Media Advisory Partners

Financial advisory and consulting firm serving organizations in media, marketing and education.

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Great example of marketing as service...

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Great article highlighting some of the market dynamics affecting video ad market...

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from Adatos newsletter.

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Method Framework's article explains how strategic planning needs change in fast moving markets.

Mark Holdreith, Partner, Media Advisory Partners

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Media Advisory Partners Advises on Space News Acquisition

Media Advisory Partners Serves As Exclusive Financial Advisor

In Pocket Ventures Acquisition of Space News

  Deal Is Latest In Essential Restructuring of Mid-Market Media

  New York, NY – [date] – Media Advisory Partners today announced it served as exclusive financial advisor to Pocket Ventures LLC in the group’s acquisition of Space News® print and digital media assets from Imaginova Corp. The transaction is the latest in an essential restructuring of mid-market media. Space News creates the media of record for the civil, military, and commercial space and satellite communications businesses, and has been serving the category for 23 years. It currently publishes weekly print and daily digital news.

  “The mid-market is ripe with brands that have global strength and unrealized value,” said Mark Holdreith, Media Advisory Partners. “Matching those opportunities with the right business models can take time and patience, but invariably offer terrific payoff for all concerned.”

  Media Advisory Partners worked with Pocket Ventures for nine months to identify the opportunity, initiate the transaction, assist with negotiations, and act as sole financial advisor to Pocket Ventures to complete the transaction. Pocket Ventures executives previously transformed the traditional print brands of Inside Communications into integrated digital, print, and event businesses. A new company, Space News Inc., will retain the current Space News staff, including Vice President/Publisher Paul McPherson and Editor Warren Ferster.

  "Space Newsisthe only weekly exclusively covering space issues, and has a clear world-wide leadership position in print," said Space News Inc. Chairman Felix Magowan. “We intend to build upon that by aggressively investing in digital initiatives. The space industry can be assured that we are responsible, long-term media investors who have the highest regard for Space News’ editorial quality and intend to uphold that tradition."

  For more information please contact: Mark Holdreith, [email protected]

  About Space News® and www.spacenews.com

Founded in 1989 and published 49 times a year and daily at www.spacenews.com, Space News is the bible of the aerospace industry, giving readers news and information they require and marketers a venue to speak to true decision makers in the industry. Based in Springfield, VA it counts among its 45,000 readers in 50 countries and 75,000 unique monthly visitors a literal Who’s Who of key decision makers in the $100 billion space business. Space News is available by subscription for $209 per year.

  About Pocket Ventures LLC

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Pocket Ventures is a media, information & event acquisition group making control investments in profitable, small to middle-market consumer and B2B brands in the outdoor, sports, environmental & technology arenas that have a digital upside.  For more information please see www.pocketventuresllc.com

  About Imaginova Corp.

Imaginova owns Orion Telescope & Binoculars, the world-wide leader in state-of-the art astronomy tools for enthusiasts. Since 1975 Orion has been offering telescopes for sale direct to customers, with an unswerving commitment to best quality products, value and unmatched customer care. For more information please see www.imaginova.com.

  About Media Advisory Partners, LLC

Media Advisory Partners is an unconventional financial advisory firm specializing in developing solutions to the complex financial and strategic challenges of middle market corporate clients and educational institutions through its consulting, development, and transactional services. For more information please see www.mediaadvisorypartners.com.

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This article clearly predicts that mobile advertising will siphon ad dollars from old media. The only question is when?

Rob Garrett, Partner

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Matt Comyns, an Executive Search executive at Russell Reynolds Associates brought this article to my attention.  I am happy he did as the study helps quantify the challenge brick and mortar retailers face when consumers visit their store to view products but then turn to their smart phones for price comparisons...comparisons that often lead to the consumer buying elsewhere.  as the article points out that retailers, especially Target, have cried "foul" and are pressuring vendors for relief.  it will be interesting indeed to see what solutions manufacturers offer their retail partners.  

