readers follow shopping links and buy. Watch BuzzFeed’s advertising and shopping-commission revenue rather than treating its whole business as a match for Ziff Davis.
System1 competes with Ziff Davis’s shopping and digital-media sites for users and the advertising revenue those users bring. Its CouponFollow coupon site and specialist publishing sites make advertising revenue from owned websites the part to watch against Ziff Davis’s RetailMeNot and publishing properties.
Paradium.AI’s supplied Arena Group publishing business shares Ziff Davis’s dependence on attracting specialist audiences that advertisers pay to reach. Watch advertising monetization across Arena Group’s sports, finance and lifestyle brands as a comparison for Ziff Davis’s specialist publishing sites.
Alphabet competes with Ziff Davis for advertisers’ budgets, both for ads that prompt a response and ads that build brand awareness. Watch advertising on Google Search and YouTube for spending that Ziff Davis’s digital properties also seek.
Meta Platforms competes with Ziff Davis to sell marketers display, video and ads that find prospective customers among consumer audiences. Its Family of Apps advertising revenue is the relevant line to watch, including placements on Facebook and Instagram, rather than its hardware business.
Gen Digital competes for consumers’ security and privacy subscription spending with Ziff Davis’s VIPRE security and VPN services. Watch Gen’s Cyber Safety Platform security and privacy products, rather than its identity and financial-wellness offerings, for the closest comparison.
CrowdStrike competes with Ziff Davis’s VIPRE for businesses’ spending on protecting computers and other endpoints. Its Falcon platform subscription sales are the relevant comparison for VIPRE’s endpoint-security offerings, not Ziff Davis’s publishing revenue.
Meta Platforms, Inc. earningsMETA
Meta Platforms' Family of Apps ad revenue will show whether marketers are still paying to reach consumers on social platforms, where Ziff Davis also competes for ad budgets.
Watch Meta Platforms' Family of Apps ad revenue. Growth means marketers are still spending to reach people on services such as Facebook and Instagram: a sign of resilient ad demand, but also of a strong rival for Ziff Davis. A decline points to softer spending on those platforms and is a warning about the ad market, not proof that Ziff Davis's own revenue will fall.
Gen Digital Inc. earningsGEN
Gen Digital's security and privacy products will show how consumers are spending on subscriptions in a category where Ziff Davis's VIPRE also competes.
Watch Gen Digital's Cyber Safety Platform security and privacy products. Growth would show that consumers are still paying for these services, while also confirming that VIPRE faces active competition in a market with demand. Weakness would point to pressure on category spending; Gen Digital's other businesses are not a direct comparison for VIPRE.
System1, Inc. earningsSST
System1, Inc.'s owned-site ad revenue will test monetization at coupon and specialist publishing sites that overlap with Ziff Davis's RetailMeNot and publishing properties.
Watch System1, Inc.'s owned-site ad revenue, including the performance of coupon properties such as CouponFollow. Growth means those sites are turning audience attention into ad dollars and signals competition for Ziff Davis's coupon and specialist-publishing businesses. A decline points to weaker monetization or market demand, which could pressure Ziff Davis's comparable properties but does not identify the cause.
Ziff Davis, Inc. earningsThis company
Ziff Davis's report will show whether advertisers and paying customers are still bringing revenue to its digital media and subscription businesses.
Read advertising and performance-marketing revenue alongside ad-customer retention in the digital media segments; read subscription and licensing revenue alongside average subscription customers in the relevant segments. Revenue growth with customer measures steady or rising shows advertisers and subscribers are supporting the business. Revenue growth with falling customer measures means the dollars are not matched by a stable customer base; declines in both point to weaker demand. Compare each segment's operating income too, to see whether revenue is turning into profit.
Doximity, Inc. earningsDOCS
Doximity's marketing subscriptions to drugmakers and health systems will show whether healthcare customers are still paying to reach medical professionals, a market where Ziff Davis's Everyday Health Group also seeks ad spending.
Watch Doximity's marketing subscriptions to drugmakers and health systems. Growth means these customers are still paying to reach medical professionals, a positive demand signal for Everyday Health Group's efforts to win healthcare ad budgets. A decline would suggest healthcare marketing spend may be softening. Doximity's professional audience is not the same as Ziff Davis's consumer health audience, so its result is not a direct scorecard for that business.
TechTarget, Inc. earningsTTGT
TechTarget's lead-generation business will show whether technology vendors are still paying to find buyers, a channel Ziff Davis also uses for IT-services advertising leads.
Watch TechTarget's lead-generation business: supplying technology vendors with prospective buyers. Growth means vendors are still paying to find customers, supporting demand in the market for Ziff Davis's IT-services advertising leads. A decline suggests that this kind of marketing spend may be tightening, which could weaken demand for Ziff Davis's related business.
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. earningsCRWD
CrowdStrike's Falcon platform subscription sales will show business demand for endpoint security, a market where Ziff Davis's VIPRE also competes.
Watch subscription sales for CrowdStrike's Falcon platform. Growth shows businesses are still buying endpoint protection, supporting category demand but also confirming that VIPRE faces a strong rival. Weakness could reflect more cautious business spending or competitive pressure; it does not mean customers will switch to VIPRE.
