GREENVILLE, South Carolina, Sept. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — 6 a.mthe fastest growing local media company, will more than triple in size in the second half of 2021, growing from eight to 24 cities and continuing 300% growth in consumer acquisitions year-over-year from 300 000 to a million subscribers and growing.
6AM City’s rapid growth is fueled by an investment led by the private investment office of Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, with additional funding from media executives, including a team led by Rohit Agarwal, director of produced at CNN, and separately, Jerry Scott, former editor of Scott Publishing. 6AM City’s existing investors VentureSouth and Harbright Ventures also participated in the tour.
“This investment in 6AM City is the latest evolution for our civic-minded partners to support access to high-quality local information across the country,” said 6AM City CEO Ryan Johnston. “6AM City has positioned itself as a catalyst to generate economic impact and to help municipalities attract and retain top talent. Coming out of the pandemic, cities across the country are intensely focused on economic recovery and future growth. This capital injection will ensure that 6AM City can effectively support and serve these rapidly growing cities.”
“Local media has been and always will be vital to communities. The 6AM City team has built an exceptional business focused on serving readers in cities and towns across the country. I couldn’t be more excited about it. idea to help accelerate their expansion into new markets,” noted Jeff Vinik.
6AM City accelerates expansion to 24 markets by Thanksgiving — including five metros on the West Coast, three in Texas and several in the Midwest, adding to eight existing markets in the Southeast. Say hello to:
Austin, Texas (ATX today)
Boston, MA (BOStoday)
Columbus, Ohio (CBUStoday)
Fort Worth, Texas (FTW today)
Indianapolis, Indiana (INDY today)
Kansas City, Missouri (KCtoday)
Lexington, Kentucky (LEX today)
Louisville, Kentucky (Today)
Madison, Wisconsin (608today)
Portland, OR (PDX today)
Richmond, Virginia (RIC today)
Sacramento, California (SAC today)
San Antonio, Texas (SATX today)
San Diego, California (SDtoday)
San Jose, California (SJC today)
Seattle, WA (SEA today)
These cities have been identified as expansion markets for 6AM City due to their level of Pride in Place™. “A year ago today, it would have been easy to call us a local media company serving cities in the Southeastern United States,” said Michael Mazzara, vice president of Expansion. “At the time when we were launching a ChooseMyCity campaign receiving requests from across the country. Combining this national interest with hundreds of hours of research on population growth, thriving community efforts, and Pride in Place™ metrics, we’ve found these next cities to be some of the strongest in the nation. The expansion of the city is a mixture of art and science.”
In potential markets, 6AM City has partnered with organizations seeking to accelerate economic recovery, including economic development entities, professional sports teams and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. These relationships accelerate the expansion of the company.
In each city, 6AM City is actively recruiting local editorial and sales staff who will exude CurioCity™, maximizing the living, working and playing environment in which they will be immersed. While many local media companies struggle to retain talent, 6AM City continues to recruit. The company currently has 30+ open positions in editorial, commercial, marketing and creative roles that may be located in any of the cities served by the company. These hires will increase the workforce from 35 employees at the start of 2021 to more than 100 by the end of the year.
In addition to market expansion and team growth, 6AM City will launch three new product innovations in the fourth quarter – featuring a loyalty-based membership platform, a game-changing referral program for subscriber acquisition, and a local commerce platform designed to drive economic impact in the cities served by the business.
“6AM City has clearly established a unit economy that makes geographic expansion an obvious way forward. I am very excited about the upcoming product developments that will drive exponential customer growth, engagement and profitability,” noted Rohit Agarwal.
“We have focused on initiatives that intersect content, commerce and community and believe the product innovations we are rolling out will position 6AM City as a product-driven, sustainable growth company in the local media space,” said Ryan Heafy, COO of 6AM City. . “Our non-traditional business model gives us the entrepreneurial flexibility to rapidly develop, test and deploy product innovations that will identify sustainable revenue models that can be replicated to support the future of any local media business.”
For all media inquiries, please contact: heavy ryan | hello@6AMcity.com | 864-735-8590
About 6AM City, Inc.: 6 a.m is redefining the future of local media as the fastest growing local media company in the country, delivering the most relevant local news and events through a daily email at 6 p.m. morning. The newsletters are read in five minutes, conversational in tone and politically unbiased. 6AM is not intended to produce content to replace the local newspaper. Instead, you can think of 6AM as a distribution center for all local content, specializing in packaging, distribution, performance, convenience, and profitability. For more information, visit their website at 6AMcity.com or follow their social media channels at LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitterand instagram.
Related Files
PRESS RELEASE 6AM City Investment and Expansion – 21.09.21.pdf
Related Images
Image 1: Ryan Heafy and Ryan Johnston, co-founders of 6AM City
6AM City Ryan Heafy – COO (L) Ryan Johnston – CEO (R) Photo Credit Bonfire Visuals
This content was posted through the press release distribution service on Newswire.com.
-
Ryan Heafy and Ryan Johnston, co-founders of 6AM City
