• by Tony Silber , Staff Writer, May 4, 2022

It seems like I’m writing about the remarkable Endeavor Business Media every week. On Monday, the company announced its seventh deal of 2022, withthe acquisition of Putman Media, a B2B company that specializes in manufacturing markets.

The acquisition of Putman, an 84-year-old privately held company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, is one of the most significant in Endeavor’s recent string of acquisitions. Terms were not disclosed.

Putman seeks to complement Endeavor’s manufacturing, processing and design and engineering groups, joining titles such as Industry Week, Processing, Process Instrumentation, and Plastics, Machinery & Manufacturing, among others.

Brands included in the acquisition are Chemical Processing, Control, Control Design, Food Processing, Pharma Manufacturing, Plant Services, Smart Industry, and The Journal. Collectively, Endeavor said in a press release, these brands represent the world’s largest audience of engineers, processors, maintenance, reliability and automation professionals, reaching more than two million global processing professionals each year in print and online.

"We are committed to growing our information and marketing solutions offerings for the engineering, automation and manufacturing professionals that Putman Media has served, and are honored that Endeavor has been trusted to carry these brands forward,” Endeavor Business Media CEO Chris Ferrell said.

Putman Media CEO John Cappelletti described the deal as an exciting opportunity for the Putman brands. “Leveraging the resources, audience reach and industry expertise across Endeavor’s existing portfolio provides substantial growth opportunities, so that we may continue to serve our readers and customers with the highest quality of content, information and solutions,” he said. Cappelletti will be retiring.

In April Endeavor acquired Construction Business Media, the transportation-and-water-media portfolio of Scranton Gillette Communications, and New South Research. In March it acquired Data Center Frontier, a business that tracks the future of data centers and cloud computing.

The challenge for Nashville-based Endeavor is to manage the integration of so many new brands—with their people, their company cultures, their reporting structures, their myriad software systems and more—at such a rapid pace.

It’s a big task, and one that stresses any company’s ability to absorb the changes while keeping their teams focused on producing great content and hitting budgets. Ferrell is confident about the process. “Our team has become highly efficient at executing our integration playbook,” he said. “The shared-services team members will be integrated into our shared-services departments over the next few months, and the operating units are getting to know their new colleagues to start sharing best practices in both directions.”