New Niche Media Creates Luxury Print Network for Advertisers

The Niche, Greenspun and Ocean Drive Media merger may monopolize the regional lux market.

New York-based luxury publisher Niche Media Holdings, LLC, has joined forces with Henderson, Nevada-based Greenspun Media Group and Miami Beach, Florida-based Ocean Drive Media to merge the three companies' 16 luxury controlled-circulation magazines under one umbrella, Niche Media.

Only the luxury magazines from each company is included in the merger. Separate Web properties, custom publishing projects, newspapers and TV stations are not included in the deal.

"This is a marketplace where we've been operating and we have a comfort in the marketplace and we feel it has a very strong future so we're investing where we feel the most opportunities lie," says Michael T. Carr, president of Greenspun. "What we publish is very specialty and very niche. It's the wealth and luxury category where print is quite healthy and will be for the foreseeable future."

The three luxury publishing companies' magazine arsenal will have a combined distribution of 750,000 controlled circulation. With an average of 5.9 readers per copy, the titles are expected to reach 4.4 million readers. The united company will also execute more than 500 events each year and will employ more than 300 employees.

"We are three companies that all share the same vision and same business model," says Niche Media CEO Jason Binn. "The objective is to leverage all of the resources we have to a national network."

The merger means new opportunities for advertisers, says Carr. "Now we have a presence in 16 different marketplaces so for advertisers who want a national reach against key markets but want to be locally relevant, we have one-stop shopping for them that no one else can offer," he says. "The synergistic opportunity of being able to simplify the buying process for advertisers and at the same time amplify their effectiveness in local markets made all the sense in the world."

Family-owned Greenspun, which also publishes a number of newspaper and magazine publications and owns a variety of Web and TV products, publishes four luxury magazines including City Center, Vegas, Venetian Style and Wynn.

Niche Media's six glossies include Aspen Peak, Boston Common, Capitol File, Hamptons and Los Angeles Confidential. Ocean Drive, which previously published Vegas through a joint-venture with Greenspun, also brings in Art Basel, Ocean Drive, Ocean drive Espanol, Florida Inside Out, and Atlanta Peach. All of the titles will now operate under one umbrella as Niche Media.

"We just felt Niche Media is a strategic name," says Binn. "But it's not just a name or an attitude, it's a sensibility. With technology and the Web going so mass so fast, there's something special about truly being unique and niche."

"It's the brand that has the most publications out nationally and has, in our collective opinion, the largest brand recognition around the country," says Carr.

The merger leaves lux regional publisher Modern Luxury as the primary remaining direct competitor. The company, which was acquired by private equity firm Clarity Partners in May, publishes titles in Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles and a number other markets.

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