Mark Holdreith, Media Advisory Partners

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This article focuses on a current conundrum: how to take advantage of the vastly increased amount of information about advertising measurement to make good placement decisions? There is no satisfactory answer yet.

Rob Garrett,  Partner

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Here David Carr publishes his full interview with John Paton, CEO of both Media News Group and Journal Register Co. Paton presents his vision for newspapers focusing on local news and dominating consumers' needs for local coverage.

I think his ideas have merit. We will see how successful he will be.

Rob Garrett,  Media Advisory Partners

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David Carr here does his usual good job of reporting but in this case he focuses on John Paton, who is leading the way in trying to adapt the newspaper business to the new digital world. I say Godspeed.

Rob Garrett

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in this NY Times article, Bill Keller discusses the value of our elite higher education system and the benefits of the current systems disruption...distributed learning.  He makes a good case for both operating together. 

Mark Holdreith, Media Advisory Partners

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This interview between Martin Langeveld and Dean Singleton, one of the most forward thinkers in the newspaper world, summarizes one man's recipe for continuation of the newspaper business: continued consolidation and more cost cutting. My question: what will remain when all of this is accomplished? Will the storied newspaper brand names survive the homogenization?

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In this Education Week opinion piece, Tony Bennett, Indiana’s superintendent of public instruction and the chairman of Chiefs for Change, a bipartisan coalition of state education leaders committed to comprehensive education reform, supports  the NCLB waiver.  He writes:

In many ways, this state-led reform movement has blazed the trail for a federal system that operates in a similarly effective manner. States should have the freedom to innovate as long as they are willing to embrace strong and swift accountability measures. At the federal level, expectations for a waiver policy should be high and clearly defined.

Mark Holdreith, Partner, Media Advisory Partners 

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Education Week reports on the harsh budget realities facing many of the nations school districts as the school year sets to begin...

"At least 23 states have approved cuts to K-12 programs in fiscal 2012, which in most states began in July, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington group that analyzes the impact of government policies on low- and moderate-income Americans. All told, those cuts will have a greater impact on education, health care, and other state services than in any year since the recession began, the center concluded."

I often hear that "throwing more money at schools is not the answer".  While spending wisely and innovation for positive and efficient change are part of the answer, it is certain that the spending cuts to be suffered are forcing difficult decisions with negative impact to student and community.  

Mark Holdreith, Partner, Media Advisory Partners

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world-shaker:

Scenario 1: So you just wrote something great the old fashioned way: on a piece of paper. Now you want to share it with your friends, a loved one, your teacher or your students.

Scenario 2: You have a few great printed photos that you think would look great in Instagram. But you don’t have a scanner and taking a picture of a picture is just a huge hassle.

Scenario 3: You are a teacher and wish students could simply scan their homework assignments in and send them to you via a Dropbox-like system. ( Ideal for distance or online-learning organizations.)

The Solution: There’s a new scanner that’s just been released that makes it easy, fast, and cheap to scan just about anything and quickly send it automatically to a storage cloud as well as social networks, iPads, iPhones, Evernote, Google Docs, and more. It’s called Doxie (cute name, no?) and it’s definitely worth checking out. It runs about $119 for an ‘education’ version which is simply a lower price point of the regular scanner for teachers and students.

Seems pretty interesting. (Disclosure: The reviewer was given a demo model to explore, but was not endorsed for the review).

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Mashable business and marketing editor, Todd Wasserman reports on a very interesting study from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, which found that people tend to remember print news more than online news.  Learn the details by clicking on this blog title above and take the poll to have your opinion counted.

Mark Holdreith, Partner, Media Advisory Partners

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In this edutopia blog, Eric Brunsell, outlines not only tools, but also important principles, (borrowing from rules of successful improv) to bring about successful classroom collaboration.  Eric's is very generous with his thoughts and mentioned resources.  The tools and options are many...however it seems to me that maximizing the return on these amazing tools remains dependent on the motivation, talent and creativity of the teacher.  

Mark Holdreith, Partner, Media Advisory Partners