Northstar Travel Group is for sale after eight years of ownership by EagleTree Partners / Wasserstein. The US-based company’s major brands include: Travel Weekly (in the US, across Asia, and in China), PhoCusWright (digital-focused conferences and information), Inntopia (software), The Meetings Show, TravelAge West, Mountain Travel Symposium, and Business Travel News.
In 2023, it is believed to have had $120-130mn revenue and 25-30% EBITDA margins, and to be forecasting “strong double-digit” revenue growth in 2024 for the third consecutive year. Some 50% of revenue comes from 100+ events in 13 countries. It is believed to have made 10 acquisitions in the past eight years and now has a portfolio of 28 brands across digital, events and also print magazines, with a claimed audience of 1.4mn. An estimated 40% of the revenue is from events, with digital ads (25%), print ads (15%) readership (10%), software and e-commerce (10%).
EagleTree is the third private equity owner of Northstar most of whose assets had been successively owned by Ziff Davis, News Corp and Reed Elsevier in an eventful 35 years of media history. In 1989, Reed’s acquisition of the then Travel Information Group for $825mn (17x pre-tax profit) was a virtual lifesaver for the perilously-indebted News Corp. But the deal ultimately became a disaster for the buyer as part of a $2bn spending spree by Reed Travel Group which momentarily acccounted for 10% of parent company profits.
Reed’s whole strategy came crashing down in 1977 when it was exposed for falsifying circulation figures to sell $800mmn of advertising in its then largest profitmaker the Hotel & Travel Index directory. The upshot was the payment of an estimated £200mn ($300mn) to advertisers and, eventually, withdrawal from a market which had promised so much. Reed (now RELX) had once been the pre-digital world’s largest publisher of B2B magazines. RELX has since become a £80bn world-class analytics and data group. Only its high-performing £1.2bn-revenue RX trade show subsidiary – still, incidentally, the leader in travel industry exhibitions worldwide – is a reminder of the parent’s halcyon days in B2B media.
The stories linger because, all these years later, Northstar’s best-known brand remains Travel Weekly. The difference is that, at the time of its acquisition from Boston Venture, the 66-year-old-weekly was accounted for more than 60% of all revenue; it may now be less than 10% – and more digital than print.
Although EagleTree is a famously patient investor (its eight years as owner of Northstar is exceeded by several others in its portfolio), divestment plans for the travel group are thought to have been interrupted by the pandemic. But the past decade has also been punctuated by reported flirtations with the UK-based £20mn ($26mn) revenue Jacobs Media Group (whose international growth and its ownership of Travel Weekly in the UK must have rankled) and with the US-based Skift, both privately-owned. Northstar may also once have harboured ambitions to acquire RX’s 20 travel exhibitions including London’s World Travel Market and the Arabian Travel Market, in Dubai.
There might even have been times when RX itself wondered about acquiring a travel information business to complement its exhibitions but this seems an unlikely prospect now.
The most likely buyer of Northstar seems, for the fourth time, to be private equity. But many would-be investors will worry about its fragmented portfolio (including six print magazines), still too focussed (perhaps 65%) on the US, and with many conferences and too few trade shows. They may also think the paucity of high-value, paid-for information is either a weakness or an opportunity. (The empty ‘information’ tab on its web site may be an aberration). While funds-heavy pe firms pore over the numbers this month, could there be a surprise bidder? Could Jay Penske become the next media entrepreneur to seek to conquer the world of travel?
