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The company that bought NYC’s Next magazine last spring just snapped up LA’s Frontiers too
Multimedia Platforms (MMP) has become one of the largest LGBT Media Companies in the US with the acquisition this week of Frontiers Media Holdings – publishers of the West Coast magazine, Frontiers.
MMP was founded in 2009, and went public in January (OTCQB: MMPW). The acquisition continues MMP’s rapid expansion since it made its stock market debut.
Earlier this year, the Fort Lauderdale-based company purchased the 33-year-old Columbia Funmap, Inc – which distributes LGBTI neighborhood ‘FunMaps’ to scene venues across the US.
In April, it announced that it was buying New York gay magazine, Next.
At the time, it’s CEO, Bobby Blair, told the Middle Market that the move was part of MMP’s plan to further increase its foothold of the LGBT media market.
‘What MMP is doing is crisscrossing the country. We’re negotiating with a prominent southern California brand that will hopefully give us a presence in that market.’
It now seems that the West Coast brand he was referring to was Frontiers Media Holdings. The acquisition gives MMP a presence across the US, but a particularly strong foothold in the lucrative East Coast and West Coast markets.
The US’s other major LGBTI media company is Here Media (The Advocate, OUT, Pride, Gay.Com, SheWired).
The Observer reports that Frontiers will expand to the East Coast and that Next will become available on the West Coast.
Michael Turner, owner of Frontiers Media and publisher of Frontiers, will become President of Digital Media for Multimedia Platforms. In a statement on MMP’s purchase of Frontiers, he said, ‘There are many exciting changes on the horizon, but I assure you that the award-winning content of Frontiers and its distinctive editorial voice will stay the same.
‘Soon Frontiers will go national, Next will come to California, and in the fall we will launch a next-generation online media hub that will include unique and aggregated news, lifestyle and entertainment stories, social blogs and premium video, all curated specifically for the global LGBT community.’
In a statement, MMP’s CEO Blair said, ‘We now lead in the three most populous states in the country – California, New York and Florida – and offer advertisers both national and international audiences. Our combined resources allow us to double print circulation and grow our web traffic exponentially in 2016.’
‘Anytime we see investment in LGBT media, that’s a good thing,’ said Cathy Renna, managing partner at LGBT marketing group Target Cue told the Observer.
‘LGBT media continues to be very under resourced and not as successful as it could be, because investments in that kind of niche media has been decreasing. But the community media is still vitally important.’
Ian Johnson, of Out Now Consulting, said the deal had potential pros and cons.
‘If the larger media company increases diversity of voices and opinions in content to the benefit of LGBT people then that is a good thing.
‘There is also a potential business benefit to a larger media company in offering cross-media packages to advertisers – although an aggregation of media can lead to less competition and choice for advertisers
‘Employees at combined media companies can sometimes face rationalization with resulting job losses as many larger media companies choose to combine back-office functions.
‘That said, it’s a tough media market out there, so if a larger company allows much-loved LGBT mastheads and media sites to sustain themselves profitably into the future, that is most definitely a strong positive outcome.’
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David Hudson
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