It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks with back-to-back shows and the announcement we made last week that The SportsOneSource Group was acquiring from VNU Business Media all trademarks, brands, and assets that are part of the Sporting Goods Business group of publications and events. After the initial surge of calls and e-mails of congratulations and “wow” notes from our many industry friends, we hit the road running at the OR Summer Market with a re-energized and invigorated SGB team and an SOS team that sees great possibilities for the future.
While we spent much of the last week dispelling rumors of why we made the deal — no, we arent shutting SGB down — we also had the opportunity to tell the real story to a big slice of the sporting goods industry, a story that includes our vision for the most comprehensive sporting goods trade information platform ever available.
That platform now contains some of the most widely-recognized brand names in the sporting goods business as we add Sporting Goods Business, which has served this market faithfully for more than 38 years, and Sporting Goods Dealer, which has been serving the sporting goods and team dealer markets for more than 100 years, to a new media business that includes this newsletter, The B.O.S.S. Report, and daily UPDATE e-mail newsletters that reach in excess of 15,000 readers every day. Combining these very strong media assets, which also includes Outdoor Business, Hunting Business, Performance Sports Retailer, and our recently launched Specialty Market Retailer print publication, with SportsJobSource.com, the comprehensive online career services platform serving the sporting goods industry, and SportScanINFO, the only retail POS data reporting service that provides weekly data on the full range of sporting goods products, from athletic footwear and apparel to licensed products, athletic hardgoods, and outdoor equipment, truly creates a very powerful and synergistic platform that is now positioned to service you and your business for many years to come.
The real opportunity here comes in our ability to merge and capitalize on the capabilities of these very powerful brand names and tools to develop programs and products that have incremental value to you as subscribers, advertisers, retailers, vendors, and investors.
There are many plans in the works and some will take months, while others require days. We will review all the publications and make hard decisions about the proper positioning for each. We will also look at the events business and how it can further serve as a vital educational tool and another valuable component for the delivery of business information.
We expect to close on this transaction before September and you will immediately see new products and revised formats right after Labor Day. Please let us know what you like and what you feel needs improvement. If we arent spending the majority of our time working on how we can improve on products that service your ever-widening and evolving need for business information, then we are standing still.
The bottom line response to this deal has been excellent and it only makes us strive to work that much harder to make it a success. We wont let you — or these industry iconic brands — down. Thanks again for all your continued support and energy.
james
