Grand View Media Acquires Nephrology News & Issues

BIRMINGHAM, ALA., June 2, 2008 -- Grand View Media Group (www.gvmg.com), a Birmingham, Ala.-based publishing company, has expanded its business-to-business title offering with the acquisition of Nephrology News & Issues (NN&I), the renal business news magazine.

NN&I has been one of the early leaders among health care publishers to focus on the business aspects of delivering quality health care. NN&I published its first issue in 1987 with the aim of informing readers of the latest developments in nephrology and providing a forum for the exchange of ideas among the professional disciplines responsible for delivering care to the end-stage renal disease patient.
NN&I was founded 22 years ago by Larry and Linda Coutts, who served as the company’s officers and principal stockholders. “We knew the day would eventually come when we were ready to move on to a new phase in our lives, but we had high standards and wanted to be very choosy about the company that acquired NN&I,” Larry Coutts said. “Our key criteria were that the buyer has the resources and publishing experience to take our publishing platform to the next level and that our current team remains intact. Mark Neumann will continue to guide NN&I providing his editorial leadership and passion for the kidney patient and the renal care community. Phyllis Kehoe will continue to maintain her client relations providing the same high-quality service they have come to expect from her and NN&I. Grand View is an accomplished publisher in both the business and consumer magazine sector with a highly professional staff and their parent company, EBSCO Industries, has an excellent reputation for building successful and profitable companies that operate on customer-driven philosophies. Their expressed desire to build a health care platform beginning with our publication was key to our decision and a high compliment to what we have done with NN&I.”

In February 2005, NN&I launched the first Kidney Disease Economics Conference (KDEC). That event brought together a blue-ribbon group of renal care patients and professionals to review the current state of nephrology and to consider what more could be done to influence the direction our government and our society would take in reimbursement and regulation of renal care. This was one of the first attempts to bring various renal professional groups together to effect change through consensus.  Grand View plans to continue this industry leading event.
NephrOnline.com was redesigned and launched in June 2007. The website acts as a newsgathering vehicle for NN&I and offers a unique opportunity to cover and offer commentary on stories while they are still developing.
Grand View Media General Manager Barry Lovette said NN&I is a perfect fit for Grand View’s growing business-to-business offering. “NN&I is a very successful industry-leading journal with a strong business news focus,” Lovette said. “NN&I has been on the leading edge of health care publishing for years and this is one of the key reasons that Grand View Media Group approached the Coutts. NN&I’s health care knowledge base will serve to enhance Grand View Media’s health care platform.”

Lovette said that Grand View plans to maintain NN&I staff in Arizona.

With a business-to-business publishing platform composed of seven titles in other industries, the acquisition of Nephrology News & Issues is Grand View’s first venture in the health care market.  Grand View also publishes nine consumer magazines and directories as well as four custom publications.

Grand View Media Group is a subsidiary of EBSCO Industries, Inc. (www.ebscoind.com), a global corporation that has diversified into more than 40 businesses and is ranked among the nation’s top 200 privately held corporations according to Forbes. EBSCO specializes in information access, management and delivery services to libraries and corporations worldwide. Services include electronic and print subscription provider for more than 300,000 title listings from more than 78,000 publishers worldwide and publishing of journal article databases.

For more information, visit www.ebscoind.com.