BtoB Media Business - April 2009 - (Page 17)

M&A Tough time to seek a buyer Owner of ‘St. Petersburg Times’ puts Congressional Quarterly on the block BY SEAN CALLAHAN ANALYST INSIGHT Chuck Richard VP-lead analyst, Outsell W CQ has able competitors in the Economist hen Times Publishing Co. an- Group’s Roll Call, Atlantic Media’s National nounced in late January that it Journal, The Hill and Politico, among others, was putting Congressional Quar- and requires investment to continue competterly up for sale, industry observers asked the ing at a high level. “There’s part of this that same question: Why now? With the general breaks my heart,” said Merry, who has economy in tatters, credit frozen and most worked at CQ since 1987 but sees the need for print advertising spending in free fall, there deeper pockets to support it. have certainly been better moments in history “It’s pretty clear that the challenge faced by to sell such a widely respected brand. newspapers makes it very hard for the compaCQ offers strong products in ny to find the wherewithal to make print and online that cover legislawhat I would consider appropriate tive activity on the national, state investment in a company like Conand local levels. In addition to CQ gressional Quarterly,” Merry said. Weekly, it has CQ.com and CQ ToIndustry observers say the day, a print and online newsletter. timing of taking CQ to market is CQ President Robert Merry said unfortunate. “It would be reasonthe brand has produced seven able to assume that it would be straight years of double-digit revvalued substantially lower than it enue growth. would have been last year,” EdWith the government inject- The CQ brand has pro- miston said. seven straight ing trillions of dollars into the ducedof double-digit “The brand is a blue-chip years economy, CQ appears to be cover- revenue growth. brand, so it’s attracting a lot of ating a market that will only grow tention from strategic buyers and more influential in coming years. “Obviously, also from some private equity funds,” said the problem is not CQ,” said Mark Edmiston, Michael Marchesano, managing director of managing director of media investment bank media investment bank Jordan, Edmiston AdMedia Partners. “The problem is the St. Group, which is handling the sale of CQ. Petersburg Times. They’re being forced to go Industry observers mentioned CQ’s cenout into the market.” tral competitors—Economist Group and AtTimes Publishing owns the St. Petersburg lantic Media—as potential buyers. (EconoTimes, which is part of an industry that is mist Group spent $43 million last August to struggling mightily. “We’re selling an asset to acquire Capitol Advantage, a provider of onprovide funding for the continued expansion line grassroots tools to lobby Congress.) The of the newspaper in the Tampa Bay market,” Washington Post Co. and Gannett Co. were said Andrew Corty, VP of Times Publishing. also mentioned as possible suitors. The company sold CQ Press, a book publishA deal is not expected to close until suming unit, last year. mer. Outsell: Boost e-revenue now C huck Richard has a warning for b-to-b media executives: If your company’s electronic revenue wasn’t 30.2% or more of its total revenue in 2007, your company was below average in adapting to the shift away from print advertising. TIPS That 30.2% figDO: Consider ure appears in an acquisitions in Outsell report, the rich data “Market Analysis: arena and deLeaders in the B2B velop electronic Print to Electronic products for emerging marRevenue Shift,” kets. which was released DON’T: Stand earlier this year. In pat. Instead, continue to fothe report, Richard cus on growing analyzed the print, electronic revevent and electron- enue. ic revenue streams of 44 top business media companies, including IDG, Penton Media and Reed Business Information. Richard makes the case that b-to-b media companies are moving faster toward electronic revenue than conventional wisdom holds. In the report, he predicts that this will be the year that aggregate electronic revenue will surpass aggregate print revenue at the media companies he surveyed. In the survey, Richard included companies such as ThomasNet and Global Sources, which have abandoned print altogether, and companies such as GlobalSpec, which has never had print products. Richard advises publishers to be more aggressive in adding electronic revenue streams. “We don’t expect this phenomenon to go away anytime soon and encourage information providers and publishers to look closely at how they can embrace and integrate this new media into their traditional products,” he wrote in the report. M&A M&A ACTION A roundup of recent mergers and acquisitions Date Property 3/9 EnergyOcean, Offshore Communications 2/9 2/9 Buyer Access Intelligence (Veronis Suhler Stevenson) Spine Technology One-day conference on RRY P&M Corporate Summit spine technology industry Publications Finance Sources & Design Bimonthly trade magazine Ownby Babb-Schirra & Magazine covering design-related Design Associates products and services Description Events focused on the offshore drilling and oil and gas markets Seller Continental Shelf Associates Source: Jordan, Edmiston Group Transaction Database, 2009 mediabusinessonline.com | April 2009 | Media Business | 17 http://www.CQ.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - April 2009

BtoB Media Business - April 2009
Contents
‘Heavy Duty Trucking’ Wins Grand Neal Award
Online Lead-Gen Transforms the Media Business
Five Ways to Work with Your Printer to Cut Costs
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Online
Circulation
Events
People
Benchmarks
Media is Still All About the Audience

BtoB Media Business - April 2009