William B. Ziff Jr., pioneer niche publisher, dies.

Before most people knew niche from quiche, William B. Ziff Jr. "led his family's company to the vanguard of niche publishing--twice," in the words of The New York Times in its obituary following the publisher's death on September 9 at his home in Pawling, New York. He was 76.

Ziff-Davis was founded in 1927 by Bernard Davis and William B. Ziff Sr., who later bought Davis out. When his father died, in 1953, Bill Ziff, described by The Times as "a polymath with a photographic memory," returned to New York from Germany, where he was studying philosophy, and took hold of the company.

The son's eminently successful publishing career began with hobbyist magazines like Car and Driver and Popular Photography, followed by Popular Electronics. The Times quotes one of his three sons: "'My dad was really there for the start of the computer revolution,' Robert Ziff said, citing a 1975 Popular Electronics cover featuring the Altair computer. That issue, he said, inspired a young subscriber named Bill Gates, who later founded Microsoft, to begin programming for the computer."

NL/NL publisher Marlene Jensen reflected on Bill Ziff's legendary marketing practices: "I used to compete against Ziff-Davis magazines in selling ads for CBS magazines, where I was publisher of Audio and later Home Mechanix. They were top-notch marketers and tough competitors. I remember being impressed that their presentations didn't even mention their magazines until about 90 percent of the way through. It was all about the company they were trying to sell and the marketplace. That was not the norm at that time for other magazines."

Eventually sells his companies

The computer-oriented titles Bill Ziff either founded or bought in the 1980s included PC Magazine and Computer Shopper. In 1978 he was found to have prostate cancer. In 1984 he sold the Ziff-Davis consumer and business titles for $712.5 million. In 1994, after his sons declined his first-refusal offer to take over Ziff-Davis, he sold the publishing group to Forstmann Little & Company for $1.4 billion.

The Ziff-Davis publishing stable also included a number of tech-oriented newsletters, whose early 1990s incarnations were published by Logical Operations, eventually under the names of ZD Education and ZD Journals. In 2000 U.S. Equity Partners acquired and renamed them Element K Journals, and in 2005 sold them to Eli Research.

"Regular guy"

Here in the Hudson Valley, in Dutchess County, where Bill and his wife, Tamsen Ann Ziff, built a large estate, the local press highlighted their work for the community. Under the headline "Billionaire publisher aided community," the Poughkeepsie Journal wrote, "Rob Liffland will remember William B. Ziff as a regular guy.

"'He dressed like you and me,' the Pawling mayor said.

"'But he created a lot of jobs for the area,' he said. 'He was a good man as far as supporting the local community.'"

The Journal also noted, "In lieu of flowers, Ziff's family has requested donations be made to the Pawling Community Foundation, which has been raising money for construction of a village green.

"'It's very telling that the family would make this stipulation,' foundation president Brian Goodall said.

"'I don't think there is any doubt that over the years, he did more to benefit the community and was always generous and unselfish,' he said.

"Goodall, whose property was adjacent to Ziff's, said the man was 'the best neighbor anyone could have. This is certainly a sad time in Pawling.'"