AdMedia frequently quoted in merger and acquisition news

"I don't know the real reason [why he's stepping down], but it has to be one of three reasons," said Rob Garrett, founder and managing director of media investment banking firm AdMedia Partners. "He wants to move back to California, he doesn't want to be CEO and realizes he's first in class in the venture-capital field, or [IDG Chairman] Pat McGovern doesn't want him to be CEO any longer."

B to B
December 22, 2005

"No longer a sleeper category, we predict business magazines in 2006 should closely match the excitement and buzz generated by celebrity publications in 2005. We have seen, and continue to see, new entrants in the business category with many large business magazines spinning off small business editions, and even high-profile companies entering the mix."
-Robert Garrett

Folio Magazine
December 21, 2005

"Private equity guys are in the business to make money," says Mark Edmiston, managing director of investment bank AdMedia Partners. "They're not issue-driven. And in the course of making money -- presuming it's legal -- any way works. They're asking themselves, 'Are we getting any profit out of this? No? Then let's break it up and do more with this.'"
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

CNNMoney.com
December 12, 2005

"If you see some future and you can't sell it at a price which pays you at all for that, then you're willing to hang on," said Rob Garrett, founder and managing director, AdMedia Partners. "It's sort of like putting a painting up for auction. You have a reserve price and if the bids don't come in above the reserve price you take it back home." Garrett said that, according to the grapevine, Advanstar had received bids, with Krakoff the first to back out. CBC with Providence Equity and J.P. Morgan "presumably" backing Cam Bishop were also bidding.

Folio:
December 8, 2005

Rob Garrett, managing partner of media merchant bank AdMedia Partners, said the Times' expansion into Canada will likely be a boon to the Times' mainstay marketers. "It'll be great for marketers who wish to target Canada but not a deterrent for those who don't," he said.

B to B
December 6, 2005

"I don't know the real reason [why he's stepping down], but it has to be one of three reasons," said Rob Garrett, founder and managing director of media investment banking firm AdMedia Partners. "He wants to move back to California, he doesn't want to be CEO and realizes he's first in class in the venture-capital field, or [IDG Chairman] Pat McGovern doesn't want him to be CEO any longer."

B to B
November 22, 2005

Add Men's Vogue to the stable of full-time publications at Conde Nast. The Company, a unit of Advance Publications, announced yesterday that its trial issue was successful with both readers and advertisers, and it had decided to swing into full-time production. ...

Despite the enthusiasm at Conde Nast, Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, financial advisers to magazines, was somewhat skeptical. "Vogue is so associated with women that it may be a problem," he said.
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

New York Times
October 6, 2005

Mark Edmiston, a managing director at investment bank Admedia Partners, Inc., believes that number could be as few as six inside a decade. Time Inc. and Hearst Magazines will be among the survivors, most likely, as will France's Hachette Filipacchi Medias SA. But the others could be a surprise, especially to veterans of America's shockingly xenophobic magazine business. "The question everyone's asking is how do you grow in a saturated market," Edmiston says of what's driving global consolidation. "The answer is you can't."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

The Deal
September 5, 2005

Polly Perkins of AdMedia Partners, the firm that handled the Fast Company and Inc. sales, notes that it, too, was not a typical deal. "It was done very fast," she said. "Most deals can take four to six months. But since Gruner + Jahr was leaving the business in the United States, this deal had to be concluded by June 30, and it was." Even though both magazines face considerable challenges, several big publishing companies - including Time Inc. - were interested in purchasing them.
-Polly Perkins Johnson, Vice President Business Development

The New York Sun
July 6, 2005

Meredith magazines will soon target women through major life stages-from young, active women (Fitness, American Baby) to 50 year olds with families (Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal). "It makes the company practically a womb-to-tomb women's publishing company," noted Mark Edmiston, managing director for AdMedia Partners.
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Mediaweek
May 30, 2005

"The magazine industry is extremely healthy," said Jay Kirsch, vice president of AdMedia Partners, financial advisers to magazines. "The newsweeklies are in tough shape, but the monthlies and lifestyle and enthusiast magazines are doing fabulously."

New York Times
May 2, 2005

Seth Alpert, managing director at media investment bank AdMedia Partners, agreed that the move made sense but said it may pose difficulties for CNET to brand itself as a provider of business information in addition to a provider of technology information.

Alpert also said BNET will need to grow its user base significantly to make a dent in the business information space, where the leading brands, such as BusinessWeek, with 1.6 million monthly unique visitors (according to comScore Media Metrix), attract significantly more traffic. More to the point, BusinessWeek has entered into a deal with TechTarget's Bitpipe to offer its visitors online access to technology white papers.
-Seth R. Alpert, Managing Director

B2B Media
April 1, 2005

Mark Edmiston, managing director of the M&A firm AdMedia Partners and the CEO of Newsweek from 1981 to 1986, says there had to be some degree of cooperation between the top news and business-side ranks for the magazine to have reinvented itself so effectively in the last decade or so, as the whole category has had to reinvent itself. "That, clearly, is where the teamwork came together," Edmiston says. "Time after time, the integrity of the editorial product has been maintained. The troops are not going to get rolled over by some guy out there with a good suit on. There's a comfort level there."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Adweek
March 14, 2005

Before the dot-com bust, Mark Walsh, then CEO of Verticalnet, infamously compared trade publications to "dinosaurs."

