Jim Dolan, the CEO of Dolan Media Co., which owns business newspapers, said Monday that he has no regrets about taking his Minneapolis-based company public despite the fact the stock is now trading nearly 45 percent below its high.
“It doesn’t really bother me,” says Dolan. “I run the company the best way I can. It doesn’t drive what I do.”
Dolan Media, which the Long Island Business News, Mississippi Business Journal, the Colorado Springs Business Journal, the Idaho Business Review and the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland, Ore., among others, was trading Monday near $17.50, down from its high of $31.15.
Dolan, a former newspaper reporter and editor, said that the company went public to gain “easier and faster access to capital.” The company had done 69 acquisitions in 14 years, and had raised private equity 12 times.
“It was getting to be a treadmill,” said Dolan, speaking at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. “We knew we needed a different capital strategy.”
Dolan said he was looking to make additional acquisitions, but when asked where, he replied, “I can’t tell you.” Dolan said he’s looking for niche markets, such as business newspapers that cater to attorneys or other professionals.
When asked what media companies were “doing it right” strategically, Dolan said Thomson Reuters and Pearson, which owns the Financial Times, because they understand how to segment news to their audience.
