The acquisitive Firecrown Media, the Tennessee, US-based group of trucking B2B and specpubs across boats and aircraft – this week announced its $12-15mn acquisition of railroad and space brands from Kalmbach Media. The brands include Trains, Model Railroader and Astronomy, with an estimated revenue of $20mn and $3mn EBITDA.
It’s the first acquisition since the January 2024 reorganisation of media businesses controlled by Craig Fuller under which Firecrown ‘acquired’ FreightWaves Media (video, news, events) while its SONAR Price Reporting Agency and trucking data business was established as a separate entity. In 2023, it had acquired Sweden-based Bonnier’s US marine brands, including: Boating, Yachting, Sailing World, Cruising World, Sport Fishing Television, and the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series for a price believed to be 1x $15-20mn revenue and 4x EBITDA. The previous year, Fuller had paid $5mn to acquire Bonnier’s 96-year-old Flying magazine.
It’s only seven years since Fuller launched what he had described as the “sustainable, high-growth” US-based provider of news, intelligence and pricing to the trucking, logistics and freight industries:
“My father took his third-generation, family-owned trucking company public in 1994. As part of that process – a family business becoming a publicly traded company – I became very interested in the capital markets. I began consuming financial news and information. In 2015, I was doing some day-trading and watching CNBC non-stop. This was during the commodities crash and they kept talking about the Baltic Dry-Index, a benchmark index tracking global bulk freight pricing which is a barometer of the global economy. Knowing that North American trucking is the largest freight market in the world and its multiples are actually bigger than the bulk ocean market, I couldn’t figure out why they never talked about trucking in a similar context.”
He soon realized that was because there was so little benchmark or pricing information about the trucking market – so he decided to build it. In the intervening years, FreightWaves expanded from trucking to cover all modes of transportation – freight, aviation, rail, ocean – and the company’s focus expanded to become a source of news and intelligence about global supply chains. That was before the 2024 split into FreightWaves Media (as part of Firecrown) and the SONAR analytics platform.
Fuller continues to be leader both of Firecrown and SONAR (which has a supply and co-branding relationship with FreightWaves). He and his family are owners of Firecrown but, separately, SONAR has a dozen investors including Hearst Ventures.
The pro forma for Fuller’s expanding media interests in 2024 are estimated as follows:
| Craig Fuller 2024 pro forma SnapShot $mn | Revenue | EBITDA | Margin | Headcount |
| Firecrown | 60 | 8 | 13% | 260 |
| SONAR | 30* | — | —- | 87 |
Fuller continues to be seeking acquisitions for Firecrown in a specpub market that has been eschewed by private equity, either because the companies are too small or are (still) often tied to print. That’s why Firecrown continues to acquire established and profitable brands at 3-5x EBITDA and has been able to ramp-up profitability through eCommerce; his scale economies help too.
For all the apparent disconnect between the supply chain B2B media and B2C specpubs, Fuller has been able to apply the FreightWaves video and online programming resources to his leisure brands. His success in markets where more experienced publishers have been struggling for years may be illustrated by his claim that he cut some $5mn from the costs of his former Bonnier business and managed to treble the profit in Year One. He is reportedly close to completing more specpub acquisitions and is also believed to be interested in acquiring boating and aviation brands in the UK.
But the SONAR PRA and data may offer a completely different level of potential, hence the canny, value-enhancing decision to split it (and the events) from the FreightWaves business of news, information, audio and video – even though the original data-news-events combination reflected the 360-degree approach of the mighty Bloomberg that had once inspired Fuller’s strategy.
SONAR is ready to break into profit in the last quarter of 2024 (breakeven for the whole year). Ever before he has resolved confusion about the FreightWaves branding, it may be time for Craig Fuller and his investors to explore a deal with any of the big PRA firms (like S&P Global, Argus, and OPIS) which recognises the scale and growth of its US trucking data, pricing and data business – but also the way that freight so clearly interacts with the energy data of the PRA leaders. As we’ve noted before, S&P is not only the world-leading Platts energy PRA but also owner of global shipping intelligence services. SONAR investor Hearst (owner of Fitch Ratings and now steeped in high-value business information) may also have some good ideas. What’s next?
