The Baxter Research ad study measures the overall effectiveness of advertisements as it relates to a reader and then reports on the ad performance in the context of the three steps recognized as essential to the brand building experience: exposure, engagement, and involvement. An advertisements ‘recall seeing’ score shows the ability of an ad to attract the reader’s attention and indicates that the reader had been exposed to an item by either seeing it or reading it. The ‘read some’ score indicates the percentage of ‘recall seeing’ readers, who after seeing the item, were engaged enough to be led into the copy by the headline, layout or subject material. These ads effectively engaged Benefits Selling readers after capturing their initial attention.

The following companies received the highest “recall seeing” scores:

• Aflac
• VSP Vision Care
• Aetna Inc.
• Unum Group
• Mutual of Omaha
• Transamerica Worksite Marketing

The following companies received the highest “read some” scores:

• Fringe Benefit Group/Framework Health Plan
• LifeLock
• BenefitMall
• Nationwide Financial Services, Inc.
• Texas Life Insurance Company

“With the changes in the health care and benefits market, brokers and agents are looking for new solutions for their clients. There is no better place than Benefits Selling to connect these brokers with companies that provide the products and services they are looking for,” said Tamara Patterson, publisher of Benefits Selling. “The advertising effectiveness studies through Baxter Research Center give our advertisers invaluable feedback on making sure their message captures brokers’ attention and addresses the needs of the broker community and their clients.”

Baxter Research Center Inc. is a global marketing information firm supporting the world’s most successful business-to-business media brands.

ABOUT BENEFITS SELLING
Benefits Selling is the authority for brokers and agents selling group and voluntary employee benefit products. As the industry leader, the editorial mission of Benefits Selling is to cut through the fluff and provide brokers with the best sales strategies, reveal upcoming trends and analyze the latest research in order to be the most successful, customer-based brokers in the business. Our goal is to provide the most practical sales-focused information for benefits brokers and agents to help them act as an invaluable resource for their clients. We strive to be the leading resource in the benefits market by delivering exclusive real world sales tactics, news and information through our magazine & Website and by bringing brokers together with other market players on BenefitsPro.com and at Benefits Selling Expo. 

ABOUT SUMMIT BUSINESS MEDIA
Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information company serving the insurance, financial, legal and investment advisory markets. Summit strives to be “The Next Generation of Business Information” for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data. Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events. For more information, please visit SummitBusinessMedia.com.

Contact:
Tamara Patterson
Publisher, Benefits Selling
720-895-4988
tpatterson@benefitspro.com
BenefitsPro.com

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Philadelphia, PA – February 16, 2012— ProducersWEB.com, a product of Summit Business Media, has unveiled several enhancements that increase the ability of members to access new content on the most relevant and sought out topics, interact with other site members, and share and upload content.

ProducersWEB.com implemented the enhancements as part of a deep commitment to continue meeting the evolving online needs of the agent and advisor community and to ensure that members enjoy their experience during each and every visit. The enhancements include:

• Members can now choose to share their thoughts with the entire community or just their followers.
• The new community page allows members to find upcoming and popular events, as well as “shares” from other members.
• Cleaner, more streamlined design and navigation enable members to easily access the information most important to them.

In addition, ProducersWEB.com has also updated channel topics and subtopics to better reflect the latest trends in the industry. Some of the updated topics include: Sales and Marketing, Retirement Strategies, Annuity Sales, Health Care Reform, Long Term Care, Estate Planning and Combo Products.

“We understand and appreciate that our community of successful and savvy professionals demand a destination where they can quickly access content and information that’s specific to their business, as well as network with peers, and stay abreast of industry developments,” said Jeff Schottland, founder of ProducersWEB.com. “The changes we recently made directly address these needs.”

For more information on ProducersWEB.com please contact Lauren McNitt at laurenm@producersweb.com.

ABOUT PRODUCERSWEB.COM
ProducersWEB.com is the leading online destination for insurance and financial professionals who are looking to improve their sales strategies and learn about new products and offers within every area of the life and health insurance industry.

