Music outlets Spin and Stereogum will no longer be a part of Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group, parent company Valence Media announced Thursday.

The company is selling Spin to Next Management Partners.

“Spin is one of the most respected music/lifestyle publications,” said theCEO Jimmy Hutcheson via email while announcing the sale. “Boasting millions of readers, Spin began in 1985. In today’s noisy media landscape, brand reputation and authority are more important than ever, and we feel like we have a real winner on our hands with Spin.”

Terms of the deals were not disclosed. Hutcheson declined to comment further beyond his statement.

You can read more here: https://www.thewrap.com/next-management-partners-acquires-spin-media/

Music publications Spin and Stereogum will no longer be a part of Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group, parent company Valence Media announced today (Jan. 16).

Spin has been acquired by Next Management Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in digital media. This past year, Spin’s audience has grown over 40%, and the site successfully rebranded, bringing the iconic black and white logo from Spin’s inception in 1985 back. And artists such as Billie Eilish, Charli XCX and Ty Dolla Sign have graced recent covers. Next Management Partners will assume all assets and has engaged the current team to continue publishing.

You can read more here: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8548204/billboard-hollywood-reporter-media-group-spin-stereogum-sale

Speaking on NBA All-Star Baron Davis’ panel today in LA at his Pre-ESPY’s event/ conference (topics on digital media, and more). Baron now develops and invests in tech, lifestyle and digital media companies. One of his notable investments was Vitamin Water. NFL player Marty Bennett, and the CEO of Siltanen & Partners, Rob Siltanen, also spoke. Moderator: Fox Sports’ anchor Chris Broussard.

“Stacking Growth Summit 2” featured the world’s top growth marketers, digital media and tech executives, including Erick Miller, the CEO who sold what would become “Spectacles” to Snapchat. At the conference, Jimmy Hutcheson moderated a panel called “Getting Your Company Acquired” featuring Justin Choi, the CEO of Nativo who sold his company CIE Games to Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU), John Montgomery, Chief Creative Officer of R&R Partners, who sold Threshold Interactive, and Jonathan Zucker, SVP, Intrepid Investment Bankers.

Jimmy was asked to speak and share insights about the future of digital media at UCLA Anderson School of Business.

Zealot Networks, a digital-first media company that empowers entrepreneurs by delivering multi-platform revenue, distribution and development opportunities, announced today the acquisition of Hutch Media, an online magazine publishing group. The addition of Hutch Media to Zealot Networks begins to fulfill a component of the company’s distribution capabilities by offering destinations with niche audience for premium content.

Hutch Media operates a collection of digital magazines centered on specific content verticals from entertainment news (RumorFix) and home improvement (HGDIY) to parenting (BestMomsTV) reaching millions of fans and enthusiasts. The company also produces original digital programming and web series for numerous Fortune 500 marketers specifically tied to each of their platforms while also assisting in the distribution and monetization of that content.  Companies such as AOL and Scripps utilize Hutch Media for content distribution on its online properties.

“Hutch Media represents an opportunity for Zealot Networks to strengthen and elevate an already profitable company by activating our network of companies, lending support with our resources and digital media insight,” said Danny Zappin, president and CEO of Zealot Networks.

“When we created Hutch Media, we set out to build a widely distributed publishing portfolio with original and syndicated content for niche digital audiences,” said Jimmy Hutcheson, president of Hutch Media. “Now with Hutch Media joining Zealot Networks, we know this vision will be in good hands. Zealot Networks has important content and influencer relationships, as well as a unique view on digital media. We’re looking forward to the next evolution of Hutch Media as Zealot Networks looks to enhance our digital presence.”

About Zealot Networks, Inc.: 
Zealot Networks, Inc. is a digital-first media company that empowers entrepreneurs by delivering multi-platform revenue, distribution and development opportunities. The company is poised to lead the next chapter in the ongoing evolution of digital media with its new holistic approach to connecting entrepreneurs with brands and like-minded communities based on transparency, ingenuity and experience. Zealot is a privately funded company led by a well-rounded, talented team who share the same values and vision: Co-founded by President and CEO Danny Zappin; CFO Bob Vanech; CSO Conn Fishburn and CMO Chad Seymour. For more information, please visit www.zealotnetworks.com.

About Hutch Media: 
Established in 2007, Hutch Media is a privately funded digital magazine publishing company that owns 11 brands, including RumorFix. Hutch Media produces Internet TV programming, webisodes and unique editorial products around specific content themes. Hutch Media reaches millions of fans and enthusiasts through its collection of online magazines such as BestMomsTV, HGDIY and EgoTV, among others.

Jimmy Hutcheson is the Founder and President of EgoTVonline.com, an online entertainment network that creates original shows focusing on celebrities, pop-culture, business, sports and music. It’s “CNBC for an MTV generation”. Jimmy talks about creating content for this new medium and the struggles of building a business from scratch. A new industry of web broadcast entertainment has sprouted out of the success of youtube and a host of other second and third movers into the online video space. Though it is yet unclear how large this industry will become, we’re certain that viewers are spending a lot less time in front of the television and a lot more time online.

