"BEA Systems vice president of developer marketing, Cornelius Willis, writes an open letter to all BEA partners highlighting BEA's new partnership with Fawcette Technical Publications, Inc. and promoting WebLogic Pro to the partner community," said the e-mail. "The letter also explains the end of BEA's publishing relationship with SYS-CON."

Following is a copy of Willis's letter:

"To: BEA Strategic Partners
From: Cornelius Willis, Vice President of Developer Marketing, BEA Systems
Re: BEA's Transition to WebLogic Pro

In February of 2004, BEA terminated its agreement with SYS-CON Media to publish the BEA WebLogic Developer's Journal, including any licenses to use BEA trademarks. We are no longer supporting this publisher with sponsorship of any publications.

We are excited to be embarking on our new relationship with Fawcette Technical Publications, and launching a new magazine called WebLogic Pro. We're confident that WebLogic Pro will be an outstanding editorial product. It is the only publication we are recommending to our business partners for their articles and technical support. WebLogic Pro is the official magazine serving BEA's developer community, and the only publication licensed to use BEA trademarks at this time. WebLogic Pro is a free magazine, provided to any qualified subscriber.

The first issue of the magazine will be distributed at eWorld in San Francisco. It will feature a cover story written by BEA CTO Scott Dietzen, and several articles and columns on SOA, including a guest feature from Gartner's Daryl Plummer.

If you would like more information about BEA's new magazine, WebLogic Pro, please visit the Web site.

We look forward to continuing to support you. Our new WebLogic Pro magazine joins a number of other exciting developer community efforts we are launching this spring, including greater online outreach, online developer education programs and more.

Best Regards,
Cornelius Willis"

"We congratulate Willis and BEA on their announcement and wish them much success and good luck with their new magazine," said Jeremy Geelan, publisher of SYS-CON's WLDJ, the leading independent magazine for WebLogic professionals. "We have no doubt that this new magazine will be a great additional resource for BEA's customers and their user community. We wish them good luck."

Geelan and Miles Silverman, vice president of sales and marketing at SYS-CON, spoke with the JDJ News Desk about the announcement

JDJ News Desk: What does this announcement mean for WLDJ?
Geelan: Nothing. We launched WLDJ almost three years ago as an independent magazine to serve the WebLogic professional community, the same way we announced WebSphere Journal to serve IBM's WebSphere customers. We are successfully reaching all of our readers not only with WLDJ and WebSphere Journal but with all of our 14 leading i-technology magazines. WLDJ today is still a leading independent magazine, but with a much larger qualified circulation than three years ago. It is serving more BEA customers than BEA is aware of.

JDJ News Desk: What about the publishing contract Willis is talking about?
Geelan: WLDJ has always been a leading independent voice for WebLogic professionals and always will be. It is an independent magazine that offers the best editorial content to its readers and the best advertising opportunities for its advertising partners. We think we are doing an exceptional job at that. WLDJ is a registered trademark of SYS-CON Media. We announced and started publishing both WLDJ and WebSphere Journal as a result of a demand from our readers and our advertising partners. The decision to launch WLDJ wasn't made by BEA and the decision to launch WebSphere Journal wasn't made by IBM. They are both independent SYS-CON magazines. Having said that, it makes sense for BEA to advertise in WLDJ and it makes sense for IBM to advertise in WebSphere Journal. That's entirely their decision and does not have any impact on what we do as an independent publisher.

JDJ News Desk: Miles, how did BEA's announcement affect WLDJ advertising sales?
Silverman: Great! It had a terrific impact on WLDJ's advertising sales. Our current issue, which will be available at eWorld, has the strongest ad revenue so far this year. The main reason for that is the incomparable value we bring to our advertising partners for every dollar they invest in WLDJ.

We recently announced our membership in BPA. This will provide our advertisers with the exact circulation information for WLDJ, allowing them to compare it to other alternatives available to them and enabling them to make an educated decision. Also important is that WLDJ is an independent magazine published by the world's leading i-technology magazine publisher, and our readers trust its content more than any other resource.

From our advertising partners' point of view, as Jeremy pointed out we reach more WebLogic readers and BEA customers than BEA knows about.

JDJ News Desk: How is that possible?
Silverman: If a company decides to purchase and implement a certain software toolset, contractual details in many organizations are typically handled by purchasing departments. Software vendors will have the information and the customer contact details of their customers but their point contact in many cases is the same person who buys light bulbs, chairs, and office supplies in addition to software and hardware. He or she is not the developer or the user of the software of these companies.

Software professionals come to publishers such as SYS-CON for a magazine they want to read. Our readers are not the purchasing agents. We launched WLDJ at the request of our readers, who wanted more WebLogic-specific topics. They wanted to see a magazine targeted directly to their daily work and interests. Out of the 1.2 million readers we reach every month, more than 40,000 are individually qualified to be WLDJ readers. That's why BEA comes to publishers, including WLDJ to promote and bring attendees to their eWorld as we are doing for them right now, and we help Sun to bring attendees to JavaOne. Magazine publishers are in the business of publishing magazines, so that's what we do best, reach thousands, and in many cases millions, of readers with a message.