BizWest Media acquires BCBR

BOULDER – BizWest Media LLC, a newly formed company led by Jeff Nuttall and Christopher Wood, has acquired business publications in Colorado and Wyoming.

The publications include the Boulder County Business Report, based in Boulder; the Northern Colorado Business Report, based in Fort Collins; and the Wyoming Business Report, based in Cheyenne and Casper. Also included are various industry directories, magazines, websites and events.

BizWest, through its ownership of Northern Colorado Business Report Inc., also controls DataJoe LLC, a Lakewood, Colorado-based company that provides research tools for business journals and trade publications internationally. Dan Feiveson will continue as a partner in DataJoe. BizWest will be co-headquartered in Boulder and Fort Collins.

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Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ohio Community Media LLC, a company formed to operate the assets of the bankrupt Brown Publishing Co., Brown Media Holdings and related entities, sold the Colorado and Wyoming properties to BizWest. OCM, organized by a consortium of lenders in the Brown bankruptcy, had assumed ownership of the Boulder County Business Report and a majority interest in Northern Colorado Business Report Inc. on Sept. 3, 2010, after a court-ordered bankruptcy sale.

“This is a milestone for our publications,´ said Wood, who will continue as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report. “We look forward to turning our attention away from the uncertainties of bankruptcy and its aftermath and toward growing our strong brand of local business news. It’s time to get down to business.”

Nuttall will continue to serve as publisher of the Northern Colorado Business Report. Both Nuttall and Wood will serve as managers of BizWest.

“For Chris Wood and me, the idea of owning our newspapers has been an unrealized dream for more than 15 years,” Nuttall said. “It’s a surreal feeling to finally have achieved our goal. This is a dynamic and exciting time to be in the publishing business, as the Web and mobile delivery create new opportunities. As an entrepreneur, I look forward to exploring how our digital products will complement our print editions, and events, in the years to come.”

Since assuming ownership of the Brown assets, OCM has sold the Des Moines Business Record in Iowa; Utah Business magazine in Salt Lake City; the Collin County Business Press and the Fort Worth Business Press in Texas; the Business Ledger in Naperville, Illinois; and the Charleston Regional Business Journal, GSA Business and the Columbia Regional Business Report in South Carolina. The company continues to own dozens of daily and weekly publications in Ohio.

The Boulder County Business Report was previously owned by Boulder Business Information Inc., which Brown Media Holdings acquired on Feb. 1, 2008. BBI also owned a majority of NCBR Inc. Nuttall and Wood were co-founders and minority owners of Northern Colorado Business Report Inc., which also owned the Wyoming Business Report and a majority of DataJoe. The new company, BizWest Media, brings all three business publications under one entity.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger and acquisition firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented the seller in the transaction. BizWest was represented by Kenneth Wolfe, attorney with Wolfe, Van Ackern & Cuypers LLP of Fort Collins, as counsel.