It was a crazy week at Putman Media’s Schaumburg, Ill., offices. A series of low-key management meetings to wrap up the month of April turned into an emotional roller coaster, as our longtime leader and CEO John Cappelletti announced to the team the company’s May 1 purchase by Endeavor Business Media, a large and rapidly growing business-to-business media company with more than 550 employees, 6,000 customers and a database of over 9 million business professionals—all totals that are likely already outdated.
I’m delighted for John—and the rest of the Cappellettis—that he can take a well-deserved rest from four decades on the job, most of them in the CEO hotseat, guiding a relatively small, family-run media business through several recessions—including a Great one—the invention of the World Wide Web, and the mobile communications and social media revolutions. I, for one, will greatly miss his keen intellect, sharp instincts and generosity of spirt; building a business that supported the productive well-being of hundreds of individuals over the years I know brought him tremendous satisfaction.
New resources, new challenges
But, as they say, life goes on. I’m happy to have had the opportunity to work with John and the rest of his family, but also excited to see what’s next. My new CEO seems a smart, stand-up guy, and the rest of the team has been very welcoming. Now, as part of an organization an order of magnitude larger, we’ll also have access to deeper resources and greater support to continue to fulfill our mission of serving the process automation community’s information needs. We also join a number of very complementary titles within Endeavor's Manufacturing, Processing and Design & Engineering groups, such as Industry Week, Processing, Process Instrumentation, and Plastics, Machinery & Manufacturing among others.
"We are pleased to welcome the Putman Media family to Endeavor Business Media and are excited to expand our reach in the manufacturing market with these highly-respected brands and the teams who work on them," said Chris Ferrell, CEO of Endeavor Business Media, in a press release announcing the acquisition. "We are committed to growing our information and marketing solutions offerings for the engineering, automation and manufacturing professionals that Putman Media has served for the last 80 years, and are honored that Endeavor has been trusted to carry these brands forward."
In addition to Control, the other titles joining the Endeavor Business Media portfolio include Chemical Processing, Control Design, Food Processing, Pharma Manufacturing, Plant Services, Smart Industry and The Journal.
The more things change
Things are totally different around here. But at the same time, nothing has really changed.
Collectively, we'll continue to serve the world's largest audience of engineers, processors, maintenance, reliability and automation professionals, reaching more than 2 million global processing professionals each year in print and online. In fact, the change of ownership was so late-breaking that we haven't even had time to fully change over our emails or redesign the magazine. So, for now you'll still see signs of Putman Media throughout the magazine—and the website, too.
"The acquisition of Putman Media by Endeavor is an exciting opportunity for these market-leading brands,” added Cappelletti. “Leveraging the resources, audience reach and industry expertise across Endeavor's existing portfolio provides substantial growth opportunities, so that we may continue to serve our readers and customers with the highest quality of content, information and solutions."
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