ABOUT SUMMIT BUSINESS MEDIA
Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information company serving the insurance, financial, legal and investment advisory markets. Summit strives to be “The Next Generation of Business Information” for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data. Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events. Summit publishes 16 magazines and 150 reference titles, operates 20 websites and hosts a dozen conferences, including the world’s largest mining investment conference held each year in South Africa. Summit’s Data Division provides detailed information on millions of agents, advisors and benefits plans.

PRESS CONTACT:
Lauren McNitt
Editor
ProducersWEB.com
Summit Business Media
720-895-1585
laurenm@producersweb.com

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New York, February 13, 2012 – Summit Business Media, a leading business-to-business media company serving the insurance, financial services, legal and investment advisory markets, today announced that it has named as CEO Steve Weitzner, who had most recently been Chairman and CEO of Ziff Davis Enterprise. In his new role, Weitzner will work with Summit’s existing management team and Board in applying the lessons learned in dealing with both the challenges and the opportunities faced by technology-oriented B-to-B media over the last 10 years to Summit’s market strategy going forward.

Weitzner comes to Summit with more than 30 years of experience in B-to-B media in roles ranging from CEO at Ziff Davis Enterprise and UBM/CMP Media to group president to publisher to editorial director to editor at CMP Media and, earlier, at Hearst Business Communications and McGraw-Hill.

Charles G. McCurdy, Chairman of Summit’s Board of Directors, said, “Steve Weitzner is one of the most experienced CEOs in B-to-B media, with a proven track record in dealing with the industry’s most pressing challenges as well as its upside opportunities. We look forward to working closely with Steve as he and a strong management team move Summit into its next phase of growth with unique services that address marketplace needs while building a clear competitive advantage in the markets we serve.”

Weitzner said, “Summit is a strong company with great brands and impressive audience reach in key industries. What we need to grow our business for the future is in place. In particular, the audience relationships of brand franchises like National Underwriter are both strong and deep, and we will move aggressively in leveraging those strengths in all channels, including a full suite of digital applications and programs that provide our customers with unique lead-generation opportunities.”

Weitzner was chosen from a pool of highly qualified external and internal candidates by a Board whose members are themselves deeply immersed in B-to-B media. In addition to McCurdy, former CEO of Canon Communications and current Chairman and CEO of the GLM trade show group, its members are: David Nussbaum, current Chairman and CEO of F+W Media and former CEO of Penton Media; Jason Young: former CEO and 20-year veteran of Ziff Davis Media; and Jean Clifton: former EVP and CFO of Penton Media and SVP and CFO at Reader’s Digest Association.

About Summit Business Media
Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information company serving the insurance, financial, legal and investment advisory markets. Summit strives to be “The Next Generation of Business Information” for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data. Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events. Summit publishes 16 magazines and 150 reference titles, operates 20 websites and hosts a dozen conferences, including the world’s largest mining investment conference held each year in South Africa. Summit’s Data Division provides detailed information on millions of agents, advisors and benefits plans.

Summit employs more than 300 employees in ten offices across the United States.  For more information, please visit www.summitbusinessmedia.com/. 

# # #

Media Contact:
Greg Miller
212-537-5177, Ext 1
gmiller@marketcompr.com
Marketcom PR

Also referred to as “the Pulitzer Prize of the business press,” the NEAL Awards are the industry’s most prestigious and sought-after editorial honors. ABM established the awards in 1955 to recognize and reward editorial excellence in b-to-b media. 

“It’s an honor to be recognized by ABM with three NEAL Award finalists,” said John Whelan, EVP Media Division. “It really reflects our commitment to high quality content across markets and media. Congratulations to our editorial teams for their innovation and execution.”

Summit’s NEAL Award finalists include:

BEST PROFILE (Class A – Less than $3 million)
Tragic Tale
National Underwriter Life & Health

BEST PROFILE (Class B – $3 million to 7 million)
AIG: After the Bailout
National Underwriter Property & Casualty

BEST NEWS COVERAGE (Class B – $3 million to 7 million)
The Japan Earthquake & Its Ongoing Insurance Implications
National Underwriter Property & Casualty

About Summit Business Media
Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information company serving the insurance, financial, legal and investment advisory markets.  Summit strives to be “The Next Generation of Business Information” for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data.  Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events.  Summit publishes 16 magazines and 150 reference titles, operates 20 websites and hosts a dozen conferences, including the world’s largest mining investment conference held each year in South Africa.  Summit’s Data Division provides detailed information on millions of agents, advisors and benefits plans.

