LIVE ISSUE/REDWOOD-PREMIER MERGER.(Brief Article)

PMP and Redwood fusion potentially a minefield

If ever a story demanded a company line, it's Omnicom's pooling of its two contract publishers, Premier Media Partners and Redwood (Campaign, last week).

After the revelations of last week, there are plenty of questions as to what form the company's publishing will now take. Yet at the start of the week, all parties involved in the move were remaining tight-lipped, leaving the media to draw what conclusions they could about future plans.

The reasons for the silence are clear. The fusion of Premier and Redwood is charged with politics and pre-existing ego clashes. It is perfectly understandable that Omnicom should want to tie down the details of the deal before releasing an official statement, but it needs to be firm about what, exactly, it is aiming to achieve.

The most immediately sensitive issue is the handling of Premier's co-founder and chief executive, Craig Waller. At the time of writing, Waller had told PMP staff that he didn't believe there would be a place for him in the new set-up, but had not officially stepped down. The loss of Premier's independence will be a major personal blow, especially as control is ultimately being ceded to Redwood's chief, Mike Potter, with whom Waller has personal rivalry.

The two operations will not be technically merged: Omnicom sources describe the move as a partnership, rather than a merger, with economies of scale dictating the sharing of production and research facilities, as well as personnel. But it seems clear that ultimate managerial control of PMP will now rest with Redwood.

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