More Miami moves: This time, it’s the publisher of some of the biggest magazine brands in America
Popular Science. Field and Stream. Saveur.
The New York-based owner and publisher of these magazines will now be based partly out of Miami — and could bring hundreds of jobs as it builds up its presence here.
North Equity, which since 2018 has been purchasing those titles and more to form a portfolio of more than a dozen media brand names, is opening a Miami hub in Brickell.
In an interview with the Miami Herald before the announcement, North Equity managing partner Andrew Perlman said he and his family were already planning to move to Miami a year before the pandemic. As COVID-19 set in, he and his partners decided to move part of their operation to the Magic City.
“Even before, I thought we might have a little office,” he said. But, as with a number of companies with substantial web presences, revenues took off amid the pandemic.
“The business has grown beyond our wildest expectations,” he said. “We’ll be hiring.”
North Equity told the Downtown Development Authority it hoped to create as many as 380 jobs over the next three years, paying an average salary of $80,000 each, as it locates as much as 80,000 square feet in commercial space. In total, it has proposed $4 million in capital investments.
Should it meet those targets, the DDA will grant North a total of $150,000.
Perlman also credited city of Miami officials with providing connections to Florida International University, eMerge Americas, the Knight Foundation and CareerSource South Florida to broadcast job openings for at least seven Miami-based positions. (The company also has offices in Austin, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco.)
“Miami’s pursuit to become a globally renowned ‘capital of capital’ is possible because of inbound funds like North Equity,” Mayor Francis Suarez said in a statement. “North Equity’s leadership in the form of Mr. Andrew Perlman has already begun to make meaningful investments to hire world-class talent from our Miami ecosystem.”
In a statement, Miami Commissioner and DDA chairman Manolo Reyes said: “Each week, we are learning of another finance or technology firm moving to Miami, and the business migration trend is showing no sign of a slowdown. The Miami DDA launched the Follow The Sun campaign to attract new jobs and stimulate economic impact, and the first seven months of the program have outperformed our expectations. Downtown Miami’s newest businesses will create opportunities for local residents and existing companies, helping to strengthen our downtown economy even further.”
North’s online properties now collectively generate 45 million unique visitors a month. Perlman says North has poured resources into back-end technology and the ability of their brands to stand on their own through dedicated audiences for their success.
“Our vision is really to take each property and grow them through the tactics of the internet, whether it’s really great SEO (search engine optimization),” Perlman said, “really building architecture behind the scenes so that the brands are visible to the world.”
Other titles from North include Domino, Bob Vila, Task And Purpose, Outdoor Life and The Drive. Many of North’s brands were purchased last year from Swedish media group Bonnier; previously many of the titles were owned by Time, Inc..
This story has been updated to show North’s brand generate 45 million unique visitors, not page views.
