Paid Content is reporting that Hachette Filipacchi (a unit of French media giant Lagardere) has bought out the automotive ad network Jumpstart for $110M, $84M in cash, $26M in incentives for future performance.
This is interesting, because I have never been very bullish on an ad rep network (I think Jumpstart is more ad rep than ad network)’s prospects, but a niche rep firm has a lot of success to go deep and cover all nooks and crannies.
Clearly, that’s what HP is betting on. HP, of course, owns and operates CarandDriver.com, RoadandTrack.com and CycleWorld.com. Since these are largely online properties of offline magazines, this clearly shows that in some cases, an offline sales arm might not be best suited to sell the respective online units. This is a major myth breaker.
When I worked in the men’s publishing industry, our competitors Maxim could wreak havoc on us by exerting their print/event/wireless/online assets against my company, that was only an online property, and well, was no Maxim.
This is really a bullish sign for other niche ad rep firms… of note, John Durham, an industry veteran I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years, joined Jumpstart Auto a few years ago… nice to see him getting this TD.
One question: why didn’t HP simply sign on as a publishing partner? I guess Jumpstart does a lot of business and this accelerates HP’s digital ambitions, as HP joins a long list of players from the old media who want to bolster their online assets.
I just hope that he and his team can navigate through the inherent conflicts now. Jumpstart sells ads for NADAguides, Vehix and J.D. Power Autos., going forward, methinks HP will want to shift more resources to their brands. And, one wonders if there are going to be publisher flights, I can see many ad reps giving NADAguides, Vehix and J.D. Power Autos. a call as we speak, but these should note that a niche ad rep is very different (pros and cons) to a general one.
The consolidation continues.
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