Penske Media Corporation Acquires Awards Prediction Site Gold Derby

LOS ANGELES, July 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Penske Media Corporation (PMC) today announced its acquisition of GoldDerby.com, a site renowned in Hollywood for showcasing entertainment industry award predictions by top journalists and savvy fans. Gold Derby brings with it to PMC distinctive opportunities to integrate effective prediction tools into all PMC digital properties, including both its consumer and trade publications. The purchase also enhances distinguished awards coverage by PMC publications across its portfolio, including Variety, Deadline Hollywood, Hollywood Life, TVLine, Footwear News, BGR, India.com, and WWD. The financial terms and details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

"Today's announcement reflects our strategy to invest in quality media brands with intrinsic value," said PMC Chairman and CEO Jay Penske. "We've watched Gold Derby develop as a premiere brand in Hollywood delivering innovative predictions and racetrack odds monitored closely by a devoted audience; we look forward to tapping into that audience while also benefiting from its smart digital tools."

The site will be operated by the newly formed Gold Derby Media LLC, which will be overseen by GoldDerby.com founder Tom O'Neil, who continues as the site's editor-in-chief and president. Editorial and tech employees will also move to PMC as part of the deal, while ad sales will be overseen by PMC'S SVP Entertainment and Publisher of Deadline Stacey Farish.

"By bringing GoldDerby.com to PMC, we see valuable opportunities for our partners and advertisers to increase their reach to key readers in exciting ways," said Farish. "Complementing our existing awards coverage, Tom's inventive site is an outstanding addition to PMC and we look forward to catapulting Gold Derby to even greater revenue and traffic potentials."

GoldDerby.com was launched in 2000 by O'Neil, a journalist who has devoted his career to studying all major entertainment industry awards and is the author of Variety's books "Movie Awards," "The Emmys" and "The Grammys" (Penguin Putnam). From 2005 to 2011, he worked for the Los Angeles Times to help launch its awards brand The Envelope. In 2010 he re-launched GoldDerby.com with a new emphasis on technology that enabled users to make predictions and compete against journalists from PMC, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, Yahoo, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post and other major media outlets.

"By teaming up with PMC, Gold Derby now joins the top tier of Hollywood media – I feel like I just won the Oscar," said O'Neil.

Gold Derby users predict more than 20 award shows per year and lately have been invited to predict reality TV shows, too. The site also features more than 1,000 intimate, in-depth interviews with top talent, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jessica Lange, Jim Parsons, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Also popular are videos pitting the experts against each other in prediction "slugfests." At the last Oscars derby, the experts beat users when predicting winners (83% to 75%, respectively) and nominations (71% to 68%).

About PMC
Penske Media Corporation (PMC) is a leading digital media, publishing, and information services company founded in 2003. PMC engages with thriving audiences across the web, television, mobile, print and social media – reaching more than 168 million audience members monthly (comScore, 2015), and was recently named one of the Top 100 Private Companies in the United States & North America. With the preeminence of its brands, PMC is one of the largest digital media companies in the world, publishing more than 22 digital brands, including an extensive joint venture in India with ZEE TV, as well as more than 50 annual events/conferences and a dynamic research and emerging data business. PMC brands include PMC Studios, WWD, Footwear News, M, Deadline.com, Variety magazine, Variety.com, CricketCountry.com, HollywoodLife, Beauty Inc, ENTV, India.com, Movieline, TVLine, BGR, AwardsLine, @hollywood, LA411, NY411, Young Hollywood Awards, The Style Awards, and Breakthrough of the Year Awards. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and 11 offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.pmc.com or follow @PenskeMedia on Twitter.

About Gold Derby
Hollywood's original awards site GoldDerby.com was launched in 2000 by leading awards expert Tom O'Neil, author of "Movie Awards," "The Emmys" and "The Grammys" (Penguin Putnam Books). Gold Derby famously presents four sets of Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and other predictions for comparison and analysis: Experts (journalists from Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, etc.); Gold Derby's Editors; Top 24 Users (who scored best predicting the same awards last year); and all site Users. The predictions are listed in numerous charts, then aggregated into racetrack odds and percentages that are applied by site users to wager points. Gold Derby thus operates as a true racetrack – for entertainment gaming purposes only. Join the races today at GoldDerby.com and follow the latest updates at @GoldDerby on Twitter. 

SOURCE Penske Media Corporation

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