• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 4, 2007

In what appears to be the end of a media buying era, Omnicom has closed the St. Louis offices of PHD, once the largest media buying shop in the market, and the home of one of Madison Avenue's best known media services organizations. Details behind the closure could not be discerned at presstime, but on Friday, Schupp Co., a full-service agency operating for more than 14 years in St. Louis, said it hired several top executives of PHD's office there, including Managing Director Ray Ruzicka, and Associate Media Director Brian McLaughlin. Other former PHDers joining Schupp include Marianne Welsh and Keith Myers.

The closure of PHD St. Louis comes five months after Matt Seiler was named CEO of PHD North America, succeeding long-time PHD North America chief Steve Grubbs, who moved to CEO of parent Omnicom's Fuse Sports and Entertainment Group North America unit.

The move is the final chapter for a storied St. Louis media shop that began as the media department of Gardner Advertising, before becoming independent media services agency Advanswers, which was best known as the home of New York-based network TV buyer Paul Schulman. Schulman, who was one Madison Avenue's top media mavens for much of the 1980s and 1990s, was known for routinely making one of, if not the first, advertising buys during the networks' annual upfront advertising marketplaces.

Schulman retired in 2002 after 42 years in the business, and his Paul Schulman Co., and Advanswers ultimately were subsumed into Omnicom's burgeoning PHD network.

In its heyday, Advanswers employed more than 50 people.