To transition their struggling magazine, the new owners of Campaigns & Elections immediately killed the print edition. This "burn the lifeboats" strategy created immense pressure and laser-like focus, forcing the team to innovate digitally without the safety net of a declining legacy product.
The media company Campaigns & Elections found that constantly extending deadlines for awards or early-bird pricing sent a signal of weakness to the market. This practice trained clients to ignore deadlines and pressure them for discounts, eroding the brand's pricing power and perceived value over time.
During their turnaround, Campaigns & Elections stopped offering discounts and freebies, even if it meant losing immediate cash. This difficult short-term decision was crucial for resetting market expectations. When clients eventually returned, they did so at the new, non-negotiable price, rebuilding long-term pricing power.
A key failure of the old Campaigns & Elections was drifting from its B2B niche (serving political operatives) to generalist political coverage. This diluted its brand and put it in unwinnable competition with major news outlets. The turnaround's success hinged on aggressively re-focusing on its specialized audience.
When COVID halted in-person events, Campaigns & Elections pivoted by creating a membership and making virtual events a members-only perk. This successfully reframed the offering from a low-value ticket purchase to an exclusive benefit of belonging, driving rapid membership growth.
The parent company of Campaigns & Elections has a clear M&A thesis: acquire publications in highly regulated industries. Their expertise serving the political industry translates to other complex markets like cannabis, creating a portfolio of brands that help professionals navigate regulatory challenges.
Campaigns & Elections maintains a strict "no trades" policy, refusing to exchange advertising for a vendor's services. This ensures they are never perceived as favoring one service provider over another, protecting their core value as an impartial platform for their entire industry and avoiding conflicts of interest.
After discontinuing their print magazine, Campaigns & Elections received angry emails. Upon checking, they found the most vocal critics were "industry dinosaurs" who had already canceled their paid subscriptions. This highlights the importance of filtering feedback from non-paying, legacy users before taking action.
When COVID-19 shut down their events business, Campaigns & Elections avoided temporary solutions like webinars. Instead, they focused on building a durable membership model that would thrive after live events returned. This ensured they emerged from the crisis with a larger, more diversified business.
The acquisition of Weed Week, a one-person newsletter, reveals a smart M&A strategy. The parent company buys brands with excellent core content and audience trust, then leverages its own infrastructure to build a full media stack (events, ads, memberships) around that strong foundation.