Report on the I$P Report

Recently I interviewed Paul Stapleton, Publisher / Editor of the I$P Report, in connection with my forthcoming book, ISP Marketing Survival Guide. Here are my impressions of his publication—which I've been reading since 1997.

by Christopher M. Knight [August 23, 1999]

[Disclaimer: For the record, I am in no way affiliated with the I$P Report. Neither I nor internet.com Corp. receives any compensation if you subscribe. If you do contact Paul, however, please let him know that Chris @ ISP-Planet.com sent you.]

I$P Report is a hard-copy newsletter that runs about 16 to 22 pages an issue and is delivered via snail mail only at this time. It does have a website, but this serves only to provide contact and subscription information; and let you buy back issues for $25 each.

Upside
I'm not a financial wiz head (I'm the marketing, sales, entrepreneur guy), but when I need to get a better grip on what's going on in the financial end of the ISP industry, I turn to three publications: The I$P Report, Red Herring Magazine, and UPSIDE mag.

Paul's editorial style is that of saying exactly what's on his mind, and you can tell he's is not holding anything back in his analysis of the ISP investment field. I also like that his newsletter is a quick read: Each issue usually contains a news digest of recent happenings, earnings updates, new ISP IPO's, the I$P Report M&A Transaction Journal, an ISP stock chart, and several articles on financial ISP industry analysis, including valuation speak.

Others attempting to enter this very niche newsletter publishing market have published similar reports, but I have yet to see one that is consistent on a monthly basis, year after year.

Downside
This newsletter is owned by a major ISP M&A investment banker. While I believe Paul and his coeditors do an excellent job of remaining objective, you still have to remember that this is not an advertiser-supported publication. (There are 4 to 5 ads per issue, but this falls far short of sustaining the enterprise.) Consequently, the Report is always to some extent a promotional piece for their business.

Another minor quibble: In these days of e-business, it would be nice if back issues and current issues were online, so folks could pay for a subscription to access the information or ISP financial database.

All around the biz
I$P Report is a great resource for ISPs who aspire to become more than their current size, as well as anyone who buys and/or sells publicly traded ISPs on the open market. Those in related industries, such as the cable/broadband/dsl markets, may also benefit from reading this newsletter.

As a taste of what you might find in I$P Report, I will leave you with one very insightful comment Paul gave me during our interview, in response to a question about why most ISPs fail to achieve huge success.

Pearl of wisdom
Paul explained the simple concept of the "billion dollar manager." This is in contrast to the typical ISP owner/manager, who run an excellent ISP shop, but whose management skills don't scale, and hence create a ceiling for the business that may be lower than what is really possible.

He went on to explain his view that the billion dollar managers share the following qualities:

•  strong sales skills
•  strong financial discipline/skillset
•  visionary, with a strong sense of the industry
•  focused on positive cash flow and driving earnings
•  adept enough in the technology to know the right questions to ask
•  can convey a sense of confidence to the customer base
•  strongly focused on improving net quality/reliability

If you're a million dollar manager (someone who can build—maybe already has built—an ISP to millions in value) your next step, is to evaluate whether you might really be a billion dollar manager (and if you're not, whether that's important to you). Are you willing to learn and do whatever it takes to acquire the skills you'll need to make it to the top?

One last thing that I liked about Paul's outlook is that he believes ISPs need to decide on their end-game before they begin their ISP-as opposed to trying to figure it out somewhere in the middle or end of your business life. It's definitely advice worth thinking about.

See you at the top!
Christopher M. Knight
Founder & Managing Editor, The ISP-Lists

—End