12/16/98
Unimag and Levy are rumored to be merging.
12/10/98
Johnson City, TN will be merger into Atlanta, GA beginning February 1999.
Winston-Salem, NC will be merged into Charlotte, NC also in February 1999.
11/17/98
Madison, WI has been purchased by Levy and will be merged into Appleton, WI and Chicago, IL in the beginning of December.
10/28/98
Yuma, AZ will be closed November 16th and merged into Glendale, AZ
Columbus, GA is being closed in November and merged into Birmingham, AL
10/21/98
Stockton, CA is closing. Its chain customers will be serviced by Anderson News Modesto (Lucky Supermarkets and Longs Drug Stores) and The News Group (Raleys, Paradies and Eastern Lobby Shops). The News group is opening a new warehouse in the Sacramento area to service these accounts, along with the Monterey agency. Many independent retailers will go with other wholesalers in the Bay area.
Sacramento will take over distribution to some of the retailers which Monterey had been servicing.
Visalia, CA will no longer be servicing the chain retailers for Modesto. Their service is reverting to Modesto, CA.
Sacramento is taking over service to the Target stores which Modesto had been servicing.
Modesto is taking over service to the Safeway stores which Portland, OR had been servicing.
10/15/98
The News Group has purchased Montrose, BC, effective October 1st.
9/17/98
Dallas, TX has been purchased by Anderson News Co.
9/11/98
Anderson News Co will close its Dothan, AL and Mobile, AL agencies in October. 90% of Dothan's customers will go to Tallahassee, FL and 10% to Pensacola, FL. Mobile's customers will be split 50-50 between Pensacola and Gulfport, MS.
9/8/98
AndersonAustin will close its Shelbyville, TN agency effective 9/21/98. The agency will be merged into Nashville.
7/28/98
Chambersburg, PA has been purchased by the Charles Levy Co. and will be merged into Philadelphia by 7/31/98.
Levy also purchased Pottstown, PA. They will close Pottstown and Norristown at the end of this month and merge the allotments into Philadelphia.
6/30/98
Anderson News Corp. and ARAMARK Corp. announced today that they were combining their magazine and book distribution operations. This includes Baltimore and The SCN/ARAMARK agencies.
6/15/98
Charles Levy Co. announced the purchase of the Norristown, PA agency.
5/20/98
Paducah, KY will be merged into Johnson City, IL effective 6/4/98.
El Paso, TX will be merged into Lubbock,TX as of 7/13/98.
Pittsburgh and Johnstown, PA have been merged into Solon, OH effective 4/11/98.
5/8/98
Victoria, BC will be merged into New Westminster, BC as of 6/29/98.
4/27/98
Tangent, OR has been sold to the Pattison News Group.
4/9/98
ARAMARK/SCN will shift dealers between Westminster, San Bernardino and Burbank, beginning in May.
3/9/98
Worldwide Media has purchased the foreign distribution of Time-Warner Publisher Services.
Unimag is purchased Johnstown, PA and Central Wholesale in Pittsburgh, PA.
Anderson News Co should be finished consolidating its dealer routes between agencies sometime in June. Be on the lookout for copy movement between agencies.
2/20/98
ARAMARK will be closing their Sacramento, CA facility and will merge it into Modesto, CA, effective March.
2/19/98
ARAMARK/Maryland News will be doing all magazine distribution from the Baltimore warehouse. This will be effective March 23rd.
ARAMARK also announced that all of Merced's distribution will be out of Modesto, starting March 1st.
2/12/98
Anderson News Co is continuing to consolidate its Mid-Western agency's distribution routes. Copies are being moved from Topeka, KS to Lenexa, KS and Des Moines, IA. Topeka will be closed as a distribution center and Wichita, KS will be reopened. Oklahoma City will get retailers, in Oklahoma, from Wichita and later on this year will lose its Kansas and Texas retailers to Wichita and Wichita Falls, TX respectively.
2/10/98
Prince George, BC is being closed and distribution will be out of the New Westminster, BC agency. This change will start March 16th.
2/6/98
ARAMARK is closing Merced, CA, effective immediately, and all shipments are being diverted to Visalia, CA. Starting 3/9, Merced's allotments will be split 65% to Visalia and 35% to Modesto, CA.
1/16/98
The Hudson Group is moving dealers from Waterbury, CT to Hicksville, NY. These dealers are in the southern Connecticut and Westchester, NY areas.
1/12/98
Anderson News Co is closing Topeka, KS as a distribution center and reopening Wichita, KS. About 65% of Topeka's distribution will be moved to Wichita, most of the rest will go to Lenexa. They also will be shifting the former Lincoln, NE retailers' distribution form Topeka to Des Moines, IA.
1/9/98
New Berlin, WI will be closed and merged into Chicago (90%) and Appleton, WI (10%).
ARAMARK is merging Los Angeles into Burbank, effective 2/2/98
Levy has purchased Brainerd, MN and New Berlin,WI from Aramark.
Aramark has also entered into a partnership with Baltimore, MD, similar to their SCN partnership.
SCN and Aramark are consolidating assets in S. California and Nevada.
Aramark has purchased Modesto, CA from ETD. Rumors say this is only the beginning.
Metro Toronto News Group is also closing Waterloo, ON and merging it into Ottawa, ON.
Anderson News Co is purchasing Tacoma, WA. They must need another agency to get three cards that match.
Pacific Periodicals (owned by Metro Toronto Group and News West) has purchased Victoria, BC. Pacific periodicals also owners New Westminster, BC (including Courtenay), and Prince George, BC.
Next week National Distributors are going to meet with Anderson News Co to discuss their new distribution terms.
Due to the new pricing policies from four major wholesaler groups, National Distributors are trying to develop counterstrategies to offset these new policies. Hopefully any new policies developed will be in the best interests of all publishers, from the smallest to the largest.
As a result of ARAMARK's 'underperforming title' fee, ICD has put all ARAMARK agencies on hold.
The Rubin Group is closing Geneva, NY and merging its operations into Batavia, NY
The Anderson News Co purchase of the Oklahoma City and St. Louis agencies, from ARAMARK, has been finalized this week (10/27/97).
ARAMARK has also sold its Arlington, WA operation to The NEWS GROUP.
Metro Toronto will be closing the Brantford, ON and St. Catherines, ON agencies, and merging them into the Ottawa, ON agency, in December.
The Hudson Group is purchasing Waterbury, CT from Unimag.
ANCO is closing Springfield, IL, merging it into Quincy, IL (60%) and Bloomington, IN (40%).