Summit employs more than 300 employees in ten offices across the United States.  For more information, please visit www.summitbusinessmedia.com/. 

Media Contact:
Amy Sievertsen
Marketing Manager
720-895-1530
asievertsen@sbmedia.com

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Assist in preparing files for print production, as well as online uploading, including:

• proper html coding utilizing Adobe Dreamweaver for online production
• proper coding utilizing Microsoft Word templates for print production
• ability to work with and convert image files to proper specs for print ready copy (jpgs, eps, pdfs)

Proofread copy for proper layout, correct paging, verification of proper graphics and/or tables, etc.

Responsible for keying requisitions, memos and check authorizations as requested

General administrative duties may include phone and email correspondence, copying, faxing, filing

Additional duties as needed

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Associate degree (or some college) preferred

Minimum of one year of office experience

Knowledge of software applications (e.g., Microsoft Office [Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook] and Adobe Dreamweaver, Acrobat Professional, Photoshop)

Knowledge of Microsoft Sharepoint a plus

Knowledge of html coding

Ability to exercise judgment to shift priorities and organize multiple tasks simultaneously

Ability to be a team player and work effectively under pressure

Strong organizational skills

Outstanding attention to detail

Ability to work independently

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Excellent customer service skills

This position’s focus will be to administer LAMP environments primarily on virtual and cloud infrastructures, using leading edge technology, that support web sites, applications and social media tools, for internal and external customers.

Why work on our team?

• Influence and execute change at all levels of our environments
• Run it like you own it!
• Choose your own tools, phone, laptop, and office
• We budget for training and use it!
• Social but driven team. We work hard and have fun.

Job Functions Include:

• Designing and Architecting highly available Linux server infrastructures for 100% uptime and reliability.

• Experience working with and managing Cloud environments with leading providers such as Amazon, Linode, Rackspace and others.

• Supporting all Linux (CentOS), Apache, Nginx, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) environments– creation, installation and real time replication

• Participating in scalable website/cloud deployments.

• Overseeing server security

• Deploying application code

• Managing DNS and DNS failover

• Performing routine maintenance on systems and their environments

• Troubleshooting network issues

• Administering enterprise wide monitoring environments

• Managing VMware and Xen environments on EMC SAN
architecture

• Troubleshooting bugs/errors in various environments

• Managing multiple projects at one time while meeting deadlines

• Recognizing and managing internal and external customer expectations

Minimum requirements:

• 7-10 year’s experience working in server infrastructure and enterprise domain support

• Previous experience with scalable high-traffic web site deployments

• Advanced enterprise level experience administering clustered LAMP environments and infrastructures supporting SaaS type software

• Configuration and administration of software and hardware load balancers including: F5, Barracuda and Nginx

• Strong scripting background, preferably Python

• Understand the development lifecycle, and how infrastructure support fits into that process

• Experience with large-scale virtualization and cloud environments. Virtualization products including Xen, Virtualbox, and VMware.

• MySQL and MongoDB architecture, administration, performance tuning and clustering experience

• Ability to execute advanced infrastructure security fundamentals for high traffic web sites and social media applications

• Network troubleshooting and a thorough understanding of DNS and TCP/IP

• Attention to detail, customer-service orientation, and creativity in problem solving

• Experience with hosted email and cloud storage solutions a plus.

