Adweek, the US-based B2B brand, has a new parent company for the ninth time in its 41-year history. It operates across print, digital and audio platforms and claims an audience of more than 6m professionals. It has been acquired from Beringer Capital, of Toronto, by Shamrock Capital. Beringer has published Adweek for four years since the breakup of former parent Promethus Global Media.
Since it was founded in 1979 by A/S/M Communications Inc., the Adweek has been owned by: Affiliated Publications Inc, VNU, Nielsen, e5 Global Media, Prometheus Global Media, Mediabistro Holdings, and Beringer Capital, which acquired it in 2016. It is believed to have revenue of some $30m but the acquisiton price has not been disclosed.
Besides the seemingly regular change of ownership, Adweek’s history has been marked by the illustrious involvement, as editorial director, of Michael Wolff and, as editor-in-chief of New York magazine founder Clay Felker.
It has had an openly fierce competitive relationship with the 90-year-old Advertising Age, published by the privately-owned Crain Communications. In the 1980s, Felker said: ”Their competition is us and our competition is them. They can say what they want about us, but the fact is, they’re being pressed.” Rance Crain, then editor-in-chief of Ad Age, snapped back: “I see them as a nuisance but I don’t think they have the long-term dedication to be a threat over the years.” Ouch.
Shamrock Capital specialises in media, entertainment and communications. Its current portfolio includes RB Media, Netgear, Life Stage Media Group, and MarketCast. I wonder when they last looked at the UK-based £36m media-marketing B2B group Centaur whose share price has halved in the last 12 months. Would be a good fit with Adweek and much else in the Shamrock portfolio…
