CK Media Sold to New Track Media Parent Company

BVK Holdings, owner of consumer enthusiast magazine publisher, New Track Media, expands its portfolio with purchase of former PRIMEDIA Crafts Group.

Cambridge, MA - July 2, 2009 - BVK Holdings, owner of the consumer enthusiast publisher New Track Media, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of CK Media, the former crafts division of PRIMEDIA. CK Media includes nine magazines with combined circulation of about 1,000,000 in the soft craft subject areas of quilting, sewing and scrapbooking. The business also includes a conference and events division, book publishing, digital properties, and other business unites serving the same consumer base of soft craft hobbyists.

The CK Media business had been acquired from PRIMEDIA in 2006 by the private equity firm Sandler Capital. They engaged the investment banking firm DeSilva & Phillips earlier this year to explore strategic alternatives which resulted in the sale to BVK just completed. When consolidated with New Track Media, which has several leading magazine titles and direct marketing businesses, the addition of CK Media establishes BVK as the largest consumer enthusiast publisher in the country with a crafts focus.

Leading the portfolio of newly acquired titles are Creating Keepsakes, the market leader serving scrapbooking enthusiasts, several quilting titles such as McCall's Quilting and Quilters Newsletter, and various others including Sew News. These magazines and the other business lines such as conferences and events now become part of the same family of consumer enthusiast properties owned by New Track, which is larger and has some related products in the quilting subject area, such as Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, the leading quilting magazine in the country. New Track also owns a broadband video service for quilters, QNNtv.com, an affinity club known as Quilters Club of America, and a direct marketer of products for quilters, Keepsake Quilting.

"Everyone routinely describes new acquisitions as being strategic in some way, but this is an overtly obvious one and doesn't require much explanation," commented Stephen Kent, President and CEO of New Track Media and its holding company, BVK. "We are primarily a business that serves the information needs of soft craft hobbyists using a range of print and digital product. We are committed to sensible growth that improves our ability to do the best job possible for these consumers, and there is no question that this is a logical extension of that commitment."

"The brands this adds to our combined portfolio are well established in their fields and renowned for having excellent content. That wouldn't be the case if there weren't such a talented group of people in place at CK Media and we're excited to be welcoming them to the team."

CK Media has offices in Denver and Salt Lake City, both of which will continue under the new ownership, as will most employees. Tina Battock, who had been an executive with CK Media until last year and previously worked with these brands under PRIMEDIA ownership, has joined BVK simultaneous with this transaction and has been named Group Publisher based in Denver effective immediately.

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About New Track Media
New Track Media was formed in 2006 by Stephen J. Kent and Boston Ventures for the purpose of building a premier consumer enthusiast publishing platform in a range of special interest subject areas. The company has since established an extensive crafts content group including magazines such as Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, Easy Quilts, Fons & Porter's Love of Knitting, along with the affinity club, Quilters Club of America, and the Keepsake Quilting family of direct mail catalogs. In addition, the company owns other magazines such as Sky & Telescope, which has been continuously published for more than 75 years and is widely considered the worldwide editorial authority in the field of astronomy, and two magazines in the woodworking subject area, American Woodworker and Woodwork. With the acquisition of CK Media, the company employs approximately 300 and operates from headquarter offices in Cambridge (MA).

About Boston Ventures
Boston Ventures is one of the oldest and most experienced media and communications focused private equity firms in North America. Since its founding in 1983, the firm has invested nearly $2.5 billion in over 70 companies, actively targeting investments in the media, information and publishing, entertainment, and communications industries. For more information, please visit www.BostonVentures.com.