Gorkana Sells Out to Private Equity Firm

Private equity firm Exponent is buying public relations data firm Gorkana, paidContent reports.

Gorkana’s weekly jobs newsletter is familiar to many an unemployed journalist (and even many employed journalists), but the company, founded by former PR people Alex Northcott and Michael Webster, also holds a database of 130,000 scribblers. Its mission, in the words of Northcott, is “to ease the often adversarial relationship between PRs and the media with one based on trust and mutual benefit.”

Exponent already owns Durrants, “the UK’s leading media planning, media monitoring and media evaluation company.” paidContent says that Exponent will place Gorkana alongside Durrants, a move that will “give our customers unrivalled access to the ‘best of breed’ solution for every stage of the PR workflow,” said Durrants managing director Jeremy Thompson in a statement to paidContent.

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