• Strong written and oral communication skills

This is an unmatched opportunity if you seek:

• An opportunity to work independently while still feeling like a part of a team
• Clear paths to career growth within – Advancement within the organization is based on merit and not tenure
• Opportunity to travel
• A competitive base with bonus potential

Responsibilities include:

• Conducting in-depth research to identify key trends and industry issues

• Targeting and securing senior leaders that build integrity to the speaker faculty and ensure the greatest opportunity for event profit

• Working closely with the sponsorship and marketing teams to truly maximize event revenue and profitability

• Attending your events to build on-site relationships and your understanding of the industry

The ideal candidate can prove:

Requirements:

• Commercial awareness
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to excel in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment
• Excellent organizational skills are essential
• Ability to multitask and deal with more than one project at one time
• Strong proficiency on MS Word, Outlook and Excel are required
• College degree
• 2 + years of relatable experience

This is an unmatched opportunity if you seek:

• An opportunity to work independently while still feeling like a part of a team
• Clear paths to career growth within – Advancement within the organization is based on merit and not tenure
• Opportunity to travel
• A competitive base with bonus strong potential

Responsibilities include:

• Conducting in-depth research to identify key trends and industry issues

• Targeting and securing senior leaders that build integrity to the speaker faculty and ensure the greatest opportunity for event profit

• Working closely with the marketing and operations teams to truly maximize event revenue and profitability

• Attending your events to build on-site relationships and your understanding of the industry

• Driving sponsorship and exhibit sales on select events.

• Identifying and developing new business in custom/personalized events.

• Liaising with sponsors once event is sold

• Managing sponsor expectations and ensure delivery of sponsorship components

Requirements:

Commercial awareness

• Strong communication skills

• Proven record of sponsorship and exhibit sales and new business generation.

• Ability to excel in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment

• Excellent organizational skills are essential

• Ability to multitask and deal with more than one project at one time

• Strong proficiency on MS Word, Outlook and Excel are required

• College degree

• 3-5 years of relatable experience

For more than seven years, Benefits Selling has led the way in covering the employee benefits market for brokers by providing the most news and sales-centric coverage of the business. Over the past year, the entire staff at Benefits Selling has been working, reviewing and planning to take Benefits Selling to a new level. Response from readers was also factored in and was not surprising. Brokers are curious; they want to know more about how the changes in the industry will affect their business. They look to Benefits Selling to keep them abreast of the latest developments and for guidance on how to navigate the new opportunities that change brings.

“We balanced what has made Benefits Selling successful and created powerful new content with accessible design elements that will enable readers to get the most from each issue and ultimately maintain a competitive edge”, said Tamara Patterson, publisher of Benefits Selling magazine.

Some of the improvements include:

• A new monthly column, Retirement Planning, educating benefits brokers about the increasingly complex defined benefits and contribution markets.
• More retirement-related news in a revamped Benefits Newswire section.
• A chunky, quick-hit news section, Regulatory Roundup that gathers the latest news from both the federal and state government agencies and leaders.
• Improved alignment with an exploding BenefitsPro.com community—both from a design perspective as well as an editorial one.

“In short, we need to adapt—to evolve—in a brave new world,” said Denis Storey, editor-in-chief of Benefits Selling magazine. “And we need to bring our readers with us as we help them do the same.”

To view the January issue, click here.

About Benefits Selling Magazine
Benefits Selling is the authority for brokers and agents selling group and voluntary employee benefit products. As the industry leader, the editorial mission of Benefits Selling is to cut through the fluff and provide brokers with the best sales strategies, reveal upcoming trends and analyze the latest research in order to be the most successful, customer-based brokers in the business. Our goal is to provide the most practical sales-focused information for benefits brokers and agents to help them act as an invaluable resource for their clients. We strive to be the leading resource in the benefits market by delivering exclusive real world sales tactics, news and information through our magazine & Website and by bringing brokers together with other market players on BenefitsPro.com and at Benefits Selling Expo. 

About Summit Business Media
Summit Business Media is the leading B2B media and information company serving the insurance, financial, legal and investment advisory markets. Summit strives to be “The Next Generation of Business Information” for executives and practitioners by providing breaking news and analysis, in-depth practice management strategies, business-building techniques and actionable data. Summit services the information needs of its customers through numerous channels, including digital, print, and live events. For more information, please visit SummitBusinessMedia.com.

