OK, let's be clear about this at the outset. I have no insider information and would not reveal any if I did. I am an employee of CMP Media, (CMPX, Nasdaq) and my company announced last Wednesday night that it has hired Lazard Freres to shop us around. We'll take a merger, an investment or a buyout. If none of the offers look good enough, we'll stay independent.

Based entirely on information in the public domain, available to anyone on the outside, it's no mystery why our management put us into play. Our market capitalization has been stuck around $600 million. Publishing companies generally sell for 2 times revenue, which would make CMP worth about a billion dollars. For a whole mess of complicated reasons, the market declines to value this company at what it's worth.

I don't know if there will still be a CMP in a year, or whether, as many have speculated, one of our direct competitors, IDG or Ziff-Davis, will buy us and shut down most of our publications. I can't advise you on whether we'll sell at all and how much we'll get.

But I want to put a few things on the record. I have been with this company, on and off, for 20 years come April. The founders, Gerry and Lilo Leeds are two of the most decent people on the planet. By founding CMP and running it for 16 years, they made their mark on American business. In the last decade, they have begun to make their mark on philanthropy, a mark which I feel will become larger and better known over time. Mark my words, the Leeds family will joint the pantheon of great American givers. I salute them. I am proud to have been their employee, proud to have helped create the value which allows them to be so generous.

I am saddened by the unquestionable need to put the company up for sale. I believe our president, Michael Leeds, when he says there won't be a deal unless it is good for both the shareholders and the employees (Michael, by the way, is two weeks younger than I am). I understand it.

If we sell, a great corporate culture, every bit as decent, worthwhile and trail-blazing as that of IBM, HP or Tandem will disappear. And the world of work will be poorer for its passing. But, of course, change is the only constant.

My father worked for the same company from the death of his father in 1950 until his employer's bankruptcy in the mid-1980s. I never expected to work for a company for more than five years; my first five jobs lasted 18 months each. CMP is the only employer for whom I have ever worked more than a year and a half. I will miss it. I will move on.

Remember this: no one is safe. No matter what they tell you. I always took heart from the fact that my job as a journalist couldn't be outsourced to a third-world country. Because our founders were so adamant about not selling the company (Gerry actually authorized his secretary to reject offers for the company without asking him), I felt sure we would always remain independent. Only a fool believes that in this day and age. Last Wednesday night, I stopped being a fool.