Outlet profile

Lightwave

U.S. industry trade (telecommunications/optical networking)

Owned byEndeavor Business Media, LLC — a privately held B2B media company based in Nashville, Tennessee, founded in December 2017 by CEO Chris Ferrell

FundingB2B advertising and marketing services (display ads, sponsored content, webinars, lead generation, custom content); trade events; and quarterly print magazine distribution at industry conferences such as OFC, Fiber Connect, and SCTE TechExpo

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

Lightwave began publication in the mid-to-late 1980s under PennWell Corporation, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based specialty media company with a long history of serving technical industries such as oil and gas, fire safety, and telecommunications. For more than three decades PennWell published Lightwave as a print magazine and later a digital platform under lightwaveonline.com, targeting professionals working with fiber-optic and optical networking technology. When Endeavor Business Media was formed in December 2017 to acquire and operate B2B trade brands, Lightwave was among the PennWell titles that moved into the Endeavor portfolio. Endeavor has since grown to more than 80 B2B brands reaching roughly nine million industry decision-makers. In 2024, Lightwave merged editorially with Broadband Technology Report (BTR), a sister publication covering cable and broadband services, creating the combined Lightwave+BTR brand. The merged publication covers the full stack from optical fiber infrastructure to broadband service delivery, reflecting growing convergence between those two industry segments. Throughout its history Lightwave has maintained a strictly technical and commercial editorial focus — covering standards bodies, equipment vendors, network deployments, and market research — with no record of partisan political commentary or controversy over coverage bias.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-08-13; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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