The Philadelphia Citizen’s acquisition of Philadelphia Magazine in October was the culmination of more than a year of talks and negotiations, and it took a number of key business leaders to make it happen, writes Jeff Blumenthal for the Philadelphia Business Journal.
In the summer of 2024, Larry Platt received a message from Larry Ceisler, an inquiry from Metro Corp. CEO David Lipson about whether he was interested in putting together a group to purchase Philadelphia Magazine.
From there, Platt spent more than a year engaging three of the city’s most prominent business leaders in David L. Cohen, Michael Forman, and Richard Vague to go through the process.
The three biggest challenges were timing, the publication’s stasis, and fundraising.
However, for Platt, he felt that combining the two publications would offer synergy around civic-minded journalism in the city, making it better in the process.
Platt had the media and journalism mind, Vague knew how to crunch numbers and maintain cash flow, and Forman was the builder.
Cohen, who is the chairman of the media company’s board, agreed to do so because he believed the acquisition would help increase the platform and its aduience.
The newly-formed Citizen Media Group aims to make an impact.
Read more about the timeline of Philadelphia Citizen’s purchase of Philly Mag in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
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