Leap Media appears to have a way with family-owned media companies, and has added Shaw Media to what it calls a "growing coalition".

Founder and managing partner Tom Ratkovich says the major investments in technology infrastructure and related expertise made by publicly-held media conglomerates are difficult to rationalise for many independent and family-owned publishers, but are "equally critical to the future of Shaw Media as they are to that of Gannett".

Established in 1851, Shaw Media is the third-oldest continuously-held media company in the US, and has the benefit of one of its members, Ben Shaw - previously its chief digital officer - working for industry group WAN-Ifra as head of its global advisory. The company operates almost 100 print/digital, paid and free publications focussed on local life in the Chicago suburbs, Northern Illinois and Iowa.

Ratkovich says Leap's paradigm for audience optimisation drives strategic growth and monetisation initiatives through a comprehensive customer intelligence and marketing automation platform. Print and digital data assets are integrated with third-party data, including individual demographics and lifestyle behaviours.

Analytics team members develop a targetted growth model to optimise the return on sales -calculating the profitability of customers and prospects - and build a customer 'lifecycle management curriculum' for engagement and value optimisation. Beyond analytics, it designs, executes and automates targeted, multichannel communications.