Stubbs at Primedia: Updating a ‘Shopper’ Company

It has been more than 90 days since former Yellowpages.com President Charles Stubbs took the helm at Primedia, the publisher of apartmentguide, rentals.com, newhomeguide.com and DistribuTech. We’ve followed Stubbs for a long time, and have naturally been curious about his game plan. Primedia, after all, has been challenged, as have other “shopper” companies, by the transition to the Internet, and the tough climate in real estate (and autos, which it recently exited).

During an earnings call last month, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, Stubbs didn’t reveal very much, but indicated that he’ll work to continue Webifying Primedia, while leveraging the print assets.

His top priority is to reinvigorate the products as something that “consumers need, that are differentiated and develop leads for our customers. I see enormous opportunity to improve on these platforms and provide more compelling consumer products to drive growth in our audience and be the premium lead vehicle for our advertisers,” he said.

Sales execution and scale are also top priorities. “We must leverage our relationships and brand awareness to reach more markets and increase penetration,” said Stubbs, noting that the company has exclusive agreements for distribution inside CVS, Kroger, Blockbuster and Albertsons.

Customer segmentation is another area of focus. “Successful companies understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution where we will be focused on developing a targeted approach to each of the segments that we serve. Not only will that help us to better monitor our current segments but also define new opportunities to grow our business.”

In making changes, however, Stubbs tacitly acknowledged that he doesn’t necessarily have a lot of money to play with. “I believe that we have a number of opportunities to grow our business that will not require a significant amount of capital investment beyond the cash flow we generate today,” he said.