"The demise of print media has been perhaps overstated or at least accelerated too much in time," said Robert Garrett, president of media investment bank AdMedia Partners. "[Magazines] will be around."

B to B
March 14, 2005

Philip Palazzo, MD at AdMedia Partners, a financial advisory firm that counsels marketing and media companies, also notes that the past two decades have seen a shift from commission-based compensation to a fee-based system.

But he disagrees that the trend is likely to change because the O&M case was a question of unscrupulous employees, not a reflection of its billing practices.

"You find these types of cases, and they're isolated," he says. "I don't think it's an indictment of the billing system involved."
-Philip A. Palazzo, Jr., Managing Director

PR Week
February 21, 2005

"This year we will see a lot more agreement on price between buyers and sellers," said Robert Crosland, managing director of media investment bank AdMedia Partners. "After a certain period of time, everybody has adjusted their expectations."
crosland

Media Business
February 14, 2005

"Since [Sept. 11, 2001], advertising in Fortune has started creeping back up, though the 3,405 ad pages in 2004 were lower than the 4,012 pages in 2001 and the 6,259 pages of its peak year, 2000... Still, business magazines are hampered by a lack of technology advertising," said Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a financial adviser to magazines.
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

New York Times
February 8, 2005

Havas could find help elsewhere, as was made apparent in the interest in Grey among private equity firms. "There are tons of private equity investors out there looking for deals in this industry, mostly in specialty areas of marketing communications," says Abe Jones, a principal at investment bankers AdMedia Partners in New York. "They feel they can add value in a number of years and then spin off the company to the public or sell to a larger firm."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Adweek
January 3, 2005

In December Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director, AdMedia Partners, Inc. offered a valuation seminar to more than forty senior magazine publishing executives in Mexico City. His presentation entitled "Maximizing Value�A Strategic Discussion" was intended to present standard US valuation ratios to a market that seems ripe for sale and consolidation.

Edmiston reminded his audience that creating value is a process�sometimes a long one, not an event. Financials, to be sure, are the beginning of the discussion but not the end of it. He reminded attendees that are their assets are not on the balance sheet. He also suggested that globalization is both a threat and opportunity for those interested in increasing the earning value of their assets.

Edmiston's First Rule of value creation is . . .

More

Magazine Publishers of America
December 2004

"Home furnishings advertisers want 40-year-old women who can buy their expensive products," says Polly Perkins, business development director at AdMedia Partners. "More has broken the mold in having a fashion and beauty slant, and that's a tougher category."
-Polly Perkins Johnson, Vice President Business Development

Crain's New York Business
December 20, 2004

A recent survey by media investment bank AdMedia Partners found that potential buyers far outnumber potential sellers in the business media mergers and acquisitions market. Forty-seven business media executives participated in the M&A Snapshot Survey. In the magazine arena, 68% of respondents said they would be buyers in 2005; 22% said they would be inactive; and just 10% said they would be selling a magazine or magazines.

B to B
December 13, 2004

"The new money and expansion plans at Modern Luxury will sharply increase the struggle among publishers for advertisers like Tiffany, Bulgari and Hermés," said Mark M. Edmiston, managing director at AdMedia Partners, an investment banking and financial advisory firm. "I'm not sure you need more than one in any market," Mr. Edmiston said. "Even though these are very expensive products being advertised, the advertising budgets are actually not that big. It is unlikely that an advertiser is going to double his budget to accommodate both magazines in the market." -Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

New York Times
November 15, 2004

"Pfingsten is really building up on a different scale than Penton," said Bob Crosland, a managing director of New York investment firm AdMedia Partners, Inc., which focuses on the media and publishing industries. "Their strategy tends to be more opportunistic."

Mr. Crosland of AdMedia Partners said Pfingsten Partners is "one of the better roll-up companies that does media-related investments." He added that he wouldn't be surprised if it's sold within the next year.

"Every fund has a life," Mr. Crosland said. "Seven years is a pretty typical fund life. Pfingsten Partners is really in the business of adding value by combining assets and then turning around and making divestitures."

Crain's Cleveland Business
July 19, 2004

Some industry observers surmise that Ziff Davis' violation [Synapse Group, which operates freebizmag.com, for "improper record-keeping" in conjunction with a subscription program it ran for Ziff Davis Media's PC Magazine] was a little more than a technicality. "The question is: Did it diminish the value of the advertising? Did the subscribers get the magazine and did the advertising get exposure?" said Robert Crosland, managing director of media investment bank AdMedia Partners. "The only issue I see is that somebody didn't hold up their end of the deal. Ziff Davis got jobbed."

