Lexington, KY and Berwyn, PA -- WhatTheyThink, the provider of online graphic arts news and market intelligence, and New Direction Partners, the leading investment banking and financial advisory firm serving the printing industry, jointly announced today that their two firms have partnered together to create an online community for printing executives dedicated to merger and acquisition (M&A) content. Today, the website officially launches on WhatTheyThink’s homepage, http://members.whattheythink.com/mergers-acquisitions/.

The new website serves as an M&A Clearinghouse in that it will include a listing of firms for sale as well as firms seeking acquisitions.  It also provides printing executives the ability to research and discuss investment banking topics and include related press releases, a log of printing M&A transactions, articles on M&A trends and a blog for M&A discussion.

WhatTheyThink and New Direction Partners are working with printing industry associations to better support members in implementing their M&A strategies by assisting members in listing firms on the new website. To date, New Direction Partners has executed referral contracts with the Printing Industries of New England, Printing Association of Florida, Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic, Printing Industries Alliance Printing Industries of Michigan and Printing & Imaging Association Mountain States.  Two other associations have verbally committed to the partnership and many others are considering joining as well.

WhatTheyThink Chief Executive Officer Randy Davidson said “Merger and Acquisition topics are of great interest to our readers and we have partnered with the leaders in this field. Our online M&A community has been designed to be the ‘go to place’ for printing executives to learn about and discuss M&A topics.”

Peter Schaefer, Partner at New Direction Partners, added that, “Today the printing Merger and Acquisition market is very active and different than it was even six months ago.  The challenging economy and tight credit markets have not stopped the pace of M&A activity, and we have seen many deals occurring in 2009.  With that said, the transactions are not the same as what we have become accustomed to in the past and this new website is reflective of these new conditions.”

Jim Tepper, President of Printing Industries of New England, noted that “Many of our members have been seeking a service like this for years.  This program will provide our members, regardless of their size, a method to implement their M&A strategies not previously available.”

If you are seeking help in executing your M&A strategies, or are a printing industry organization seeking to offer your members a worthwhile service, and wish to list on the site or learn more about the M&A community, please visit the website at http://members.whattheythink.com/mergers-acquisitions/ OR call New Direction Partners at (610) 230-0635.

About WhatTheyThink

WhatTheyThink is the printing and publishing industry's leading media organization; offering a wide range of publications delivering unbiased, real-time market intelligence, industry news, economic and trend analysis, peer-to-peer communication, and special reports on emerging technology and critical events. WhatTheyThink also hosts webinars and live events that are timely and relevant o today's busy industry executives along with consulting and speaker services that leverage a talented pool of writers and industry analysts.

WhatTheyThink consists of flagship site WhatTheyThink.com, discussion forum site PrintPlanet.com, and industry blog PrintCEO.com

About New Direction Partners

New Direction Partners is an investment banking and financial advisory services formed by Paul Reilly, Peter Schaefer, Jim Russell and Tom Williams to serve the printing and related industries.  Services include merger advisory services through the representation of selling shareholders as well as buy side representation, valuation services, financing and refinancing efforts, turnaround and restructuring services, and temporary/interim management consulting. To learn more about New Direction Partners, visit New Direction Partners’ website at www.newdirectionpartners.com.