AMI Enters $10 Million Deal to Outsource Production

American Media, Inc. has entered into a more than $10 million deal with media production agency Fresh Media Group (Group FMG) as part of an ongoing effort to reduce production costs while scaling up its content distribution to various platforms.

Group FMG was selected because of its “global footprint,” says Michael Esposito, SVP, operations and digital production, which will allow AMI to “strategically source work to where it makes sense.”

“In a fully digital environment, we can handle the creative here in New York, technology in the UK, and certain production services out of Chennai, India,” Esposito tells FOLIO:.

The different time zones allow AMI to run a 24-hour operation without paying a premium, says Esposito, which is particularly relevant to the company’s weekly publications, including The National Enquirer, OK! Magazine, and Soap Opera Weekly.

AMI also plans to leverage Group FMG’s technology expertise to ramp up its content distribution to emerging platforms, such as mobile and tablets. “Content production is proliferating,” says Esposito. “This allows us to scale up.”

Esposito refers to this partnership as “the next step” in a series of production enhancements that have so far resulted in a 50 percent cost reduction over the last twelve months.

AMI intends to also offer these services to its publishing services clients, which include Playboy.

Group FMG lists as its clients Bauer Publishing, Conde Nast, Dennis Publishing, Haymarket Media Group, Readers Digest, and Hachette Filipacchi, where Esposito previously worked as vice president of operations.

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