UCG - UCG in the News

ROCKVILLE, MD, September 19, 2007 – UCG today officially disclosed to the media the spectacular details of its 30th Anniversary Company Trip to “Somewhere.” Details of the trip, by far the most elaborate and complicated of any of the previous six trips that UCG has orchestrated to celebrate its amazing growth, had been kept secret for the two years it took to plan the surprise adventure.

A total of 1,030 UCG employees and guests made the all-expenses-paid trip to San Francisco, but were not told of their destination until they were on the plane, just hours away from landing. They spent the full Labor Day Weekend treated to world-class celebrity entertainment, exclusive tours of the City, fine dining and a magical excursion to Napa Valley wine country.

“The Trip to Somewhere, which we take every five years, is our special way of celebrating our success and thanking our employees and their significant others for their contribution to building a great company,” said UCG co-founder Bruce Levenson.

The logistical challenges of the trip were staggering. They were handled by four sworn-to-secret staffers in UCG’s internal conference-planning department under the direction of UCG veteran Julie Upton. Moving 1,030 people to one location -- the historic Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco -- from UCG’s seven offices on both Coasts, and then home again, involved chartering several jets, clearing airport security checkpoints, anticipating emergency needs, police escorts through San Francisco for 24 buses and more. On top of planning the transcontinental travel for a thousand people was coordination of tours, entertainment, lodging and meals during the stay in San Francisco.

“Looking back, it was a pretty amazing feat of project management and my team thrived on the excitement of the challenge,” said Upton.

Here are just a few of the highlights of the trip:

• An exhilarating sunrise hike across the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Private tours of Alcatraz, the famous Muir Woods redwood grove, and the Sausalito shopping district.
• Chinatown walking tour, featuring an authentic dragon dance, dim sum for lunch and a visit to the world’s leading provider of fortune cookies.
• Sunset cruise of San Francisco Bay aboard a paddle-wheeler, taking celebrants underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, a rare and awe-inspiring view.
• The big gala event, with comedian Dana Carvey from Saturday Night Live and the Grammy-award-winning Pointer Sisters performing exclusively for UCG.
• A private wine-tasting and dinner at Napa Valley’s premier Rubicon Estate, owned by Francis Ford Coppola. Live jazz, harpists and tours of the wine caves round out the experience.

“The impression this trip has made on our employees is nothing short of awesome,” said UCG co-founder Ed Peskowitz. Here is what one UCG employee, Esther Oakley, a 29-year-old I/T manager posted in her blog about the trip: “Being taken care of all weekend. Treated like someone really important. Feeling truly appreciated for what I do here. Feeling part of something bigger than myself, something exciting. Knowing that I work for people I can truly respect and look up to. I feel like I'm on another planet, and I am not ready to go back to the one that represents my normal life. This was so incredible, and I can't remember the last time I felt this way. This is what it feels like to be truly happy. I'm floating on air.”

“Several reporters who are writing articles on company perks have called to interview me about the company trip. I point out to them that we don’t view the trip as a perk. It’s a UCG tradition, a way of expressing our gratitude and celebrating success,” said UCG partner Dan Brown, who joined UCG in 1983 as a journalist. “Sure, the trip is bound to help with recruitment and retention – and we do use it as a chance to ask spouses of our employees how we can improve the company -- but what strikes me most is how the trip changes the world view of so many people, broadening their perspective, how it connects co-workers in ways that aren’t possible during a 50-hour week and how for some employees who are going through tough times in their private lives, the trip is a reminder that good things can and do happen.” UCG’s five-year anniversary trips have taken place in New York City, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, and Marco Island Florida.

Founded in 1977, UCG is one of America’s leading, privately held providers of specialized business-to-business information. UCG’s portfolio is composed of companies serving the information and software needs of decision-makers in health care, oil & energy, high technology, telecommunications, banking & finance and the mortgage industry. UCG employs 700 people. Its headquarters are in Rockville, Md., but it also has offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Seattle and Minneapolis. The company has received many awards for journalistic excellence and was recently voted one of D.C.’s 50 Best Places to Work, by Washingtonian Magazine.

Photos of the 30th Anniversary Trip are available to the press on request.

USA Today Spotlights UCG Founder's "Great Vision"

International flavor highlights tourney in Tel Aviv

By Jane Lee, USA TODAY
May 31, 2007

Ed Peskowitz will not be tuning into another dose of the seemingly never-ending saga of the NBA playoffs next week. The Atlanta Hawks co-owner has plans of his own in Israel, and he's taking the game of basketball with him.

From Friday through June 8, Peskowitz will act as the guiding force behind the second annual Friendship Games basketball tournament at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

"My hope is to use basketball as the vehicle to bring people of all faiths and cultures together," Peskowitz said.

The creation of the games began two years ago when Peskowitz met Arie Rosenzweig, athletics director of Tel Aviv University, and Kowalsky Ilan, athletics director at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya.

Thirty men's college teams from 17 countries, none of them American, will compete in the round-robin style tournament with each team playing five games. Several of the countries participating, including Israel, Jordan, Cyprus and Turkey, have a history of conflict with each other. Jewish, Muslim and Christian teams will compete.

"Israelis love basketball, so we saw an opportunity to bring people together through the common interest of the sport," Peskowitz said.

In addition to the tournament, players come together in friendship by touring places such as the Dead Sea, Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee.

