Three Shuttering Pubs at Ascend Media

I was sent a tip today that Ascend’s Physician’s Money Digest will be shuttering after the November issue, and that Family Practice Recertification and Internal Medicine World Report will fold at the end of the year.  I called Will Passano, division president, and Cam Bishop, CEO of the company, and left messages.  I also emailed Bishop.  No response so far. (If you have more news on this story, please email me at jgreenfield@accessintel.com.)

This is just more negative news coming out of a company that seemed to have so much promise when it was formed.   This year alone, Ascend has sold its top-performing division (Stagnito) to BNP Media, and lost a top executive in Ron Wall.  When I’ve spoken to top executives at Ascend about the state of the company this past year, they’ve said the right things, but didn’t sound to happy or confident.

Meanwhile, Wall goes to Apprise Media, and is now part of an organization that has increased revenues by 33% and profits by 55% in the two years it has existed, the company announced today: both through acquisition and organic growth.

Troubles that we’ve seen this year at Ascend, BNP/Stagnito, and Cygnus are unfortunate for those companies, the people that work there, and the industry as a whole, but these strong profit and revenue increases from Apprise go to show that the news isn’t always all bad, even in a print-challeneged 2007.