About ChannelPartner

ChannelPartner

ChannelPartner is the German IT-channel magazine, published in Munich by the IDG Tech Media GmbH (now Foundry). The media brand for the ITK and CE channel — the computer shops, the system houses, the distributors, the manufacturers — ChannelPartner reports on the channel's business: the products, the programs, the people, and the strategies. The print magazine (15,000 copies print run, per the 2017/18 media data), the channelpartner.de portal, and the events — the ChannelPartner Kongress, the Channel Excellence Awards — make it the channel's information and meeting platform.

Overview

The magazine serves the IT channel: the system houses, the computer shops, the managed service providers (MSPs), the distributors, the manufacturers' channel organizations, and the IT service providers. The editorial program covers the channel's agenda: the product categories (security, software, storage, servers, networks, printers, monitors, endpoints, mobile computing), the business models (the cloud business, the managed services, the business with add-on services), and the market data (the studies, the rankings).

The crossmedia concept — the print monthly, the channelpartner.de portal, the newsletters, the studies (the "Bester IT-Dienstleister" with COMPUTERWOCHE and the iSCM Institute, the GfK-based Channel Excellence Awards), the conferences (the ChannelPartner Kongress, the c.m.c for IT service providers) — gives the channel the orientation: the information, the benchmarks, the meetings. The LinkedIn community (13,685 followers) extends the reach: the channel's social network.

History

ChannelPartner — the IDG media brand (www.channelpartner.de) — built its position in the German ITK channel: the magazine for the channel partners, in the IDG Tech Media's portfolio alongside the COMPUTERWOCHE. The address — Georg-Brauchle-Ring 23, D-80992 München — places the newsroom in Munich's north: the IDG/Foundry campus. The founder — Patrick J. McGovern (1937–2014) — founded the IDG; the German operation — IDG Tech Media GmbH (HRB 99187, Amtsgericht München), Geschäftsführer Jonas Triebel — continues as Foundry (foundryco.com).

The IDG/Foundry house — the publishing context — deserves its telling. The International Data Group — founded by Patrick J. McGovern (1937–2014) — built the world's technology-media network: the Computerworld, the PCWorld, the CIO, the COMPUTERWOCHE in Germany. The German operation — the IDG Tech Media GmbH (now Foundry) — publishes the B2B technology titles: the COMPUTERWOCHE (the CIOs' weekly), the ChannelPartner (the channel's magazine), the CIO (the IT executives' magazine). The Munich campus — Georg-Brauchle-Ring 23, 80992 München — houses the newsrooms: the editorial, the research (IDG Research Services), the events. The Foundry rebrand — the foundryco.com identity — signals the marketing-services evolution: the media, the data, the demand generation. The studies — the "Bester IT-Dienstleister" (with the iSCM Institute: the customer-satisfaction survey among the CIOs, IT managers, administrators, CEOs), the GfK channel surveys — give the research: the benchmarks, the rankings.

The awards — the Channel Excellence Awards with the GfK (since the 2010 premiere): the best ITK and CE manufacturers and distributors of the year, based on the GfK's representative survey of 1,000+ IT specialists (computer shops and system houses) — honor the channel: the nine manufacturer categories (PCs & servers, printers, mobile computing, smartphones, IT displays & beamers, security, storage, networks, business software) and the five distribution categories. The 2011 winners — Hewlett-Packard (double), Acer, Nokia, Samsung, Symantec, Western Digital, AVM, Microsoft — show the era's leaders.