"It was a wonderful experience to play in last year's games," Serbia player Vlada Zivic said. "It was great to meet people from different countries, to see very important historical and religious places, and to start new friendships and finally discover and learn about other cultures."

Zivic recalls great pleasure in seeing "guys playing together with no tension," an aspect that player Hakim Tamimi Marinio of Jordan also found memorable.

"Getting to know socialist Israelis was one of my favorite moments," Marinio said. "We didn't have to think about the conflict between our countries because of the sport environment."

Peskowitz says the games not only encourage the students to play together, but also allow them to explore and grow together off the court.

During the first night's events last year, Peskowitz remembers the reaction of Jordanian players when a female Israeli game show host — one equivalent to America's own Vanna White of "Wheel of Fortune" — showed up.

"They were all surrounding her and asking her for autographs," Peskowitz said. "It just goes to show that the Jordanians breathe the same air, have the same dreams and watch the same TV as the Israelis."

Peskowitz knows he's not going to change the world, but he says watching friendships form is beyond rewarding and satisfying.

"Ed has a great vision and a big heart," Rosenzweig said. "For me to see a Jordanian basketball team in my sports hall was very emotional."

For eight days, it's about the people rather than the politics. It's about Greeks and Turks sharing a taxi and Jordanians using the swimming pool at an Israeli university.

"It's about the small steps in creating change," Peskowitz said. "We're using basketball to make all of this happen. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but what's happening is incredible."

UCG Spin-Off Company Goes Public

Associated Press Financial Wire
May 17, 2007

TechTarget Inc., one of the week's most anticipated initial public offerings, climbed sharply in first-day trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Thursday.

The Needham, Mass.-based company provides online content aimed at bringing together buyers and sellers of corporate information technology products.

TechTarget's shares rose $1.79, or 14 percent, to close at $14.79 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, up from their IPO price of $13, set by underwriters Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Some 7.7 million shares were sold into the oversubscribed offering, which priced at the midpoint of the expected, per-share price range of $12 to $14.

Analysts reported strong demand for shares in TechTarget, which continues the resurgence of IPOs from the technology sector. It marks the 13th technology stock to go public so far this year, representing 18 percent of all IPOs priced in the United States, according to Thomson Financial.

This time last year, only eight technology stocks, representing 12 percent of all IPOs, had gone public.

According to TechTarget, IT professionals have come to rely on its sector-specific Web sites to help them make purchasing decisions. "Our content enables IT professionals to navigate the complex and rapidly changing IT landscape where purchasing decisions can have significant financial and operational consequences," TechTarget said in its prospectus.

The company operates 36 Web sites that focus on specific IT sectors, such as storage, security or networking. It complements that with in-person events and three IT magazines.

TechTarget, which had 4.9 million registered users at the end of March, derives almost all of its revenue by selling advertising to its 1,000 plus active advertisers, which include Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Inc., and International Business Machines Corp.

TechTarget said it delivered more than 3,400 advertising campaigns in 2006 and its average quarterly advertising renewal rate for its 100 largest customers was 92 percent.

The company generated revenue of $18.3 million in the first quarter, resulting in a net profit of $317,000.

Last year, the company booked revenue of $79 million and a $7.2 million profit.

TechTarget plans to use its IPO proceeds to repay $12.0 million under its revolving credit facility and for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

UCG Journalists Win Top Prizes in National Contests

UCG NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact: Lisa Getter, Editorial Director
301-287-2514 Email: lgetter@ucg.com

Or Dan Brown, Partner
301-287-2254 Email: dbrown@ucg.com

ROCKVILLE, MD, June 29, 2006 – UCG journalists won 12 prestigious awards in four national competitions in 2006, continuing the company’s 25-year record of winning national prizes for outstanding editorial content.

The Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Foundation honored UCG with three first-place David Swit Journalism prizes and six others for excellence in journalism in its international contest. No other business information publisher won as many NEPF awards this year as UCG. The nine awards bring UCG’s total in the competition to 95, a record unmatched by any business-to-business company in America.

“We are commited to quality journalism at UCG,” said Dan Brown, the UCG partner in charge of editorial.

DecisionHealth’s Wendy Vogenitz won the Excellence in Health Care Journalism award from the Association of Health Care Journalists for “Misleading Coding Advice,” a 12-page investigative report in Anesthesia & Pain Coder’s Pink Sheet.

The report, which revealed that fraudulent claims for a back pain table could be costing Medicare and private insurance companies more than $67 million a year, also received an Honorable Mention from the National Press Club for best exclusive newsletter. Wendy will be honored at a July 17th banquet at the Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The Association of Business Publication Editors last night awarded Kates-Boylston’s Edward J. Defort and Jen Kiernan a silver award for best magazine special section in the Northeast. They wrote “Katrina’s Wake,” a 32-page special section in American Funeral Director. It was designed by Allison Sullivan.

“We are thrilled to see our journalists compete and win prizes from both specialized and mainstream press organizations,” said Lisa Getter, UCG’s editorial director.

UCG’s first-place NEPF awards this year were for best spot/exclusive news, best single topic product and best reference publication. The awards went to:

• Edward J. Defort, of Kates-Boylston, for "Case Closed," a riveting tale about the murder of a funeral home director and an intern published in American Funeral Director. It won best exclusive/spot news story.

• Alan Prochoroff, of Argosy, for his e