I’m probably biased here, since I worked for IDG’s Network World publication for 11 years and still do a fair amount of work for IDG, but LeadAccel makes perfect sense to me.  With the service, IDG can identify how much time visitors spend with various content assets, such as white papers, webcasts, case studies, podcasts and the like.  In the process, the company can identify which prospects are doing a “deep dive” on a topic, as IDG’s Brian Glynn puts it in this interview, vs. those who are just window shopping.  With that kind of info in hand, IDG can expose each individual visitor to content that matches his level of interest.

Such information is crucial to effective online lead nurturing, which involves exposing visitors to content that matches where they are in the buying process. Give tire-kickers an enticing case study, which leads to a more in-depth video or white paper, then maybe a webcast and so on. Hand off to sales only those folks who have clearly invested some time in researching your product and appear to be ready to buy while you continue to nurture the rest with more and more valuable content.

The strategy only works, of course, if you continually produce content of value – white papers, case studies, podcasts, webinars and the like.  That’s where many companies fall short, and with good reason – they’re not in the business of creating content. But IDG is all about creating content that’s focused squarely on IT, which puts them in position to really deliver with a service like LeadAccel.

Also encouraging is the list of magazines leading the charge in terms of ad increases, including titles such as Fast Company – at a whopping 31.4% – Barron’s, Bloomberg Businessweek and Entrepreneur.  If business magazines are seeing increased ad sales, it seems clear that B2B companies are increasing their ad budgets – a good indicator that we’re pulling out of the economic doldrums.  Hopefully it also means increased IT budgets at the end user companies that are reading all these business magazines.

Another positive indicator is that fewer magazines shut down in the first half of the year – 87, to be exact, way down from the 279 that closed shop in the first half of 2009. And 90 new magazines were introduced, which I find almost astounding in this economy, even if it is way down from the 187 new publications during the same period last year.

Call me an optimist, but I’m looking at both of these tidbits as good news.

None of that appears to be happening at Penton. Rather, according to the company’s press release, the restructuring “will result in the elimination of $270 million of the Company’s debt.” How do I get in on that kind of deal? It reminds me of an episode of “The Office,” where the boss, Michael Scott, thinks that merely shouting the words “I declare bankruptcy,” would make all of his debt go away. Not too far from the truth, apparently.

But there’s more: “Further, there will be no management changes or change in control of the Company.  ‘Operationally, nothing will change during this debt restructuring,’” according to Sharon Rowlands, Penton’s CEO.

I know times are tough in publishing and probably the Penton management team includes some talented, upstanding folks. But if a company manages to mount $270 million in debt, enough to force it into bankruptcy, shouldn’t some changes be made?