AIM, Red 7 Go Shopping
Active Interest hopes Yoga Journal will open door to conferences
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 9/18/2006
Sept. 5 meant back to school, back to the post-Labor Day grind and back to acquisitions for two media firms, Active Interest Media and Red 7 Media.
AIM, a consumer enthusiast media firm, bought the leading yoga media firm, Yoga Journal, a producer of conferences (with small exhibitions), publications, books and DVDs. Red 7's purchase was Agenda USA, a producer of regional publications and Agenda Expo, a New York tradeshow for corporate event planners.
The financial terms were not disclosed for either deal. Jordan, Edmiston Group Inc. and Veronis Suhler Stevenson Mezzanine Partners represented Yoga Journal and Red 7 in their respective transactions. AIM is backed by the private equity firm Wind Point Partners; Primedia has a minority interest in Red 7.
AIM, a 3-year-old firm based in El Segundo, Calif., is headed by President and CEO Efrem "Skip" Zimbalist III, a former Times Mirror CFO.
Zimbalist said Yoga Journal represents the best of the kinds of properties the firm is looking to buy: "highly successful niche media companies with great future growth." Since 2000, ad revenue for the 31-year-old Yoga Journal magazine has quadrupled and circulation has tripled to 331,000, according to the company.
Yoga Journal CEO John Abbott will remain at the firm as executive director.
Abbott said he was thrilled to join AIM, as he "looked long and hard to find a home for Yoga Journal that would respect the historical integrity of the company, while providing the necessary funding and management to build all its media divisions into the peerless multiplatform media company dedicated to yoga."
JEGI Managing Director Scott Peters, who handled the Yoga Journal deal, said AIM is "an ideal partner who will be able to take the business to the next level."
He added, "John Abbott and his investors did a wonderful job taking Yoga Journal from a regional newsletter to a global franchise ... ."
Yoga Journal, based in San Francisco, currently produces three conferences each year ¡ª in San Francisco in January, Estes Park, Colo., in September and either Boston or Grand Geneva, Wis., in April or May. Its Colorado conference will take place for the 11th time next week at the Estes Park YMCA of the Rockies.
Next year, events are scheduled Jan. 18¨C21 at Hyatt Regency San Francisco, May 4¨C7 at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa and Sept. 24¨C30 at the Estes Park YMCA.
Also in 2007, the conferences will expand to include a continuing education teachers conference at New York's Marriott Marquis March 7¨C8. The event will precede the ECA World Fitness show there March 9¨C11.
According to Yoga Journal, its conferences typically feature 30 to 80 exhibitors and attract 1,300 to 2,000 attendees, mostly Yoga Journal readers and yoga practitioners seeking to interact with world-renowned instructors.
And now, with AIM's show management resources readily available, Yoga Journal looks to add more conferences, both in the United States and abroad, according to Yoga Journal spokeswoman Dayna Macy.
"We are looking mostly at Europe," she said. "We are in the planning stages as we speak."
Zimbalist said growth of the events' exhibition components is expected, but not right away.
"One of the issues that we have with a bigger tradeshow component to it is just space," he said. "We do have more demand than we can supply on the tradeshow side of things."
According to the Yoga Journal Events Web site, the conferences are already burgeoning ¡ª like their industry. The Web site reads: "Booth space is limited and we always sell out." At the events, exhibitors have a choice of either an 8¡ä¡Á10¡ä booth or a 6¡ä¡Á2¡ä table.
According to Yoga Journal's 2005 Yoga in America survey, Americans spend about $3 billion a year on yoga classes and products.
AIM's portfolio already includes consumer shows, including about a dozen Log & Timber Home Shows & Seminars around the country. In March, the company acquired Yachting Productions and its five consumer boat shows: Fort Lauderdale Intl. Boat Show (one of the world's largest), Miami Yacht and Brokerage Show, Palm Beach Boat Show, St. Petersburg Boat Show and Suncoast Boat Show.
AIM also publishes several enthusiast magazines (including some on building, Vegetarian Times, Better Nutrition, Southwest Art and Black Belt), Web sites, martial arts videos and books.
The Norwalk, Conn.-based Red 7, founded in 2002, publishes the magazines Event Marketer, Event Design, FOLIO and Circulation Management. Its executive conferences and seminars in the event and publishing industries include the Folio: Show Conference & Expo and the Circulation Management Conference & Expo.
Agenda USA, based in New York, was founded in 1988. Its publications target seven markets: New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Southern California, Northern California and Las Vegas.
Agenda Expo will next take place March 13 at New York's Marriott Marquis with about 125 exhibiting companies and nearly 600 pre-qualified attendees. The show is another event expected to grow via acquisition.
Red 7 President and CEO Kerry Smith, a former Primedia executive, said, "The plan is to grow the event in New York and look to expand it into other markets as well."
Agenda USA will continue to be led by John Jaxheimer, its founder and publisher, who will join Red 7's management team.
Tom Kemp, a managing director at VSS, called Red 7's purchase "a very strategic acquisition to strengthen their portfolio in the event marketing industry with regional publications and a small tradeshow in New York."
In other news, Motor Trend Auto Shows, which produces dozens of auto shows (some via its affiliate, IAS, as part of the Primedia Consumer Automotive Group), recently acquired two auto shows in Tennessee ¡ª the Memphis Intl. Auto Show and the Nashville Intl. Auto Show.
The Memphis show will next take place March 9¨C11 at the Memphis Cook Convention Center within 150,000 square feet. The Nashville show will take place April 6¨C8 at the Nashville Convention Center and span 120,000 sq. ft.