B to B
July 19, 2004

"EDA is probably the most significant source of competitive information in the heavy equipment markets like construction and trucking," said Robert Crosland, managing director at media investment bank AdMedia Partners. Crosland was an adviser to EDA when Randall acquired it.

B to B
April 5, 2004

"This was a business recession, not a consumer recession," says Bob Crosland, managing director at media investment bank AdMedia Partners. "Retail has held up relatively well compared with classic, smokestack b-to-b publishers like technology and manufacturing."

Folio:
March 1, 2004

"Given the results of the past few years, would Condé Nast make a bigger commitment to b-to-b? That's unlikely," says AdMedia Partners' Bob Crosland. "They own it and are making money," he says. "But they're not excited enough to want a more significant presence in this arena." On the other hand, Crosland expects to see more b-to-b/consumer hybrids coming out of the division.

Folio:
March 1, 2004

"This was a business recession, not a consumer recession," says Bob Crosland, managing director at media investment bank AdMedia Partners. "Retail has held up relatively well compared with classic, smokestack b-to-b publishers like technology and manufacturing."

Folio:
March 1, 2004

This was supposed to be the year when magazine M&A came roaring back, right? So why does it still feel so much like 2003? Be patient. "There are a lot of deals in the pipeline," says Robert Crosland, managing director at AdMedia Partners. "It's like a very deliberate process of getting them closed these days."

Folio:
March 1, 2004

The move of Chemical Week to PBI Media is a bid, in part, to trim costs. Robert Crosland, managing director of media investment bank AdMedia Partners, said that with two struggling assets, "they really have no need for separate management teams and overhead."

B to B
February 9, 2004

Commenting on the decision to shut down the print edition of Modern Physician, Robert Crosland, managing director of media investment bank AdMedia Partners, said, "It [Modern Physician] is in an overpublished market, and it doesn't have an advantageous position in that market."

B to B
December 4, 2003

It's hunting season, and for the first time since the ad recession sent valuations plummeting, the prey are coming out of hibernation. "The buyers have always been there," says AdMedia Partners managing director Mark Edmiston.
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Folio:
November 1, 2003

Between rising costs and falling quality, circulation has emerged as the trickiest issue for publishing management. The cost of acquiring subscribers - and single-copy distribution - continues to rise, but the marginal benefit of getting more readers has fallen. "The pressure on circulation is probably the biggest trend exacerbated by the recession," says Rob Garrett, president of investment bank AdMedia Partners. "Circulation's been harder to keep up. Magazines have cut back on their circulations and their rate bases, cutting back to their core customers."

Folio:
November 1, 2003

"There has been some talk Primedia was simply throwing off pieces as the ship was going down," noted Mark Edmiston, managing partner of AdMedia Partners, an investment banking firm. "But I don't think they would hire Conlin or that he would take the job [if that were the case]. He's a serious guy."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Mediaweek
October 20, 2003

"Creating an agency to service a single client is a model that works in today's marketplace," said Abe Jones, managing director of New York investment banking firm AdMedia Partners. "From a client's point of view, the benefits are accountability and efficiency," he said. "If I concentrate all my business with this unit, then I can get a better value or price for service. And the agency, by having a dedicated unit, can structure it efficiently to service that client."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Adweek
October 13, 2003

...the miniscule 0.9% boost in b-to-b ad pages in June 2003 compared with a year earlier was seen as a milestone in some quarters... Others were more guarded about the meaning of the ad increase "That's like the difference in the price of gas being $1.75 instead of $1.78," said Robert Crosland, managing director of media investment bank AdMedia Partners. "Statistically, it's not really meaningful. Where we're going to see increases that might be meaningful is after the new year begins. The January numbers will tell us where we're going."

B to B
September 15, 2003

"I think it's hard to say a $10-40 million account is below the radar [for big shops]," said Abbott Jones, managing director of New York investment banking firm AdMedia Partners. "A large agency like [J. Walter Thompson] would be very happy with a $15 million account."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Adweek
September 15, 2003

"Every time somebody buys something and every time somebody sells something, there's a divergence of opinion," said Robert Crosland, managing director of AdMedia Partners, Inc.

B to B
September 15, 2003

"This is a wonderful time to be buying," said Robert Garrett, president of AdMedia Partners, Inc., New York. "Most people feel that they've hit bottom and are bouncing along on the bottom. You're buying in a rising tide."

B to B
September 15, 2003

Working Woman had long been the weak sister in the act and its losses, says a magazine executive who asked not to be named, had scared away a handful of interested buyers in 2001. "Strategically, they focused on a smart niche by investing in Working Mother," says Robert Crosland, managing director at AdMedia Partners. "It's a sensible, renewable business that's got legs - there's an information need there."

