I saw the news this week that Advance Digital has acquired MatchCraft, a company well known to all of us in the local/digital space.
The acquisition is a good move for MatchCraft in my view. It offers the firm stability and the opportunity to grow in an environment where the need to change is relentless. Having adequate funding and support to do this is critical.
MatchCraft is the engine behind the search engine marketing programs offered by many local media companies. MatchCraft particular strong in the global directories space, working with leading publishers like Sensis, Eniro and Truvo, as well as Advance and McClatchy in the U.S..
Advance Digital is part of Advance Publications, which owns some of the better known titles in magazine publishing — Fairchild, Conde Nasté and Golf Digest, among others. Advance Digital falls under the local group, which has about 30 local newspapers, among them the Birmingham News and Cleveland Plain Dealer, and corresponding local digital properties. it’s easy to see how Advance wants to own the technology powering its local digital offerings.
The press release announcing the deal made it clear that MatchCraft will continue to operate independently and pursue new customers. Now it can do so with a more robust backer. Congrats to Sean Greene and the rest of the MatchCraft team.
