Woodland Hills, California-based Advanstar Communications—the trade publisher that reduced its debt by $385 million last fall—said Tuesday it has struck an agreement to outsource its production-related functions for the company’s magazines and directories to global IT services company HCL Technologies.
The agreement, Advanstar said, will result in the elimination of approximately 100 employees at its Duluth, Minnesota facility. Those staffers are expected to be offered temporary employment of at least four months with HCL and will be eligible to receive severance from Advanstar at the conclusion of their employment with HCL.
Advanstar will continue to employ roughly 75 people in Duluth, the company said.
According to Advanstar CEO Joe Loggia [pictured], the decision to outsource production was not “made lightly.” “Given the many challenges facing the business-to-business print industry, we must change the way we do business in order to continue to provide maximum value and service to our customers,” he …
Men’s Health Mag Gets ‘Passion’ Injection from Colombia
October 29th, 2009[Editor note: It's turning in to "Media Week" here at Nearshore Americas. Keep the stories, rumors and ideas coming. - kirk@nextcoastmedia.com]
Men’s Health Magazine is, despite appearances, far more than just an outlet for smart ways to lose weight or lessons on how to become the world’s greatest lover. Men’s Health, a title owned by Rodale, is also in the serious business of providing innovative marketing programs to key advertisers who are constantly looking for the next big idea, says Men’s Health publisher, Jack Essig, who I interviewed this morning.
Essig raved about the genius performance he’s seen from a Colombia-based company called Zemoga, which he says is rewriting the book on dedication, passion and creativity in formulating digitally-based solutions for many of Men’s Health’s advertising customers. “They live and breathe the brands they are working on which is not always the case in this industry,” says Essig. Zemoga, which employs about 110 people in Colombia and the US, services clients like Sears, HBO, ING, Yahoo, Viacom, A&E Television Networks, Toyota and Sony.
