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 ]
News tagged with: #difficult part #playing games

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The Inside Story Behind SouthComm’s Rapid-Fire Breakup'


Axel Springer Wants to Buy Business Insider for Around $560 Million

German publishing giant Axel Springer is closing in on a deal to buy Business Insider, in a deal that would value the Web publisher at around $560 million.      Sources familiar with the two companies think a transaction could close w ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #axel springer #business insider #sources familiar


A Firing at The Los Angeles Times Focuses Discontent

In January, Jack Griffin, the chief executive of Tribune Publishing Company, took his senior management team to visit The Los Angeles Times, the jewel in his company’s portfolio of newspapers.   At a reception at the newspaper, an ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-09-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Axel Springer Eyes Controlling Stake in Business Insider

German publisher Axel Springer (SPRGn.DE) may want to increase its current 7 percent stake in U.S. news website Business Insider, German Manager Magazin reported on Thursday.   Citing unnamed financial sources, the magazine said the publisher of ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #business insider


10 Great Comics Short Story Collections

While many cartoonists can be defined by a singular book or series, collections of their shorter, sometimes lesser-known works can more intimately reflect their artistic sensibilities. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-09-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Inside the Hidden Costs of Programmatic

Agencies, for example, require more expensive people to work more often on smaller buys. Five full-time employees are needed to spend a $100 million national broadcast budget, one media agency executive said, while the same number would be needed for a $5 million programmatic buy. Those... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2015-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital-media companies #ad tech #5% commission


Margo Jefferson reveals life inside the black elite in 'Negroland'

At a time when black people are disrupting presidential campaign speeches nationwide in an effort to be recognized as human beings, "Negroland," the new memoir by Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Margo Jefferson, offers poignant insight into what it means to have been raised in the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #black people #human beings


Austin Buetner: Los Angeles Times publisher fired abruptly

‘I am not departing by choice’ – former investment banker hired a year ago by Tribune Publishing announces departure on Facebook, saying email was cut off Tribune Publishing Company has fired the publisher of the Los Angeles Times after little more than a year on the job.Tribune gave no public... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-09-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #baltimore sun


Portobello Books acquires 'chilling' gothic story collection

Portobello Books has acquired The Things We Lost in the Fire - a “chilling, compulsive” collection of gothic short stories - at auction. UK and Commonwealth rights to the collection, by Argentine writer Mariana Enriquez, were acquired by editor Anne Meadows from Sandra Pareja at Casanovas &... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #portobello books #casanovas lynch


'Bedtime Stories for Awful Children,' a free ebook from 'Year Walk' devs

The dark, freezing woods of Sweden are the perfect breeding ground for terrifying tales of naughty children who get what they deserve. This week, Simogo -- the developer of beautifully macabre game Year Walk, and mysterious narrative experiences De... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2015-09-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bedtime stories #free ebook


Call for Stories: Frankfurt Book Fair Show Dailies

We're looking for great stories for Publishing Perspectives' Frankfurt Book Fair Show Dailies, The deadline to pitch stories or editorial is September 10. The post Call for Stories: Frankfurt Book Fair Show Dailies appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #great stories #post call


Bear story to be Walliams’ next picture book

The Bear Who Went Boo!, about a cheeky polar bear cub, will be David Walliams’ next picture book, published by HarperCollins later this year.   Children’s publisher Ann-Janine Murtagh said the book, which will be released 5th November in time for Christmas, is a “deliciously funny new tale”... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #david walliams #bear story #picture book #big hit #perfect partner


The Story Behind (and Tips From) the Most Successful Crowdfunding Campaign in the History of Journalism

A simple WordPress blog named #NoHaceFaltaPapel didn’t exist a year ago. Well now it’s a publishing company whose El Español is responsible for the largest crowdfunding campaign for journalism to date. ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Seven Stories to publish book on history of illustration

Seven Stories has delved into its own archive to put together a book about children’s illustration, which it will publish with Walker Books in October. Drawn from the Archive: Hidden Histories of Illustration is edited by Sarah Lawrence, Seven Stories’ collection director, who looks at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #publish book #walker books #present day


Mario Vargas Llosa hits back at claim he sold story to Hola!

Nobel laureate slams ‘slanderous’ New York Times Book Review article that repeated information from the Daily MailNobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa has been forced to deny that he sold a story to Hola! magazine in Spain, and that he announced a new relationship on Twitter, following a review in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |


Inside Invention, Trinity Mirror’s content studio

U.K. publisher Trinity Mirror, which owns titles including the Daily Mirror, joined the content studio ranks last year with the launch of Invention. The 40-strong team is structured like a creative shop and uses audience insights to inform its pitches and ideas generation. Digital revenues from... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #trinity mirror #content studio #daily mirror #creative shop #digital revenues


Story of de Beauvoir love affair to Myriad

Myriad Editions has signed a “stunning” novelisation of the love affair between Simone de Beauvoir and American writer Nelson Algren. Fiction editor Holly Ainley bought UK and Commonwealth rights, including Canada, to Noon in Paris, Eight in Chicago by Chicago-born author Douglas Cowie, from... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #myriad editions #love affair #including canada #johnson alcock


Hitting bookstores soon: J.R.R. Tolkien's first fantasy story

'The Story of Kullervo,' a dark retelling of the 19th-century Finnish poem 'The Kalevala,' is the latest in a number of previously unpublished works by J.R.R. Tolkien. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2015-08-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #hitting bookstores


Galley Beggar launches short story comp

Independent publisher Galley Beggar Press is launching a short story competition this weekend. The Norwich-based publisher, which originally published Eimear McBride’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction winner A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, said the competition built on the success of its... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #norwich-based publisher #baileys women #fiction winner #half-formed thing #short story #unpublished writers


Gillian Flynn short story to be published

Weidenfeld & Nicolson is to publish Gillian Flynn’s short story The Grownup as a standalone book for the first time. The Grownup first appeared under the title What Do You Do? in Rogues (Titan Books), an anthology of short stories edited by George R R Martin and Gardner Dozois. It will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short story #weidenfeld nicolson #standalone book #gardner dozois #standalone paperback


HarperCollins to publish Tolkien 'legend' story

HarperCollins is set to release The Story of Kullervo by J.R.R. Tolkien as a novel for the first time later this month. The publisher confirmed that it will release the story on the 27th August, although no further details have yet been given. The story has been published once before – as part... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #27th august #standalone book