Folio:
September 1, 2003

Virtually every other expenditure is predictable and can be budgeted with accuracy, but circulation remains a trial-and-error experience for new magazines, especially those launched outside of the major magazine companies, which have existing mailing lists and access to newsstands. "You can do test mailings, you can do modeling, but you still won't know if the dog is going to eat the dog food," says Bob Crosland, managing partner of AdMedia Partners.

Folio:
August 1, 2003

"There is a lot of pent-up demand, there are people that actually do want to sell their businesses and retire," Crosland said. "There are companies out there who are willing to buy things, but sellers are not confident they will be able to get the price they are seeking."

Electronic Information Report
July 21, 2003

The first quarter was sluggish for magazine M&A activity, and the war and continued economic uncertainty could keep things slow for the rest of the year. "The first issue that has to be dealt with is getting over the war," says Bob Crosland, managing director at AdMedia Partners. "Then people are going to turn their attention back to the state of the economy."

Folio:
May 1, 2003

Technological advances, including the Internet, also make the cost of doing business on a national scale affordable for small-agency operators. The boon to small agencies "could be seen as a silver lining to an otherwise difficult time," said Abbott Jones, managing director, AdMedia Partners, New York.
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Advertising Age
April 28, 2003

An AdMedia Partners survey, conducted in December 2002 and distributed under hotel doors, reveals a real thirst for some kind of activity: 76% of prospective agency buyers expect to complete an acquisition in 2003 while 27% of prospective sellers expect to sell all or part of their firms this year.

Advertising Age
April 14, 2003

"If American's current foray overseas lasts only as long as the first gulf war - about six weeks - revenue for the agencies ought to hold up as expected," says Abe Jones, a managing director at AdMedia Partners in New York, a boutique investment bank specializing in marketing transactions... Should events prove to be more protracted, he adds, "There will have to be some reviews of the revenue projections."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

The Wall Street Journal
March 31, 2003

"[The Times Co.'s] avowed strategy is to get rid of the smaller stuff," says Charles Wrubel, managing director at AdMedia Partners, Inc. in New York. Freedom "wouldn't make sense," given the company's publicly stated strategy of expanding the Times national edition and building strong regional clusters, as it has in New England.

Editor & Publisher
March 24, 2003

Mr. Bell's first priority must be, "convincing the institutional investors and analysts that Interpublic has fully evaluated and revealed the issues that have caused the problems," says Abe Jones, managing director at AdMedia Partners, a boutique investment bank specializing in advertising and marketing transactions.
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

The Wall Street Journal
February 28, 2003

Clients in all fields are more aggressively looking to ratchet down their fees. Abe Jones, managing director at AdMedia Partners in New York, a consulting firm, said the public relations business has been particularly vulnerable. "When a client gets proposals from an agency for a new project, cost is getting greater weight than ever before in the decision," he said.
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

The Wall Street Journal
February 26, 2003

Robert Crosland, managing director of investment banking firm AdMedia Partners, which specializes in show management and business media investments, explained that Weisel likely was able to buy Key3's debt at a significant discount, given the latter's weakened financial condition. "Key3Media is essentially being bailed out by its debtor," Crosland said. "Weisel bought all that bank debt and the bonds for the purpose of being able to take over."

Tradeshow Week
February 17, 2003

"Conde Nast wants [Seventeen] and can afford it," said Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners. "Hearst wants it and can afford it. Gruner & Jahr wants it and could afford it. There are any number of interested buyers out there, and they don't have to sell, but it might be a great time to find out what it is worth."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

New York Times
February 6, 2003

Will such innovations keep [Fairchild's] business-to-business unit strong? While praising the "smart" strategy and "pretty good" results, Robert Crosland, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York-based investment bank, says wait and see. "They've been holding their own quite well, but they're in segments of the economy [retail] that haven't been hurt as badly as everyone else," he says.

Folio:
February 2003

"The kinds of advertising Meredith gets has a broader base," said Mark Edmiston, a former president of Newsweek magazine who now is managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York-based company that specializes in magazine mergers and acquisitions. "They didn't get the very volatile advertising categories that zoomed up in the 1990s and zoomed back down starting in mid-2000."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Bloomberg News
January 29, 2003

New York media-investment bank AdMedia Partners is taking a harder look at the recent monthly and annual ad-revenue data from the Publishers Information Bureau, a closely watched measure of magazine success. According to AdMedia, while the data appear to show a rise in ad revenue in 2002, in fact "PIB data can be misleading," says Jay Kirsch, an AdMedia vice president. The firm suggests that while ad page volume is looking quite robust, "publishers are not converting those pages into revenue at quite the same level as they have previously."

Dow Jones News Service
January 14, 2003

Last year was characterized by the fact that there were very few mid-sized deals - the kind that Robert Crosland, managing director at investment bank and strategic advisory firm AdMedia Partners, Inc., says are indicative of the health of the industry�"The strategic guys were hunkering down last year and the financial guys were having a tough time finding financing," Crosland told EIR. "The ability to borrow money from banks to get senior debt financing has been very low... That's made it tough for financial buyers to put together attractive offers that would be accepted by sellers."