Coverage and Content

The editorial program follows the channel's year. The distribution landscape — the channel's players — deserves its telling. The broadline distributors — the Tech Data/TD Synnex, the Ingram Micro, the Also — supply the volume: the logistics, the credit, the programs. The specialist distributors — the security, the storage, the network VADs — add the expertise: the training, the presales, the services. The system houses — the Bechtle, the Cancom, the thousands of regional MSPs — deliver the solutions: the projects, the managed services, the consulting. The computer shops — the retail's specialists — serve the consumers and small businesses: the sales, the service. The manufacturers' channel organizations — the HP, the Lenovo, the Cisco partner programs — steer the indirect: the tiers, the rebates, the certifications. The Channel Excellence Awards — the GfK's 1,000+ IT-specialist survey — measure the satisfaction: the vendors' and distributors' performance, statistically representative. The magazine's distribution coverage — the programs, the people, the M&A — tracks the landscape: the channel's structure. The channel's transformation — the ITK trade's structural change — deserves its telling. The classic channel — the distributors (the broadliners, the specialists), the resellers (the system houses, the computer shops) — faces the cloud: the subscription models, the marketplaces, the direct sales. The managed services — the MSPs' recurring revenue — transform the business: the project business to the service contracts, the break-fix to the proactive. The security — the cyber threats, the NIS2, the managed security — becomes the growth engine: the services, the SOCs. The consolidation — the IT company M&A (the bytewerk, the Wirverbindenwelten experiences: making the IT company valuable, founder-independent, sellable; growing inorganically through acquisitions) — reshapes the landscape: the bigger units, the platforms. ChannelPartner's coverage — the cloud business, the MSP strategies, the M&A — guides the transformation: the channel's adaptation.

The AI and data-center wave — the channel's newest opportunity — deserves its telling. The artificial intelligence — the copilots, the LLMs, the AI PCs — creates the refresh: the endpoints' upgrade, the consultants' projects. The data centers — the GPU clusters, the power, the cooling — demand the infrastructure: the servers, the storage, the networks. The sovereign cloud — the data protection, the GDPR, the Gaia-X — shapes the offerings: the European alternatives. The sustainability — the CSRD, the energy efficiency — constrains the operations: the reporting, the optimization. The channel's role — the trusted advisors, the integrators, the MSPs — positions the partners: the AI's implementation, the infrastructure's management. ChannelPartner's coverage — the trends' translation, the business models' analysis — prepares the channel: the next wave's surfing — the magazine's standing task since the PC era. The mobility coverage — the enterprise mobility management (devices, accessories, apps), the software solutions, the best practices, the mobile-device management — treats the workplace: the endpoints, the management. The study coverage — the "Bester IT-Dienstleister" (the customer-satisfaction benchmarks), the "Deutschlands beste Managed Service Provider" (the MSP awards with COMPUTERWOCHE) — gives the benchmarks: the rankings, the scores.

Organization and Ownership

ChannelPartner is published by the IDG Tech Media GmbH, Georg-Brauchle-Ring 23, D-80992 München, telephone +49 (0)89 36086-0 (now operating as Foundry, foundryco.com). The managing director is Jonas Triebel; the register court is the Amtsgericht München (HRB 99187); the VAT ID is DE 811 257 834. The founder — Patrick J. McGovern (1937–2014) — founded the International Data Group. The German operation continues the IDG's channel journalism: the ChannelPartner, the COMPUTERWOCHE, the CIO.

The editorial and sales contacts — Regina Böckle (Director Content Events, regina.boeckle@foundryco.com), Thomas Jank (Sales Director ChannelPartner, thomas.jank@foundryco.com) — serve the brand: the content, the events, the sales. The business model follows the B2B trade-press pattern: the subscriptions, the advertising (the ITK industry), the studies, the events (the Kongress, the awards). Detailed current circulation figures are not publicly confirmed (historical: 15,000 print run).

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is channelpartner.de: the channel's news, the product reports, the studies, the events. The ChannelPartner Kongress — the annual channel congress (the Düsseldorf event: the keynotes, the sessions — the IT company M&A, the MSP strategies) — gathers the channel: the meetings, the networking. The c.m.c — the conference for IT service providers and service providers (the "Rethinking Managed Services" with the MSP awards) — serves the services: the benchmarks, the best practices.

The LinkedIn presence — the ChannelPartner page (13,685 followers) — extends the community: the event announcements, the discussions. The digital strategy follows the B2B logic: the print magazine for the deep channel coverage — the products, the business models — the portal, the studies, and the events for the daily news, the benchmarks, and the meetings.

As the German IT channel's magazine — the IDG/Foundry media brand, published from Munich — ChannelPartner remains the channel partners' companion: the products, the programs, and the strategies — in print, on channelpartner.de, and at the Kongress.