Some consolidation afoot in the world of local online publishing: American City Business Journals, the Advance Publications-owned publishers of the Bizjournals network of local business sites, has bought Streetwise Media, which runs two websites based on crowdsourced local news, Bostinno in Boston and In the Capital in Washington, D.C. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Together the two sites in Streetwise had more than 9 million page views and 2.6 million monthly uniques, with their core audience young professionals in their 20s and 30s. It’s not clear whether the sale was because that wasn’t enough critical mass to keep the operation going as an independent concern — or whether Advance was interested in the two sites because they target a younger demographic than Bizjournals. The press spin, at least, puts the answer in the latter category.
“In a short amount of time, Streetwise has attracted a very loyal and robust audience that is different from but complementary to what we do at our business journals in Boston, Washington and elsewhere,” said Whitney Shaw, president and chief executive officer of ACBJ, in a statement.
Streetwise founders Chase Garbarino and Kevin McCarthy, the company says, will remain with the company as chief executive officer and chief technology officer, respectively, and they will continue to be based in Boston, and the plan is to expand the franchise to more cities. “With the support of their experience and nationwide platform, we believe Streetwise can become the country’s leading local news platform,” Garbarino said in a statement.
Whether that will extend to cover as many local areas as, say, AOL’s Patch remains to be seen.
In addition to 45 regional titles for Bizjournals, American City Business Journals publishes runs 700 business-to-business events annually and owns sports media company Sporting News; Hemmings Motor News, serving the collector car market; Inside Lacrosse and NASCAR Illustrated. Advance also owns Conde Nast, cable TV assets and more.