Gorkana – the public relations database of 130,000 journalists – is being bought by private equity house Exponent, which will place it alongside its news cuttings monitor Durrants, the firm confirmed to paidContent:UK.
Exponent is buying up all the equity from cofounders Alex Northcott and Michael Webster plus the latter’s father David. Telegraph.co.uk puts the price at under £25 million.
If, like me, you’re a journalist that’s ever wondered how a PR got hold of your details, Gorkana may well figure somewhere along the line.
It’s not all spooky – Gorkana, named after a Gurkha, also lists job openings, tracks staff moves across multiple sectors of the media, holds events and publishes news for the PR sector. It’s a natural fit alongside Durrants.
Update: Durrants MD Jeremy Thompson, in the announcement: “Combining Gorkana with Durrants media monitoring and Metrica analysis will give our customers unrivalled access to the ‘best of breed’ solution for every stage of the PR workflow.” Gorkana’s Northcott: “The synergies created by this deal will dramatically increase the level of journalist intelligence and insight we can provide to our core markets.”