via Foliomag.com
A handful of key media acquisitions top the early industry headlines this year
Folio: has had to stay on its toes during recent strong coverage of a rapid-fire series of media acquisitions involving several publishers.
The Meredith Corporation Acquires Selectable Media
Meredith is on a major roll lately. This acquisition comes after 2014 deals with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and MyWedding.com. Selectable is an ad tech platform that specializes in targeting for and sales of sponsored content – a segment that will continue to see explosive growth in digital magazines and multiplatform publishing.
“Selectable Media’s industry-leading native and engagement-based advertising capabilities add to our stable of platform- and data-centric advertising solutions, which continue to drive significant improvements in advertising effectiveness and purchase-funnel-related metrics for our clients, and are ideally suited for mobile environments” Meredith Digital President Jon Werther told Folio:. “In combining Selectable Media’s innovative ad technology platform and extended network with Meredith’s premium branded content, highly-engaged audience, and rich first-party data, the end result is a very powerful and unique advertising proposition for clients.”
Werther also told Folio: that his company’s aggressive streak could continue.
“We continue to assess opportunities to strategically partner with, and acquire companies that bolster our unique combination of best-in-class branded environments, engaged audiences, rich first-party data and ad technology platforms.”
ALM Purchases Summit Professional Networks and Kennedy Consulting & Research
ALM, formerly American Lawyer Media, closed the deal on Summit Professional Networks, a B2B insurance, finance, and legal publisher. The $40 million sale “represents the next major step in ALM’s growth strategy, expanding our reach into new strategic markets,” CEO Bill Carter said in a statement.
A couple of weeks back, ALM completed the purchase of Kennedy Consulting & Research, a management and IT publisher, signalling a step in the digital magazine direction.
“ALM is looking at adjacent markets to legal that have many of the same characteristics,” ALM CMO Lenny Izzo told Folio:. “Kennedy was a great place to start because it serves a professional community similar to ALM’s. The breadth of solutions Kennedy provides aligns nicely with ALM’s business.”
ALM itself was bought by Wasserstein & Co. for a reported $417 million in June of 2014.
Southcomm Business Media Snags Last of Cygnus Brands
Ten trade shows, 10 publications, and 5 websites for the aviation, CPA, printing, merchandising, and landscape/facilities markets were included in this transaction, Folio: reports. Although it has divested the last of its properties after an 18-month process of various media acquisitions, the Cygnus name will still be used by Southcomm, a local and regional publisher.
Hall’s Reports Bought by Liz Grabler
Lead analyst Liz Grabler bought reporting firm Hall’s proprietary data and will relaunch the company under the name MA-Focus Media. Hall’s had ceased operations in late 2014.
“I am staying in regular contact to create a more client driven product line,” Grabler told Folio:. “The response has been positive. I am getting the feeling that clients want to know that we are here to help their business grow and work with them, we have the historical data and experience to back their needs.”
What does this shuffle say about the current state of the publishing industry? Any mergers and acquisitions we missed? Let us know in the comments!
To read more about the recent spate of media acquisitions in publishing, visit Folio:.
