The Inside Story Behind SouthComm’s Rapid-Fire Breakup

“The single hardest thing to do in business is to make a deal, whether you’re buying or selling.” Former SouthComm, Inc. COO Blair Johnson knew the magnitude of the task before him when, in November 2017, the company’s equity backer Solidus ousted CEO Chris Ferrell and indicated its desire to exit the publishing business within eight months. “At that time, Solidus had decided they wanted to liquidate their position and get out of SouthComm,” Johnson tells Folio:. “[Managing partner] Vic Gatto and the board made a decision that we needed to do it, and do it quickly, and that Chris was probably not the right person to do it. He likes to buy and build, and it’s a different strategy when you have to liquidate.” And so Solidus handed the company reins to Johnson—who took over as CEO—and CFO Bob Mahoney, and the pair immediately began the process of selling off a company that comprised alt-weeklies serving five different cities, a robust b2b media business, and hundreds of employees, among other assets. In a b2b-media space characterized by frequent mergers and acquisitions, the circumstances may have felt a bit like déjà vu all over again for Johnson, who had arrived at SouthComm from Cygnus Business Media in 2015 after four years helping transition that company from bankruptcy to breakup. “We essentially had eight different entities that we had to find a new home for,” Johnson continues. “Clearly, the biggest of these was the b2b assets from legacy Cygnus.” The relative... Continue reading at 'Folio Magazine'

[ Folio Magazine | 2018-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bath Spa graduate wins Stripes YA short story prize

Tracy Darnton, a graduate of the Bath Spa MA in writing for young people, has won this year’s Stripes YA Short Story Prize, run in partnership with The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors are basically storytellers who do their thing on the printed page (or on your favorite electronic device), instead of around the kitchen table or wherever people gather to swap stories. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookshop to give Harry Potter 'eighth story' profits to schools

The Big Green Bookshop is to donate all profits from the sales of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown) to local schools to enable them to buy books for their libraries. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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43 percent of Facebook users don’t know where the stories they read originally appeared

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[ Digiday | 2016-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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African Short Stories: Shortlist for 17th Caine Prize Announced

The winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize will be announced at an award ceremony and dinner at the Weston Library, Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, on July 4. The post African Short Stories: Shortlist for 17th Caine Prize Announced appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BEA 2016: Beth Macy: An Untold Story

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BEA 2016: Christine Sneed: Stories Living a New Life

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Inside Harvard Business Review’s Plans to Boost High-Frequency Traffic

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[ Folio Magazine | 2016-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers to tell Hillsborough disaster victims' stories

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[ The Bookseller | 2016-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Seven Stories Rushing Political Bios to Capitalize on Election Season

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Business Insider joins 1 billion monthly Facebook video views club

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[ Digiday | 2016-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Look Inside Books-A-Million's Used Bookstore

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Inside Brit + Co’s new Snapchat Discover partnership to brand the holidays

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[ Digiday | 2016-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Audible UK sponsors short story salon

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[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bobby Charlton's World Cup Story to Yellow Jersey

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[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Untold Life Stories of Buddhist Nuns Revealed

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Insider's Guide To Landing A Book Deal

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[ Fast Company | 2016-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Untold story' of Ripper victims to Doubleday

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[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Abuse of market power’: Inside German publishers’ legal beef with Google

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[ Digiday | 2016-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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