Electronic Information Report
January 13, 2003

"A new convergence between buyer and seller expectations and a loosening of bank lending requirements will spur more deals, even if the economy doesn't mount a strong recovery," said AdMedia President Robert Garrett. "Sellers no longer expect the inflated prices of the late '90s, and buyers are willing to pay a little more to get value."

B to B
January 13, 2003

After a two-year slump, mergers and acquisitions among U.S. media companies will pick up in 2003, according to a forecast by New York investment banking firm AdMedia Partners. "A new convergence between buyer and seller expectations and a loosening of bank lending requirements will spur more deals, even if the economy doesn't mount a strong recovery," AdMedia President Robert Garrett said. "Sellers no longer expect the inflated prices of the late '90s, and buyers are willing to pay a little more to get value."

B to B
December 12, 2002

"The stuff that's ephemeral is gone - no one's trying to sell [it]," says Edward H. Fitzelle, managing director, AdMedia Partners. "You're not seeing huge companies turning over. That's because people coming from the outside, looking at the industry, get turned off by what's going on here. It's the people in the know that are the buyers now."
-Ed Fitzelle, Managing Director

Folio:
December, 2002

Almost three years after America Online announced its purchase of Time Warner, the divisions within the media giant are finally beginning to work together, sources familiar with the situation say... "It's the first tangible evidence that the Time Warner people who took over AOL are running it as a company, versus warring faction," said Mark Edmiston, managing director of investment banking firm AdMedia Partners.
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Reuters Financial Report
November 25, 2002

"Comic-book advertising has come a long way from yesterday's low-production, back-page ads...'All of the sudden, the 'tween' boys, 9-to-12-year-old boys, have been discovered in the past couple of years," said Mark Edmiston, managing director of New York's AdMedia Partners. "Marvel is in the right place at the right time. I don't believe they say this coming."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Washington Post
November 13, 2002

"There's no substitute for huge," said Robert Crosland, managing director of AdMedia Partners, Inc. "Dominance, being big enough to put the fear of God into companies that compete with you, cannot be overestimated."

B to B
November 11, 2002

Some would argue the Playboy philosophy has been played out. "Society has sort of moved on. Sexual freedom, free speech - all these things are now very much enshrined," says Mark Edmiston, managing partner of investment banking firm AdMedia Partners. "It's really not just revitalizing it, it's kin of a redefinition. There's a time when you should take advantage of the change and change with the times. Hugh Hefner never did."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Mediaweek
October 21, 2002

On Oct. 14, D'Arcy's new parent Publicis Groupe announced plans to shutter the network and mover its accounts to other Publicis units. "It is a classic business case of evaluating a company's value," said Abe Jones, managing director of investment-bank boutique AdMedia Partners. "Is it worth more as a break-up opportunity or as a whole?"
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Advertising Age
October 21, 2002

"One reason for the slow rate of [M&A] activity is the lower cash flow against a perception of lower multiples," says Robert Crosland, managing director, AdMedia Partners.

Folio: First Day
October 7, 2002

"The possible range of a transaction is always constrained by two realities," says Robert Crosland III, a managing director at AdMedia Partners, a New York investment banking firm. "On the lower-end deals, it's a question of how much the acquirer is going to be able to borrow from the bank... Meanwhile for high-end deals, it's a question of what publicly traded companies are going for. That level has also gone down in recent years. So the result has been lower price multiples."

Folio:
October, 2002

"Deals aren't closing, but there's business, which hasn't happened in a long time," says Mark Edmiston, managing director at AdMedia Partners. "People are accepting that it's a flat environment. Those who were holding out for better times are realizing that's not going to happen in the short term, so they're considering their options."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Folio:
October, 2002

The pace of PR agency mergers and acquisitions slowed significantly last year, and for 2002, Abe Jones managing director at investment bank AdMedia Partners, says deals are fewer in number, smaller in size and major holding companies are the buyers in most cases.
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Advertising Age
September 30, 2002

"[Luxury titles] are competing for scarce resources," said Bob Crosland, managing director at AdMedia Partners, a New York investment bank that specializes in media and advertising. "Ultimately they'll fight it out, and there will be a survivor. There will be one publication that's favored. Advertising will migrate over time, and the other will be a speck of dust in people's memories."

San Francisco Chronicle
September 18, 2002

"You are still seeing [sellers] coming off what was essentially a bubble," adds Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, an investment banking firm. "They are still remembering the great prices of a couple of years ago and are reluctant to sell."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Mediaweek
September 16, 2002

Venerable Penton Media Inc., publisher of New Equipment Digest and Internet World, faces the prospect of having its stock delisted by the New York Stock Exchange... "I'm sure they're looking into every option there is to prevent [delisting] from happening," said Robert Crosland, managing director of New York investment bank AdMedia Partners, Inc. "It's something they want to avoid simply because it makes it really tough to move the share price when you're delisted."

