j2 Global Inc. (NASDAQ:JCOM), which owns and operates cloud services and media outfits like Ziff Davis (which runs PC Magazine, AskMen and IGN Entertainment, among others), has recently published its third quarter 2014 earnings report, which it considers a solid quarter, beating analyst expectations.

In Q3 2014, quarterly revenue was $153 million, up 19.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Net GAAP income was at $28.8 million, resulting in $0.60 earnings per share, compared with $27.8 million or $0.59 cents EPS in the same period last year.

Notable is j2 Global’s streak in dividend increases for the past 13 quarters, raising the figure from 26.25 cents per share in the first quarter of the fiscal year to 28.5 cents. In the company’s investor guidance call, CEO Nehemia Zucker and President and CFO Robert Scott Turichi reported that the quarter is considered a strong one, with better-than-expected growth in performance in both the company’s cloud services and publications division.

In particular, publications are a strong suit for j2 Global, considering its major acquisitions like IGN Entertainment (acquired through Ziff Davis in early 2013). According to Zucker, revenue per thousand visits has improved 32% to $72 across its properties, and the CEO stressed the company’s new focus on high-value ad placements focused on the B2B market launched along with the division’s new CPA — cost-per-action — initiative. “[Ads are] basically a high-value B2B categories [in which] you recommend services,” he says. “In this case it’s web hosting, and we are paid by all the the web hosting companies, too small to see them, for our ability to generate customers for them.”

In the case of IGN, which is a popular destination for gaming news and reviews, Zucker says the company has launched localized versions of the site in Latin America, Portugal and Greece. In terms of performance, he stresses the importance of rich media in the success of publications in this niche. “Video is key — the future success of online advertising,” he says. Video consumption grew to 441 million views in this quarter, up 35% compared to the same period the previous year. Subscribers to the IGN YouTube channel grew 44% to 5 million. He attributes this to the bandwidth improvements across its target markets. “As bandwidth is getting better, video is becoming more important.”

In terms of monetizing content, the company has found that its publications perform better with actionable content. “The world is tired of just simple views,” Zucker says. “Viewability is the next big thing. So we are trying to focus more and encourage that we can generate more traffic based on performance when they pay for results.”

j2 Global expects full year 2014 revenue to be at $580 to $600 million, with non-GAAP EPS of approximately $3.23 to $3.47 range. According to management, the company expects performance growth in the fourth quarter, consistent with the trend during the holidays, including Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season.

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In the world of tech journalism and hardware reviews, AnandTech is considered as a leading source of breaking news and balanced reviews. Founded in 1997 by Anand Lal Shimpi, the site started out with a focus on motherboards, but then evolved along with the times. AnandTech has since branched out into covering and reviewing CPUs, video cards, notebook computers, mobile devices and, in the words of founder Shimpi himself, “anything that mattered.”

Yesterday, Shimpi announced that he was leaving AnandTech, having served the site as publisher and editor for almost 18 years. Unlike most other high-profile departures in the media and technology industry, however, Shimpi said it was not for health reasons, nor was it because of business issues. In fact, AnandTech was doing well, with its editors and specialists having enough experience, know-how and clout to run the business themselves. While he has “enjoyed every minute” of covering technology, he sought much-needed change. “[A]fter 17.5 years of digging, testing, analyzing and writing about the most interesting stuff in tech, it’s time for a change.”

It turns out that Shimpi has joined Apple Inc., as first reported by Re/Code and confirmed by an Apple representative. However, Apple would not provide any details with regard to the seasoned journalist’s new role in the company. Given Shimpi’s experience with computer science, hardware reviews and various brands’ product lines, it’s highly likely that he will work in a product strategy role or some kind of consulting position.

As for AnandTech, editor Ryan Smith has taken over as editor-in-chief. Likewise, while Shimpi says he is now “officially retiring from the tech publishing world,” he says he will still be available to help the editorial team on an advisory level, although he will no longer be part of the editorial process. The dynamics of Shimpi’s continued involvement with AnandTech and his new role at Apple are also not clear at this point. But with the Cupertino company being very secretive in its planning, processes and strategies, there is a question whether or not AnandTech’s editorial team will enjoy some advantage in terms of access to insider information.

Image credit: Anand Lal Shimpi

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