A Virtual Studio The challenge for Hutcheson and others is how to capitalize on this trend and capture some of the value it has created. Unlike YouTube, EgoTVonline is largely propped up by original content that it produces inhouse. It’s technically considered a studio and its own network. The site is largely built off of original content from individuals such as celebrities, trainers, models ,TV personalities and the like. For example, I paroused the site recently and came upon a “Dr. 90210-style” docu-series called “Dr. Botox”, a show that bluntly conveys the drama in the life of Dr. Kenny Siporin. This particular episode talked about his recent relationship with a 19 year girl whom he once had as a patient. Talk about mixing work and play!! The show is a take-off on the ever intriguing notion that Hollywood plastic surgeons have somehow become celebrities in their own right and have been just as able to dip their feet into the life of excess, starlets, sex, and partying that other real celebrities have been known to get involved with.

Some other note worthy shows I came across on EgoTV were “So Fresh and So Cheap” a style guide reality series that attempts to make fashionistas out of your every day person with a little help from the best thrift stores in America. “Dream Jobs”, a show hosted by comedian Tom Arnold. Rather than showcasing traditional corporate jobs “Dream Jobs” looks at unconventional careers such as belly dancing, in a tongue and cheek, yet still respectable manner. And lastly “EgoScoop” hosted by Jason ‘Gummi Bear’ Davis, is a edgier version of E! News that gives a behind the scenes look into the life and times of Hollywood.

EgotTVonline has enough going for it to feed the ferocious appetites of even the biggest celebritaniac. We just hope that it is able to continue monetizing and figuring out a way to offer compensation for top talent. Because as we all know, in the world of entertainment nothing comes cheap. For Hutcheson, the magic formula has been to balance growth with low cost production and advertising.

Online magazine publishing company Hutch Media today acquired the anti-tabloid entertainment website RumorFix.com, created by Jay McGraw.

Jay McGraw is the creator and executive producer of the Emmy® award-winning, syndicated daytime series “The Doctors,” a New York Times best-selling author, start-up developer, and the son of Dr. Phil McGraw.

“With strong market traction and a unique heritage in the celebrity news marketplace, the Hutch Media team is thrilled to add RumorFix to our growing family of entertainment and instructional content,” said Jimmy Hutcheson, president of Hutch Media.  “We intend to maintain the integrity of the brand, integrate RumorFix into Hutch Media’s platform, grow revenues, and expand the audience distribution footprint of RumorFix.”

“RumorFix was an important business venture for us.  With the proliferation of tabloid sites, I set out to provide a legitimate and safe forum for celebrities to “fix” false rumors while at the same time, satiate consumers’ never-ending hunger for celebrity news. The site’s success exceeded our expectations and I’m excited to watch its further development and scope under the expert guidance of Hutch Media.  Jimmy Hutcheson and his team are skilled in content development, marketing, distribution and monetization in the online publishing arena and it will be rewarding to follow RumorFix as it continues to flourish under their direction,” said Jay McGraw.

Hinting at its ambitions to enter the original publishing realm, digital agency Zealot Networks of Venice has purchased Hutch Media, a small network of websites, for an undisclosed amount of cash and equity.

Since its founding last August, Zealot has raised $30 million in venture capital it has deployed to buy a number of online marketing and talent agencies. With Hutch in the fold, Zealot’s desire to build new audiences, likely to sell advertisements against, is beginning to appear.

Hutch is a small Los Angeles company that has five employees and runs RumorFix, a celebrity rumor website; HGDIY, a home improvement website; and BestMomsTV, a parenting site. Conn Fishburn, Zealot Networks’ chief strategy officer, said the purchase underscores Zealot’s interest in building targeted content for niche audiences.

“When we look at publishing, relevancy is a massive opportunity to tap into people’s passions,” said Fishburn. “It’s a bigger play around creating relevancy and engagement and telling stories across specific verticals.”

Interest in niche content, seen as a way to build smaller audiences with intense interests as opposed to large, unfocused audiences, is growing.

“When you start to look at distribution of communities and clusters of people, the long tail is where you see the social engagement,” said Fishburn. Niche audiences are generally found on the “long tail” of the audience distribution graph.

“The primary driver of what we are doing isn’t demographic based, but psychographic based. It’s a mindset,” he said.

Zealot’s approach to making money from online content is the reverse of most modern media operations. Rather than first publishing content, building an audience around that content and then selling that audience to advertisers, Zealot has used investor cash to purchase relationships with advertisers first, in order to apparently reverse engineer audiences and content for particular marketing needs.

Hutch, said Fishburn, is just the beginning.

“We bought Hutch because of the skill set that Hutch has, their ability to understand audiences and their ability to scale up with extra resources,” he said. “It’s really the team that will be integrated into a larger publishing play.”