B to B
September 9, 2002

PR merger and acquisition activity 'hit the wall' following 9/11, but Abe Jones, founder of AdMedia Partners, said he is experiencing a pickup in inquiries, and requests for valuation work from principals at firms. "They are looking for an exit strategy. They want to know when to sell, for how much and to whom," said Jones.
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

O'Dwyers PR Services Report
September 2002

"To G+J, this is a business, and they're out to turn a profit," says Robert Crosland, managing director, AdMedia Partners, a New York-based investment banking firm. "Dan Brewster and all of his people who work on the magazine are publishing professionals. To Rosie, it's not a vocation, it's an avocation. It's not something she depends upon for her livelihood. You can't just turn over the reins to someone coming from outside the marketplace."

Folio:
September 2002

"Oprah and Martha both have clear philosophies that are embodied in their magazines," says Mark Edmiston of AdMedia Partners, a media-focused investment bank. "With Rosie, there just appears to be an opinion."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

The Deal
August 20, 2002

Despite the moves undertaken by Ziff Davis, its debt remains formidable. The company has cut its staff and shuttered several publications, including Interactive Week. "They've pretty much eliminated all the products that were marginal," said Robert Crosland, managing director of AdMedia Partners. "They've done everything that you can do."

B to B
August 12, 2002

Bob Crosland, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York-based investment banking firm specializing in media, advertising and marketing, takes the long view: "The reason we call them 'business cycles' is that, by definition, the top of the market is always excessive and the bottom is always excessive." Crosland says the media business hit tops in decade-long cycles in 1979, 1989 and 1999.

B to B
August 12, 2002

"[Ziff Davis' financial trouble] is another hangover from the Internet environment," said Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York investment banking boutique. "They bet the market would grow, and it shrank dramatically - it became untenable and they need to restructure their debt."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Chicago Tribune
August 1, 2002

If the 10% gain [in ad revenue] is true, says Robert Crosland, managing director at AdMedia Partners, Time Inc. should feel terrific. "That's a remarkable performance. There's not many people out there who are getting double-digit growth. That makes them a star."

Folio:
August 2002

PR merger and acquisition activity 'hit the wall' following 9/11, but Abe Jones, founder of AdMedia Partners, said he is experiencing a pickup in inquiries, and requests for valuation work from principals at firms. "They are looking for an exit strategy. They want to know when to sell, for how much and to whom," said Jones.
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

O'Dwyers PR Daily
July 18, 2002

"I think [the revamped weekly Variety] raises a real question about the entire issue of frequency in the business press," said Robert Crosland, managing director of AdMedia Partners, Inc., a New York-based media investment bank. "Where timely delivery was of the essence, weekly frequency became something the industry demanded and expected and received. Now, you can have perpetual delivery, so you get it when it's hot."

B to B
July 15, 2002

Corry Publishing's acquisition [of VerticalNet's Small and Medium Business Group] has left some industry observers scratching their heads. "It's hard to make sense of it," said Seth Alpert, managing director of AdMedia Partners, Inc., an investment banking firm specializing in publishing and interactive industries.
-Seth R. Alpert, Managing Director

B to B
July 15, 2002

Brokers expect activity to pick up in the second half - or next year - following improved advertising trends. "I think it's going to be a little bit more active than it has been," said Charles Wrubel, managing director of AdMedia Partners, Inc., an investment bank specializing in media. "We are busier than we were six months ago. I see that continuing for the rest of the year."

Editor & Publisher
July 1, 2002

According to an AdMedia Partners, Inc. survey, media executives anticipate that the M&A marketplace for the sector will tick back up. "We were surprised by the level of optimism among media executives," said AdMedia managing director Edward Fitzelle, given that this survey was conducted around early January... While the survey showed the media executives expect to see M&A activity increase across the board, including the newspaper, magazine and book segments, they did not anticipate many couplings between traditional and interactive media.
-Ed Fitzelle, Managing Director

Mergers & Acquisitions Report
July 1, 2002

"Dominate the market - that's the name of the game," said Charles Wrubel, managing director at AdMedia Partners, a New York consulting and investment banking firm that specializes in media properties. Toward that end, [newspaper] players are sizing up a flurry of changes that have surfaced this spring, looking for their next moves.

Chicago Tribune
June 16, 2002

"Typically, successful magazines make a pretax profit of 12 percent to 15 percent per year," said magazine analyst Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York investment banking firm. Political journals have different aspirations. "They serve for keeping your name before the public and in gaining influence," Edmiston said.
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Washington Post
June 11, 2002

Visiting a newspaper web site may give you news, but don't expect to be exhorted to subscribe or place an ad. The investment bank AdMedia Partners, Inc. of New York prompted a random review of publishers' web sites when it released a survey saying that "as a group, newspapers trailed other media in generating Internet revenues and profits." Just 37 percent of newspaper companies said the expected web-generated profits this year, the survey said, compared to 46 percent of all media companies that responded.

