Venues Today is transforming. The Oak View Group-owned facility-industry institution is re-imagining its content, rebranding and relaunching in 2018 as VenuesNow.
“VenuesNow will build on the Venues Today foundation,” said Ray Waddell, president of OVG’s Media & Conferences division. “We’re still in the business of focusing on issues, challenges and opportunities related to the rapidly-evolving sports and entertainment facilities business; providing insight on deals, trends, technology, security, touring content, team relations, operations, marketing, and sponsorships; and ancillary businesses including ticketing, food and beverage, promotions, VIP/premium, and everything else pertaining to this vibrant, robust business.”
“Venues Today was due for refreshment. The redesign is looking crisp, smart and will be user-friendly and contemporary,” said Waddell, who expects the new-look VenuesNow to debut in February.
The debut of VenuesNow is part of an overall focus and investment in OVG’s Media & Conferences division, which includes VenuesNow, Pollstar, pollstar.com, and the newly launched Pollstar Daily Pulse newsletter, as well as a stake in sporttechie.com.
“As far as editorial coverage, we’re looking at it as the content will be focused on the Pollstar side, while where the content plays will be the focus of VenuesNow,” he explained. “We’re revolutionizing the coverage of this industry and anyone who operates venues or does business with venues will understand the way we’re delineating the two sides of our industry.”
“Things we started doing with Venues Today this year, we plan to double-down on next year, such as security, safety and technology; we care a whole lot about branding and sponsorships and partnerships in our business,” said Waddell.
The new design will be user-friendly, informative and entertaining, he said. “We’re going to have columns, guest op-eds, and exciting photography, visuals, charticles and great graphics.”
“It’s worth noting that at a time when a lot of people are running away from print media, OVG is running toward it and investing in it,” he said.
VenuesNow will now use live music-bible Pollstar’s data for tracking box office data, presented in a way that is specifically useful to venue managers and bookers.
“Pollstar is the gold standard for tracking live entertainment in the world, and we didn’t need two entitles collecting the same data,” said Waddell. “We want the charts to be a useful tool for venues making management decisions. We want to provide data that makes sure VenuesNow is on agents' desks, promoters' desks, managers' desks and content-providers' desks to give them something they can’t get anywhere else.”
Waddell emphasized that combining the two entities in terms of data collection will allow for “more information, more data-points, more contextualization, and it will be presented in a way that allows people in this business to make decisions.”
Joining VenuesNow leadership team are highly respected facilities industry reporter Don Muret, who comes to the publication after a 15-year stint at Sports Business Journal (SBJ).
As Senior Editor, Facilities, Muret will lead VenuesNow’s coverage of the arena and stadium business, as well as reporting on news and trends related to festivals and other venues, touring content, sports business, branding, industry deals, and personnel changes across the spectrum of sports and entertainment. Muret will also contribute content and breaking news to Pollstar platforms.
Also coming aboard the VenuesNow team will be Rob Knapp, formerly assistant managing editor at SBJ, in the role of managing editor. Knapp’s career has included stints at the Charlotte Observer and Lexington Herald Leader.
“While Don and Rob have been immersed in the sports business at SBJ they are both fully familiar with the facilities side of the business and they’ll bring a lot of expertise and skills to the next era of venues coverage,” said Waddell. “I’ve known and worked with Don Muret for over 25 years and his reputation and ability to break the most important stories in our business is second to none. Rob is the type of experienced, visionary editor we need as we dive into the next phase of coverage of this fascinating and dynamic industry.”
Both Muret and Knapp will report to OVG executive editor Andy Gensler.
As part of the re-organization, Venues Today offices in Huntington Beach, Calif., will close in January as the back-end operations of VenuesNow move to Los Angeles, with some aspects of production to be moved to Pollstar’s offices in Fresno, Calif.
The restructuring will lead to staff reductions at Venues Today, though some of the current Venues Today staffers, including founder Linda Deckard and senior writer Brad Weissberg, will make the transition to VenuesNow.
“Linda will remain an integral part of VenuesNow," said Waddell. "She’s the legacy of this title and she’s one of the most important figures in the business. We hope she’ll stay with us for many years to come. She’s part of the redesign efforts and she’ll play a significant role in what the new VenuesNow will look like.”
Deckard said the revamp is exciting. “I founded Venues Today 15 years ago and have nothing but praise for the people that helped build it along the way. It’s been an exciting ride and everyone has worked very hard for our position in the industry. I’m very much looking forward to this next chapter, and the insights of fellow journalists and people in the industry, and where VenuesNow is going to go.”
“The Facility business is changing, it’s challenging, it’s complex, it’s fascinating,” said OVG CEO Tim Leiweke. “We need a publication and a source that is focused on giving the industry up to date news, information and intelligence in the space. We need to understand what others are doing and how it effects what we do on a daily basis.”
“Venues Now will be the source for those in the facility business to know everything going on in our industry,” he said. “And it will cover the critical and impactful issues and topics of our industry and provide a forum for all of us to be a part of. We want it to be irreplaceable and relevant, every day. And we will expand the digital platform to complement the depth of coverage that the magazine will allow.”
In addition to the print magazine and its digital presence, VenuesNow will also
host the second edition of VenuesNow, the premiere facility-industry conference in North America next summer.
“If you’re in the facility business, the conference, the digital platform, and the magazine will be the key source for your information and for your facility to stay relevant,” added Leiweke.