Crain Communications Acquires Emap Communications Ltd.’s Polymer …
Crain Communications Inc, and its weekly news publication Plastics News (PN), have greatly expanded their footprint in the global plastics industry by acquiring the Croydon, England-based polymer publications and events of publicly held Emap Communications Ltd. in London.
Completed July 27, the acquisition includes two publications - Plastics & Rubber Weekly (PRW) and the monthly European Plastics News (EPN) - as well as Emap’s Plastics Design & Moulding (PDM) exhibition, an annual U.K. industry awards event, and about a dozen European-based conferences. Publishing and Events Director Andrew Beevers will transfer with the business to Crain and head up the Croydon office and a team of 18 people.
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Headquartered in Detroit, Mich., Crain Communications Inc publishes more than 30 consumer, business and trade publications, including Plastics News, Tire Business, Automotive News/Automotive News Europe, Advertising Age, AutoWeek, Business Insurance/Business Insurance Europe, Modern Healthcare, InvestmentNews as well as business weeklies in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and New York, with numerous related electronic news sites. It has more than 1,000 employees located in 17 offices worldwide.
[via Business Wire (press release)]
Detroit’s ad community is very, very nervous.
Advertising employment in Michigan — which is concentrated in Detroit, traditionally the No. 4 ad market — has fallen off despite a rebound in U.S. advertising jobs nationwide from the downturn earlier in the decade. The state’s share of U.S. ad-spending employment is now 3.2 percent, down from 4.3 percent in the mid-1990s.
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Detroit agencies “are stuck with the “automotive stigma’ ” that causes many out-of-town advertisers to leave them off the pitch lists, said Russel Wohlwerth, principal of Ark Advisors. Only Southfield-based independent Doner and Warren-based Campbell-Ewald have been able to diversify their client rosters beyond their car accounts, he said.
Campbell-Ewald handles the U.S. Postal Service, Farmer’s Insurance, Alltell, U.S. Navy and the U.S. Mint, among others.
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Wohlwerth said marketers have the misperception that shops with big car accounts are dominated by those clients and will treat other accounts like second-class citizens. “The reality is that automotive is one of the toughest battleground categories in the marketplace and requires an incredibly diverse set of capabilities,” he said. Plus, he said, big auto agencies will “service the hell out of your business” because they highly value the diversification of a nonauto account.
[via Crain’s Detroit Business]
Cruise looks toward Detroit
Organizers of the Woodward Dream Cruise are reaching across Eight Mile to explore making the premier summertime event a regional attraction.
The Dream Cruise is sending invitations to elected officials, business and community leaders in Oakland and Wayne counties asking them to join a study group to determine whether it’s possible to expand the reach of the cruise and its economic impact on Metro Detroit.
“The Dream Cruise has grown organically over the last 13 years to become the biggest classic car event in the world,” says Joel Epstein, executive director of the Woodward Dream Cruise. “We have an opportunity now to take it to the next level, and to benefit the entire region in the process.”
Detroit Synergy already took the cruise to Detroit last year with events highlighting automotive historical sites but not really in any official capacity. The cruise is currently struggling to break even due to the cost on public infrastructure including hiring police officers. Of course the solution is not to make Detroit pay for it but to make the event bigger, with more commercial opportunities, attracting more people from out of town who will make the event pay for itself.
[via DetNews.com]
Iraq wins first Asian Cup soccer title
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - (07/29/07)–Defying orders from authorities, Iraqi soccer fans have been firing celebratory gunshots and pouring into the streets after Iraq’s national team clinched its first Asian Cup soccer championship Sunday.
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Iraqi-Americans also gathered in the streets of Dearborn — honking horns, sitting on car roofs and waving flags.
When they’re talking about celebratory gunshots it isn’t in Dearborn.
[via ABC12.com]
