Electronic Media Talks to Investors; Benjamin Group Moves to Irvine
Freedom Communications Inc., the Irvine-based parent of the Orange County Register, expects to see revenue growth of roughly 20% to nearly $1 billion in annual sales by the end of next year as it folds in this year’s newspaper buying spree.
Since July, Freedom has spent more than $200 million to acquire four daily newspapers and 10 non-daily publications, including Coast magazine last week. This year, Freedom is expected to end the year with an estimated $835 million in annual sales compared to an estimated $770 million in 1999. The company now owns and operates 29 daily newspapers, 44 weeklies, 20 magazines, eight TV stations and 70 Internet sites.
Freedom’s new dailies are The Alton Telegraph in Illinois, and the Scottsdale and East Valley Tribune, the Daily News-Sun and the Yuma Daily-Sun, all in Arizona. Among the other newspapers is a deal to create a new company with MEXUS Publishing called Freedom Publicaciones to print and distribute a monthly Spanish language tabloid targeted at communities in Mexico just south of the U.S. border.
“More newspapers hit the market this past year than any other time in history,” said Jonathan Segal, who heads up Freedom’s community newspaper division.
The acquisitions stand to grow Freedom’s annual revenue by roughly $100 million, Segal said.
Additionally, the success of TV shows such as CBS’ “Survivor” and ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” has made it a banner year for Freedom’s five CBS and three ABC network TV affiliates, Freedom Spokesman Mike Lednovich said. The division expects double-digit increases this year, he added.
While “Survivor” helped generate a younger audience for CBS, both shows proved that networks can hold their own against cable channels and deliver a mass audience, Lednovich said.
Finally, Ron Redfern recently left his post as president and chief operating officer of the Orange County Register to become vice president of the new Interactive Newspaper Group at Freedom. Redfern will report to both Segal and Register Publisher N. Christian Anderson III. The move marks the dismantling of Freedom’s interactive division as it puts the company’s Internet sites back under local leadership with individual newspapers, magazines and TV companies reporting to Redfern. Anderson will pick up Redfern’s Register duties. Freedom Interactive Media Division President Greg Hurst, who has overseen the division since its formation a year ago, will be leaving later this year but may continue to work with Freedom as a consultant.
Electronic Media Seeks Funding
Electronic Media Communications, Irvine, a PR firm that specializes in broadcast and Internet publicity, is looking to secure several million dollars in funding from five wealthy individual investors and a venture capital firm, to finance expansion into several key markets in California and Las Vegas.
The PR firm, whose clients include other PR firms and corporations, already has invested about $300,000 of its own money to develop new products such as software. It’s also added 15 employees this year to handle its growing business. Billings are up 81% for the seven months ended July 31, compared with the same period a year ago. Last year, the agency’s revenues were roughly $2.5 million.
“I think that corporations and PR professionals have realized that PR has become a fully integrated practice,” said President Patrick Pharris. “Before it was print-oriented and it hadn’t evolved other than video news releases, but we went further and integrated our business.”
Larger PR firms such as Fleishman-Hillard have subcontracted work to Electronic Media. One recent assignment by Fleishman-Hillard was to launch Metricom Inc.’s Ricochet wireless product line in a broadcast live over the Internet that was delivered to dozens of journalists via Electronic Media’s site, presskit.com, Pharris said.
Benjamin Group Moves to Irvine
Benjamin Group/BSMG Worldwide, a unit of True North Communications, moved from Santa Ana into new larger offices in Irvine to accommodate its growing staff.
The PR shop, whose specialty is tech clients such as Toshiba Corp., Ingram Micro Inc. and Kingston Technology Co., maintained its No. 1 standing with a 39% rise in fee income to $5.5 million.
Benjamin Group, which has offices in OC and Silicon Valley, was acquired in July 1999 by BSMG, a wholly owned subsidiary of True North.
Bits and Pieces:
Morgan Marketing and Public Relations, Irvine, has picked up a new PR account with CHOC Foundation for Children to launch its Kids’ Cards 2000 greeting cards created by current and former patients of Children’s Hospital of Orange County Strategies, Costa Mesa, will handle PR for an Internet solutions provider in Newport Beach called Net Chemistry Vitrorobertson, San Diego, is launching a new campaign for Irvine-based athletic shoe manufacturer Asics Tiger Corp. under the tagline “My sport. My brand.” The agency also handles media planning for Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc. DGWB Advertising, Irvine, recently lost a bid for the five-year $25 million anti-smoking account of the state Department of Health Services. The account was awarded to Ground Zero in Marina del Rey.
