In July 2017, Venues Today will be 15 years old. In January 2017 we will be reinvented.
I have the best possible news for our loyal subscribers, advertisers, readers and champions. Venues Today Inc. has been bought. We are reorganizing as Venues Today LLC. Nothing will change and everything will change.
I will stay as publisher for up to the next three years and more if necessary. Our staff will stay; our offices in Huntington Beach, Calif., will stay. Our mission to bring original, positive reporting on the news behind the headlines you all make will continue.
It will just rev up to the next level, because Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff, Oak View Group LLC, purchased Venues Today Inc. Dec. 15. And Tim and Irving are visionaries, movers and shakers. And they love venues.
Personally, I am beyond excited about our future. When I founded Venues Today, it was because there was a void in the industry. When Amusement Business ceased covering the industry I loved, which we called Auds & Arenas back then, no one else was doing it. Trade pubs covered music, sports, conventions, fairs and festivals as segments of the industry, but no one was covering all venues all the time.
As a business owner, I have always been concerned about the future for my staff. They must have somewhere to go, to grow. This is it.
As a journalist, I have been dedicated to accuracy and accountability, making a positive impact on what you do and how you operate, telling your stories in a news-you-can-use way.
For 14 and a half years (and 25 before that with Amusement Business), we have built a knowledge of and relationships with people in this industry. Venues Today prides itself on original reporting and providing the news behind the headlines in this business that makes headlines daily in the consumer press.
And our new owners care. Their company theme is positive disruption of the industry. Their chief concerns are our chief concerns — content, security, sponsorship, the guest experience and sharing information. They are even major investors in other news vehicles, most notably SportTechie.
That’s the headline of my dreams — 15-year-old industry trade paper bought by two-year-old industry disruptor full of power players. I have always wondered what would happen to Venues Today. Now, it has a bright future….for all of us.
It is with great joy that I wish you all Happy Holidays and, I promise, it’s going to get better and better from here. 2017, here we come.
God grant you many years to establish your legacy.