Contact:
Denis Storey
Editor-In-Chief, Benefits Selling
Summit Business Media
720-895-3964
dstorey@benefitspro.com

Duties and Responsibilities

• Architect, administer and ensure a secure Windows 2003/2008 Active Directory and Exchange infrastructure using secure policies and best practices across all sites
• Maintain and administer all Virtualized Windows environments
• Manages backups and backup systems associated with internal infrastructure (EMC Avamar and Networker)
• Support of the organizations EMC storage structure
• Manages corporate phone system
• Support the initiatives of the organization’s growth by providing infrastructure and application level support
• Deploy and support systems in physical, virtual and cloud based environments.  This includes both windows and Linux based systems, supporting a multitude of web, application and data platforms.
• Responsible for management of core organization systems such as DNS, DHCP, Exchange and Active Directory.
• Provides support and management of all SAN Storage solutions
• Designs implements and maintains complex network solutions.  This includes management of existing infrastructure supporting VOIP, MPLS and VPN technologies.
• Establishes system specifications by conferring with users; analyzing workflow, access, information, and security requirements; designing system infrastructure.
• Supplies next tier support and guidance to the Support Services team.
  • Leads projects and initiatives pertaining to their specific area
  • Helps to mentor other administrators through system support and ticket resolution
  • Interface with support team, infrastructure, database and development personnel as needed
  • Actively contribute to ongoing process improvement
  • Relies on experience and judgment to identify, research and resolve issues presented through all ticket levels and monitors the problem through resolution
  • Oversees and acts as the key contact and administrator for corporate Windows domain security and those that support it.
  • Monitors mission critical systems for availability and reliability.
  • Maintains, tests and installs software patches and upgrades at the server level.
  • Manages and supports companywide phone system and associated networking
  • Design client computer configurations and images based on role of user
  • Analyzing and selecting new technology
  • Formulating management policies for user rights and security

• Advise upper management about IT issues within the enterprise
• Experience debugging Windows and other software errors
• Acts as technical lead for designated areas of responsibility
• Ability to function in a project leadership role, setting objectives and managing deadlines with the ability to complete multiple simultaneous projects in a timely manner.
• Ensure 100% uptime of all servers and applications, 24/7.
• Ability to design corrective actions to resolve product or system problems with no known solutions.
• Record and communicate technical information to train others while acting as the subject matter expert on products, systems and services.
• Work with management team to ensure department ability to deliver high level of customer service.
• Develop and implement efficiencies and automated solution to support the tools and environments
• Ability to lead teams and make independent decisions
• Strong focus on customer service, quality and accuracy.
• Provide recommendations for future plan and architecture improvements for the corporate environments. Keeping in mind the need for complete redundancy and no single point of failure.

QUALIFICATIONS

An appropriate combination of education, training, course work and/or experience may qualify an applicant to demonstrate the required knowledge, skills, and abilities.  An example of an acceptable qualification for this position is:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science or related field.
• MCSE, MCSA, RHCT certifications helpful
• Disaster Recover best practices as applied to a corporate environment
• At least 8 years administration experience.
• At least 8 years administering Active Directory and Windows domain servers
• Advanced Exchange Administration and Deployment experience
• Experience with Enterprise VOIP (NEC, Cisco, Avaya, Shoretel, etc)
• Project Oriented
• Very customer service oriented
• Ability to use innovation and out of the box thinking in resolving issues
• Entrepreneurial spirit
• “Can do” attitude

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Knowledge of: Windows server 2003/2008 environments, Exchange 2003/2007; support of corporate IT infrastructure; networking and TCP/IP principles; operational policies and procedures, network architecture, backup systems, system monitoring software, MAC experience, VoIP and phone system technology, basic network support

Ability to: lead by example, work independently demonstrating initiative; exercise good judgment in administration of responsibilities; adapt to and embrace change in a rapidly changing environment; establish work priorities and manage multiple projects; exhibit flexibility in work schedule and job tasks; establish and maintain effective working relationships with co-workers, vendors, clients, and other job contacts; maintain confidentiality of confidential and sensitive information; excellent analysis and analytical skills; set and execute goals.