Profile Media, the financial information provider, has purchased Cape Town based Flesh Financial Publications, publishers of The JSE Handbook, for an undisclosed amount.

Profile owns The Stock Exchange Handbook, already the leading JSE reference, with circulation about four times that of its nearest competitor, and about nearly double all its competitors combined.

Profile's Stock Exchange Handbook will be merged with The JSE Handbook to create a title with over 75% of the total market. The new, merged book will be published as Profile's JSE Handbook.

Nic Oldert, Profile Media MD, says the acquisition was motivated by two factors. "Firstly, merging these two leading titles creates a compelling circulation base for advertisers and listed companies. Secondly, 'The JSE Handbook' remains the best trademark in our industry, and we wanted to secure this for ourselves."

The JSE Handbook, which first appeared in 1934, was published by Flesch on behalf of the JSE from 1967 to 1995. It has been published independently by Flesch since the JSE contract was terminated in 1995. Stephen Flesch says he decided to sell to Profile Media because they are clearly the market leader. "We felt the interests of our existing clients would be best served by merging our book with Profile's publication".

Profile's Stock Exchange Handbook is the leading JSE reference, with a circulation of nearly 20,000 copies per issue. Combined with the Flesch publication, Profile's JSE Handbook will have a circulation of at least 25,000 per issue, more than five times that of The Investors' Guide, the next largest title in the market.

Nic Oldert, Profile Media MD, says that his company dominates the market because of its sophisticated database technology, which allows print and Internet delivery from the same platform. Profile supplies information on listed companies to a range of online broking firms, corporate clients, and portal sites like Woza and Sharenet. "We are essentially an electronic data company. We process data as it becomes available and deliver up-to-date information to clients on a daily basis. This gives us a huge advantage over traditional publishers."

In spite of the Internet, Oldert says that many people still like the convenience of a printed reference. "Fundamental data doesn't date as quickly as price data. Because companies only publish results twice a year, many long-term investors find a handbook the most convenient reference." Oldert predicts that reference books will remain popular for at least five years. "We don't see the JSE Handbook becoming obsolete until average bandwidth available per user has doubled or tripled, and that's going to take many years."

EDITORIAL CONTACT

Profile Media
Nic Oldert
011-728-5510
nic@profile.co.za

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