NewsInc.
June 3, 2002

"Even before the AOL deal, Time Warner stock was never as high as it was separately before Time and Warner merged in 1989," said Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York investment banking firm. "In my personal opinion, synergy doesn't seem to work."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Washington Post
May 14, 2002

Media executives increasingly believe the investment in their new-media businesses soon will be returned with interest - but fewer are pouring money into them - according to the latest in a series of annual surveys by New York media investment bank AdMedia Partners, Inc. Overall, 46% of the executives surveyed expect their new-media businesses to make a profit in the current years, significantly more than the 41% who had such expectations last year.

Editor & Publisher
April 29, 2002

Robert Garrett, president of AdMedia Partners noted that 85% of magazine executives predict ad spending will bounce back before the end of 2002. Given the high hopes for ad spending, observed Garrett, it is not surprising the majority of respondents also expect the M&A marketplace for both consumer magazines and b2b publications to pick up.

MagazineWorld
April 5, 2002

"Media prices have declined with the economy as a whole," said Rob Garrett, president of AdMedia. Benchmark multiples for consumer and b-to-b magazines are down to 5-to-8 times cash flow vs. 8-to-12 times for consumer and 7-to-10 times for b-to-b in 2001.

Folio: First Day
April 3, 2002

"We may well see fairly brisk [M&A] activity as buyers seek bargain merchandise in advance of the economic recovery and companies that grew too big during the boom years seek to unload underperformers or properties that don't fit with their strategy," AdMedia Partners' President Robert Garrett said.

Reuters Financial Report
April 1, 2002

A survey by investment banking firm AdMedia Partners has found that most senior advertising executives predict mergers and acquisitions in media will slow down. Of the 900 executives surveyed, 80% believed sellers will wait until the advertising downturn is over before selling their company.

Mediaweek
March 29, 2002

Going public, "simply wouldn't have assured [Bcom3] of the return that they could get from Publicis right now," says Abbott C. Jones, managing director at AdMedia Partners, Inc., a New York investment banking boutique that specializes in advertising and media companies.
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Crain's Chicago Business
March 11, 2002

Mark Edmiston, a managing partner with AdMedia Partners, a New York media-investment boutique, said he heard about Goldman's effort [to create a magazine unit] on Thursday. "What I had heard is that they had done it... There is an agreement to put the money together and they're in the process of trying to find someone, a manager, to lead the group."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Dow Jones News Service
February 19, 2002

"Debt is a four-letter word," said Robert Crosland, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York-based investment bank... "When a company's cash flow goes down, the ratio of leverage goes up. It's not that the debt has changed; the ability to service the debt has changed."

B to B
February 11, 2002

"Publishing is still a cottage industry in the U.S.," says Mark Edmiston, managing director of the investment bank AdMedia Partners. "In comparison with other countries, and even with other media, the magazine business is still small and parochial. Americans still see many growth opportunities stateside. They have little facility for foreign languages, and they're uncomfortable with foreign cultures."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Folio:
2002 SourceBook

"Practically not one is making money [on the Web]," says Rob Garrett, president of AdMedia Partners. The situation forces investors to look elsewhere for signs of a site's viability - usually, Garrett says, at how much its audience is growing and how long they're staying. But there is some disagreement even there, along with a general confusion over what success on the Web means in the first place.

Folio:
2002 SourceBook

Abbott C. Jones, founder of AdMedia Partners in New York, said Mr. Allison had the good luck to be able to start his business with a minimum of financial risk. "[Public relations] is a professional service industry with no fixed assets," Mr. Jones said. "You are largely talking about the talents of a few individuals."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

New York Times
January 27, 2002

"There will certainly be instances of debt restructuring," says AdMedia Partners managing director Robert Crosland. "Clearly, there will be some assets sold in order to raise capital, and we'll see some of the other companies selling strategically, or bringing in new equity, doing some major restructuring."

Folio:
January 17, 2002

Bob Huntington, managing director of AdMedia Partners, said: "There have been several attempts to put together a [b-to-b agency] roll-up, which is what [3i] sounds like, and none of them have been successful to my knowledge."

B to B
January 14, 2002

"Continuing to invest in a down market pays substantial dividends as the economy turns around," says Mark Edmiston, managing director, AdMedia Partners, who was a top executive at Times Mirror Magazines during the last ad downturn. "Trying to save yourself out of a recession limits your ability to gain share in the future."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Folio:
December 15, 2001

Even if the IPO market recovers and the ad business rebounds from its current rout, Leo Burnett's parent might not be as attractive to investors as other agencies whose shares are already held by the public. Notes Abbott Jones, a managing director at AdMedia Partners, a New York firm specializing in transactions involving agencies and media companies: "They are making progress, but they are not there yet."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

The Wall Street Journal
November 23, 2001

Brokered by media investment bank AdMedia Partners, Inc., the Harris Infosource buy bolsters D&B's sales and marketing reach in the U.S. manufacturing/non-manufacturing database marketplace, according to AdMedia managing director Ed Fitzelle. With the B2B M&A market facing September 11 attacks that chilled an already cool economy, Fitzelle stresses deals will soon return to pre-WTC levels in the coming months. "Even with the world unraveling when you have good businesses and good buyers, deals are still going to happen," he claims.
-Ed Fitzelle, Managing Director

B to B
October 22, 2001

Making the odds longer [for magazine launches] is the growing reticence of venture capitalists and other sources of private equity. "If you're profitable there's money out there. If you're in the start-up phase, there's no money out there," says Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners and a former veteran Newsweek executive. "You'd have to finance it yourself in that case."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Advertising Age
October 22, 2001

Consumer magazines, says Mark Edmiston, managing director of AdMedia Partners, have average margins in the 12% to 15% range. Newspapers double this, radio tops newspapers, and local TV stations hit the forties. (Broadcast networks, Mr. Edmiston says, have fallen far from 10% to 15% margins pre-cable: "Now it's hard for them to make money.")
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Advertising Age
October 22, 2001

Upon learning which [Primedia] magazines were now up for sale, the bankers for prospective buyers didn't seem too impressed. "It's a pretty small step... To sell something so inconsequential is irrelevant," says Robert Crosland, a managing director of investment banking firm AdMedia Partners. "Primedia needs to take some purposeful action. They're really in between a rock and a hard place in this market."

Folio: First Day
October 8, 2001

"The agency business is full of raw deals," said Abe Jones, an industry analyst with AdMedia Partners in New York. "Foote Cone had been in an unstable environment for a long time. True North," he added, "was going through endless negotiations with various suitors and it's hard to keep clients universally happy."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Advertising Age
October 1, 2001

[Mademoiselle's] flawed editorial voice is only partly responsible for the magazine's positioning or lack thereof. As Ed Fitzelle, managing director with AdMedia Partners, Inc. in New York, said, "The key to women's lifestyle magazines is the position carved out in the reader market."
-Ed Fitzelle, Managing Director

The Deal
October 1, 2001

"In one sense, the holding companies are now virtually all headquartered in New York, so the financial power is even more concentrated among holding companies in New York and overseas."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Advertising Age
September 10, 2001

"As for H&S [Media Inc.], it's difficult to say what those people will do now, but those magazines are worthwhile assets and with good financing, someone could make that a successful business again. It was the company that failed, not the magazines."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Folio: First Day
September 5, 2001

"Advertisers are just not buying into the fully-integrated idea to the degree everyone had hoped. A number of advertisers have found it doesn't work in reality."

Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director
Delaney Report
September 3, 2001

Continuing-ed providers, corporate trainers and test-prep companies have confidence in their prospects for growth, but for-profit higher-ed providers are less sure. In a survey conducted recently by AdMedia Partners, about half the respondents in the first three categories said they expect the education industry to grow by 30 percent or more per year over the next three years.

University Business
September 2001

"[This media recession] is astoundingly like 10 years ago. This is worse because the dropoff is more dramatic."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Advertising Age
August 20, 2001

"Government accounts are notorious for their peculiar accounting practices. What I've been told by people who are involved is that there are lots of landmines that can go off if you're not knowledgeable about their accounting and billing practices."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Advertising Age
August 20, 2001

"At Petersen, there was a whole lot of fat they could take out and immediately juice up the earnings. Ziff Davis was really a much better-run company when Jim [Dunning] took over, so it's not been as easy."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Mediaweek
July 30, 2001

"Clearly the advertising economy is in its worst period since the early '90s. A number of people were added to agency staff to handle the rush of new business in 1999 and 2000, and many of those are now being laid off due to the downturn."
-Abbott C. Jones, Managing Director

Advertising Age
July 30, 2001

"While some of the biggest companies in the [education/training] field have made acquisitions in recent years, we can expect to see many more transactions involving firms of all sizes. Most are bullish about growth prospects for their market segments overall as well as their individual businesses. Even more important, they recognize that they have to take strategic action to attain their growth."
-Ed Fitzelle, Managing Director

The Heller Reports' EdNet Week Headlines
July 13, 2001

"People do believe there will be a recovery. It's not like the early eighties, where it was flat for years."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

July 2, 2001

"The more direct-sold subscriptions you have, and the fewer agency-sold subscriptions you have, the higher the quality. If you have mostly Publishers Clearinghouse orders, the value is low."
-Mark M. Edmiston, Managing Director

Folio:
June 15, 2001

"A year ago [financial players] could borrow five times cashflow. These days you're lucky if you can get three."
-Robert Crosland

Folio:
June 15, 2001

According to a recent study conducted by AdMedia Partners, Inc., a New York-based media investment banking firm, a majority of respondents still expect an increase in merger and acquisition activity between traditional media companies and interactive firm, despite the growing number of dot-com failures

B to B
June 11, 2001