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This Just In

Access Intelligence Acquires Medical Publisher/Organizer Contexo Media

HIL ANDERSON, SENIOR EDITOR

Rockville, MD – Access Intelligence LLC (AI) has acquired Contexo Media, a Salt Lake City, UT company that produces educational events as well as books and software for the medical billing industry. Contexo will become a separate division of Access Intelligence and will be overseen by Heather Farley, president of AI’s Business Information group.

Access Intelligence is a portfolio company of Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Its brands serve the chemical, defense, media, energy and cable industries, and now the medical sector.

Contexo publishes Case in Point, a magazine for medical case managers, through its Dorland Health division. Contexo produces educational conferences on medical coding in conjunction with the American Medical Association, and AI will explore the possibility of launching new events as well. “We will look at the market and see if there are any holes that we can fill,” said AI President and CEO Don Pazour. Diane Schwartz, group publisher of the Media/Communications group, said her staff was looking into creating Dorland brand events for case managers.

Pazour said Contexo’s other strong points include a subscription-based revenue stream that shielded the company from the industry-wide advertising slump. Additionally, it has a strong online presence that is compatible with AI’s strategy of building up online communities in the industry sectors it serves.

The deal was the fourth acquisition by AI this year. The previous event acquisitions included Offshore CommunicationsEnergyOcean and a minority stake in RETECH.

Realignment Leads to Job Cuts Mainly in Print

At the same time, AI has been realigning its operations to further emphasize events and subscription-driven products, such as those offered by Contexo. The overhaul, plus a 30% slump in print advertising, forced AI this week to trim about 20 employees from its staff, mainly from the print area. “It was painful,” Pazour told Trade Show Executive. “It was 6% percent of our workforce, but it was also individual people.” No event jobs were lost.

He added that AI anticipated adding workers to its ranks a few months down the road as the realignment was completed.

Reach Don Pazour at (301) 354-1500 or dpazour@accessintel.com; Diane Schwartz at (301) 354-2000 or dschwartz@accessintel.com

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