Meet 'The Rupert Murdoch Of The Canine World'
Added: (Thu Oct 25 2001)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
For General Release 25/10/01
~BEGINS~
Meet The 'Rupert Murdoch' Of The Canine World
Life is pretty sweet for 25 year old entrepreneur Ryan O'Meara. He has a successful company on the verge of moving to a brand new £2.8m office complex in the East Midlands, a media empire attracting an audience of more than 2 million people per year and a client list which includes Disney, Tesco, Direct Line, Nestle and Mars. And to whom does he owe it all? Man's best friend, the humble pet dog.
Ryan O'Meara set up his company K9 Media Solutions Ltd in a converted garage at his home in Nottinghamshire in 1998. Since then the company has established itself as a leading European player in the world of pet information online. Boasting an impressive portfolio of more than 20 pet related titles such as K9Online.com, FelineOnline.com, PetFriendlyHotels.com, DogServices.co.uk and DogMail.co.uk. The K9 Media network is attracting audiences of more than 10,000 pet lovers everyday and is growing at a rate of more than 300% year on year.
Not only has his company survived the dot com downturn, it is positively thriving in a sector that seems fittingly, to evolve at a rate of dog years. Been and gone from the online pet sector are brands such as the $82.5m, Amazon.com backed Pets.com which fell in the same week as the doomed website Wetnose.com which shut down with losses of more than £1.6m before it even got off the ground. All this in the same week that Ryan managed to successfully raise a substantial six-figure sum for his own pet related, dot com company from a group of 'brave' European investors. Their investment appears to be paying off as K9 Media Solutions boldly enters the world of printed media for the first time with the launch of K9 Magazine a full colour glossy dog publication which attracted more than 10,000 subscribers before it even launched following a successful ad campaign across Ryan's existing web channels on the K9 Media network.
Ryan, who gave up his job as a professional dog trainer to pursue the career that combined his two passions of dogs and the Internet, said of the new magazine;
''I'm really pleased it's finally been launched. It was a lot harder with K9 Magazine than with any of our web channels in terms of attracting a readership and actively encouraging them to physically do something to get this magazine. The Web is such an instant medium where the user's attention is won or lost in the space of 15 seconds. Up to this point it's all we knew and K9 Magazine has certainly given us an insight into the more traditional aspects of the media business. We are now confident that we can attract a larger group of the UK's dog owning population to actually pick-up, read and be entertained by a dog magazine than are currently doing so at present. There is about 7 to 8 million dog owners in this country and if just a small proportion of them take an interest in reading our Magazine I'll be very happy. In my opinion pets are a hugely under-represented subject on the magazine shelves in Britain compared with say, Football or music even though the potential audience for pet owners is larger being as though it's essentially made up of half the population of the country. The pet industry is massive, it's not even fully matured, it turns over more money than the music and toy industries combined and it will never die, unless people decide not to feed their cats and dogs or take them to the vet when they are ill and in this country I can't ever see that happening"
Issue 1 of K9 Magazine contains a feature on 'Harry' the popstar pooch belonging to Geri Halliwell as well as an eye opening look at why our pet's should be insured including an account of a dog that ate an entire pair of bicycle handlebars and another that managed to shoot a woman with a hunting rifle. The K9 Magazine website is located at www.K9Magazine.co.uk
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Contacts:
This Release Or Any Other Press Info
Christina Hardcastle
U.K.Communications Director
K9 Media Solutions Ltd
Chadburn House, Mansfield
Notts, NG18 1AH
chris@k9ms.net
Tel: 08700 114 115
Industry Commentary Or Interviews
Ryan O'Meara
Managing Director
K9 Media Solutions Ltd
Chadburn House, Mansfield
Notts, NG18 1AH
ryan@k9ms.net
Tel: 08700 114 115