Why a magazine geared toward political operatives wants to expand into a B2B media empire
After getting acquired in 2011, Campaigns & Elections cut its print magazine, rebuilt its events business, and refocused on attracting a high-value, B2B audience.
When Shane Greer took over the magazine Campaigns & Elections in 2011, it was in a sorry state.
Founded in 1980, the outlet was once the gold standard for reporting on the political operatives who help candidates and corporations influence elections. Its case studies were closely studied by campaign managers and public affairs executives, and aspiring politicos in their late teens perused its listings when trying to break into the industry.
But by 2011, the magazine was limping along. Owned by a pharmaceutical publisher in New Jersey, it had failed to build out a robust digital presence and was sending the print magazine out to thousands of people who’d canceled their subscriptions years before. What’s worse, its content was no longer serving its core audience. “It had kind of trended a bit more toward generalist politics, which is not what a B2B publication like C&E is there for,” Greer told me. “Everything in media begins and ends with how good your content is and how it resonates with the audience. And they just tracked in a direction where they weren’t differentiated. They certainly weren’t resourced to provide the kind of broad spectrum political coverage that a New York Times does. So why are you trying to do that?”
Even its once-lucrative events had fallen by the wayside. For years, C&E had hosted an annual awards ceremony that was attended by top public affairs executives, but during the 2000s the magazine had stopped raising its ticket prices and fallen into the habit of letting vendors push it around. “They were asking for discounts or that we throw in an exhibit table for free or give them extra tickets — like those things don’t have any inherent value,” said Greer. “And I totally respect where they’re coming from on that; like if you’re sitting on the other side of the table and you look weak, you’d be silly not to take advantage of that, right? That’s the nature of things.”
At the time, Greer had been working with a private equity firm that owned a portfolio of media companies in the UK. The firm had invested in a politics news site he’d co-founded in 2007, then elevated him to oversee several publishers in its stable. It was his interest in political influence that led to him looking at C&E as an acquisitions target. “I kind of brought it to the table for them and said, hey, this is an interesting publication to add to your portfolio.” The firm not only bought C&E, but also installed him as director to run it.
Greer’s first order of business was to find an editor who could execute on his vision. He ended up hiring Shane D’Aprile, a former C&E editor who had left to cover Capitol Hill for a DC newspaper. Together, they set about realigning the magazine’s B2B coverage, building out its online operations, and restoring its events to their former glory.
Their strategy worked, and in 2015 Greer and D’Aprile actually acquired the magazine from the private equity firm. Since then, they’ve worked as business partners to vastly expand its operations, not only moving into new territories like Mexico but also acquiring other B2B media outlets that cover tightly regulated industries.
In a recent interview, Greer and D’Aprile walked me through their initial strategies for righting the C&E ship, explained why they acquired the magazine, and outlined their plans to build out a B2B media empire.
Let’s jump into it…
Righting the ship
One of Greer’s first orders of business after taking over C&E was to kill the print edition. In his view, a print magazine just served as an anchor that forced all business decisions to be made through the prism of how they aligned with the print schedule. With that format gone, Greer and his staff could put all their efforts into verticals that actually still had growth potential. “We are big believers in burning the lifeboats,” he told me. “You have to sink or swim. It’s either going to work or it’s going to fail, but that pressure and laser-like focus for everyone helped it turn that corner.”