The company owned by Nashville entrepreneur and former mayoral candidate Bill Freeman and his longtime business partner Jimmy Webb has acquired the Post, the Nashville Scene, and Nfocus Magazine from holding company SouthComm.
Terms of the acquisition by Freeman Webb Company, which does the majority of its business in multifamily real estate, are not being disclosed. The purchase was completed May 25 and adds about 35 people to the company’s ranks of more than 450. The publications’ leadership team, with Publisher Amy Mularski and CFO Todd Patton at the helm, will stay in place, as will the editors of the Post, Sceneand Nfocus.
“Jimmy Webb and I are thrilled to purchase the Post, the Nashville Sceneand Nfocus, which are all publications that we’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading over the years,” said Bill Freeman. “It is important to us and to the Nashville community to maintain local ownership of these vital publications. We look forward to ensuring a steady future of excellent media coverage under our ownership.”
“Freeman Webb Company delivers service and value by empowering and recognizing the importance of our many talented employees,” stated Jimmy Webb. “Although the addition of media publications is a new enterprise for our company, we will be successful by preserving that same sense of family whether it is in our apartment communities or the newsroom.”
Freeman said he and his team will not look to overhaul the publications’ editorial directions. The Post will continue to deliver business, political and sports news and commentary, while the Scene will still focus on the city’s government, music, food and arts, and Nfocus will provide social, lifestyle and philanthropic coverage.
“This is an exciting day for all of us here,” Mularski said. “Having local ownership that supports and understands the critical role we play in keeping Nashville informed is deeply personal to all of us.”
SouthComm has owned the Post since late 2007 and acquired the Scene and Nfocus in September 2009. In subsequent years, the Nashville-based holding company amassed a group of local publications across the Southeast — a number of them under the Creative Loafing brand — as well as in Cincinnati and Kansas City but has steadily sold off most of those titles over the past few years. The majority of its holdings today are niche business-to-business publications, a number of them focused on the aviation, public safety and vehicle repair markets.
Formed in 1979, Freeman Webb Company is the largest private owner/manager of apartments across Tennessee. The company, which posted 2017 revenues of $172 million and was named the 2017 National Property Management Company of the Year, also owns and manages properties in Alabama, Missouri, Georgia and Mississippi and has expanded its portfolio in recent years to more than 16,000 apartment units and 1 million square feet of office space.
