Coast to Coast outsources regional sales and back office functions to Jim Pattison-owned Comag Marketing Group

Coast to Coast Newsstand Partnership (CTC) has announced that it is outsourcing most of its  back office accounting functions to Genera Solutions LP, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based company owned by Comag Marketing Group (CMG) of Princeton, New Jersey, which is co-owned by The Jim Pattison Group (JPG) and Hudson Media. Genera will be handling all billing and collection, print order and galley preparation as well as other administrative functions. North American field force distribution services will be provided by Comag Marketing Group. 

The changes, which are effective January 1, are understood to affect 14 of the 28 employees, though some of the regional sales managers will be moving to CMG. Although a special announcement circulated to customers yesterday did not say so, effectively CTC, one of Canada's leading national distributors, has been taken over by Comag. Details of the deal were not available. 

Glenn Morgan, the president and CEO, will continue to run the company, and it will maintain its headquarters in Toronto; from the perspective of publishers who are clients of CTC, it is said to be business as usual for now, with all manager, account execs, the marketing department, IT and publisher payables remaining in Toronto.

Headed by Canada's fifth richest man, according to Canadian Business magazine, with a net worth of $7.4 billion. JPG bought CMG from Hearst Corporation and Condé Nast Publications, Inc. last January. CMG had been jointly owned by the two publishing giants since 2000, providing sales, marketing and promotional services in the mass market, direct-to-retail and specialty market channels. CMG represents over 20% of the single copy market for magazines in North America.

JPG is a privately owned BC-based conglomerate which also owns North America's largest magazine and book wholesaler, the News Group.It is involved in automotive, media, packaging, food sales and distribution, magazine distribution, entertainment, export and financial industries and with more than 35,000 employees, the Jim Pattison Group is the second largest private company in Canada. It owns TNG, North America's largest magazine and book wholesaler as well CMG.

"Like all in the newsstand, network distributors are actively seeking ways to cost effectively streamline operations. Utilizing the collective experience and abilities of Genera and CMB affords Coast to Coast the opportunity to realize significant efficients and economies of scale," said the announcement.