Safran Media Group acquired by AR&D: With Heaton now
Steve Safran January 6th, 2007
I am thrilled to announce that I have joined the Media 2.0 practice of the terrific consulting firm AR&D. The firm, led by President Jerry Gumbert, has acquired Safran Media Group and has given me the privilege of working with my longtime mentor and good friend Terry Heaton. I am now Sr. Vice President of Media 2.0 at AR&D. Thanks to Jerry, who worked with me on the acquisition which enables me to stay put in Boston (the firm is based in Ft. Worth) and help build our client base from here. Jerry, Terry and the AR&D team want to show media outlets how to make the absolute best use of their web properties and make strong businesses out of that online presence. The best news in all of this is that I will continue to blog, right here, as I always have. (Well, best news for most of you, anyway.) This is now going to get a little acceptance-speechy, so forgive me. Thank you Cory Bergman, whose vision of a site where people could share the best of ideas in convergence media has become part of the national dialogue on journalism. A thank you to Stephen Warley, my LR pal, too. A special, special thank you to Charlie Kravetz, VP of News and Station Manager of NECN, who has guided my career for 15 years, and to NECN President and Founder Phil Balboni who supported and encouraged my transition to consulting . There are several people whom I asked for advice on this decision - some of whom would want to be named, others who wouldn’t - so I’ll just say you know who you are, and I am thankful beyond measure. It is because of the Lost Remote Faithful that I have been able to turn the musings in this space into a career. So thank you guys, most of all. Terry and I are going to be traveling a lot in the upcoming months, and I hope we’ll get to meet lots of you in person. Best bit so far: Terry scooped me on the public announcement. Too funny. Press release coming Monday.
25 Comments Add your own
1. Cory | January 6th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Congrats, Steve! It’s a great move for you, and I expect the Safran-Heaton team to shake things up.
2. thedetroitchannel | January 6th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
quite a formidable duo.
all the best, guys.
3. Michael Gay | January 6th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Excellent news Steve! Very happy to know you will still be blogging on here though!
4. Michael Rosenblum | January 6th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
mazel tov, boys.
5. Swift Loris | January 6th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Excellent way to start the new year! Onward and upward…
6. Jackie Huba | January 6th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Congratulations! Great news.
7. Mark Lukasiewicz | January 6th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Congrats Steve. Very exciting for you and a win for AR&D.
8. Charles | January 6th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Congratulations! That’s a pretty cool team-up.
9. Frank Catalano | January 6th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Mr. Safran: As a former long-time consultant, I congratulate you! Two+ heads are better, and so on. Now as long as you and Heaton don’t engage in a Trump-O’Donnell style blog smackdown, all should be golden.
10. Kate | January 6th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
What!?! No public thank you to the LR wife? I’m telling!
Congrats, Steve. Very cool job.
11. Steve Safran | January 6th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Mr. Catalano: Heaton and I are bloggers, first. We are professionals. So you can expect the flame wars to start any minute.
Kate: Shhh! Do NOT tell my wife.
12. jeff lowenstein | January 6th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Congrats! Can’t wait for the movie!
13. Troy Thomas | January 6th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
This is great news for you, Steve. As a fellow cable guy, we’ll miss you in the ranks! You’re going to have an amazing time changing “news” one client at a time … I’m looking forward to reading the book and seeing the movie!
14. discreet_chaos | January 7th, 2007 at 3:43 am
Congrats, Steve - You’re the man!
And, whenever I do watch “The Lunchbox”, your style will be missed.
15. Steve Case | January 7th, 2007 at 4:59 am
I consult too, with my remote. I can’t understand why the 24 hour local news channel in my market fails to provide streaming clips, or even a live stream with access to those that pay on the cable side, since it’s a cable only channel. They also scrapped their LOCAL-only shows with the city’s police chief, the mayor, and a tech guru in the past couple of years.
The local paper has now added community bloggers, blah, blah, blah. All the media outlets fail to provide Web 2.0 journalism. For example, when one of the most heavily travelled highways in the region was bumper to bumper, why not post that on the Web site. Why not invest in more cameras of highways for those lame traffic reports.
And how about ratings’ series reports being expanded through the Web site. Sorry to say, but news people that just blog is kind of lame. It’s comparable to the sappy bios on the station Web site. You know, the ones with the 25-year-old reporters who will soon become anchors because of blond hair and big bussoms, chattering on about their pets and love to travel.
16. gralnick | January 7th, 2007 at 6:54 am
well done!
17. Clément | January 7th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Congratulations Steve ! They are lucky to have you on board.
I am glad that you will keep blogging though. I was worried there for a second. How would we, who can’t afford the services of a consulting firm, do without Lost Remote ?
18. Dan | January 7th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Was this an actual buyout or are you just moving to a position at an established company? I guess it woul be kinda odd for the owner of a company to just drop the company and work for another firm without saying it was an “acquisition.”
I’d be interested in hearing about the actual process of this occurance
19. Stephen Warley | January 7th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Keep preaching the gospel in bigger and better new ways! Congrats man!
20. Chip Mahaney | January 7th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
God help you, son! Have you actually met these AR&D people? Kidding!
This is great news, Steve. I know you want to stay in Boston, and I can’t blame you. But perhaps you’ll one day get sucked into the North Texas vortex like Heaton did. You could buy JR”s SouthFork for what you’re paying to live in up in New England.!
21. Rocker | January 8th, 2007 at 7:07 am
A consultant who’s opinion I’d actually want to solicit? And actually implement?! I’m not sure I’m ready for this. Congrats though!
22. Anony Mouse | January 8th, 2007 at 8:19 am
At least it wasn’t Magid. Ever spent a winter in Cedar Rapids?!?!? Or a summer for that matter… brutal!
Congrats to you none the less!
23. StephM | January 8th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Great news! So nice to see another one of us break out and start making the media world a better place.
Texas rules! Hugs, Lone Star Steph
24. Tim Rutherford | January 8th, 2007 at 10:25 am
“to turn the musings in this space into a career”
Steve…if only we were all so blessed.
Congrats and best of luck from PhotogsLounge.net
regards…
Tim Rutherford
P.S. sometimes I muse and sometimes I ponder…
neither as well as you.
You’re website has been invaluable for me.
Good luck Steve.
Tim
25. John | September 28th, 2007 at 9:00 am
search myfreepaysite
Leave a Comment
(Please keep URLs out of the comment body or the spam filter will block you.)Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed