Our History
Created in 1995, with the merger of Blair Television and Petry Television, Petry Media Corporation has both history and the future on its side. Today Petry Media is one of the largest station representative companies in the $8 billion spot television advertising market. Seventy-six years ago, in 1931, when Edward Petry & Co. was first founded, television was only a concept, and radio advertising sales was the company's main business.
Television's evolution into a commercially viable business in the 1940s attracted Edward Petry's attention, and he expanded into television sales, going on to become the first person to sell a spot ad in 1941, for the Bulova Watch Company. Moving into television ad sales was a natural complement to Petry's radio business. Twenty-three years later, in 1971, Petry sold it's radio representative firm to focus the entire business toward selling national spot television.
Similarly, John Portwood Blair, the founder of John Blair & Co. in 1935, was a pioneer in the field of spot advertising and station representation. John Blair started his career in time placement and transcription sales for a general broker in Chicago, a major broadcasting center in the 1930s. A decade later, he too determined that the new emerging technology of television would have staying power, and he instinctively sensed the potential of the new advertising medium.
As each company grew and adapted to the changing media environment, Ed Petry and John Blair were convinced that television would remain the most effective mass market medium and, in the words of John Blair, "...within it, spot TV, the most efficient and economical buy." Through the ups and downs of the rep industry and the years of consolidation and change, each company evolved to take its place among the leaders in the rep industry, all the while providing clients with the highest levels of service, and building a tradition of integrity and excellence.
The merger of these two industry competitors in 1995 as a privately held company was achieved alongside a rash of consolidations already underway in the rep industry as a result of major consolidations of TV station ownership into fewer but much larger station groups. One of the advantages of the merger was the ability to resolve conflicts among repped group owners across various markets by utilizing multiple rep brands. Blair Television and Petry Television's joining to form Petry Media Corporation also allowed the company to achieve a better scale to increase operating size and efficiency.
Today Petry Media continues to evolve to address the needs of the changing media environment. The Company has added two new divisions, Petry International and Digerati iSales, each targeting a fast growing business segment. Petry International, launched in 2005 was created to capitalize on media opportunities available in the global marketplace as the prospects for international ad sales representation grows. This burgeoning business will be the vehicle to developing a client base of international broadcast networks and non-english language U.S. based station clients. Digerati iSales is the online arm of the business and has been created to sell the websites of the stations Blair Television and Petry Television currently represent.
The Company is owned by Patriarch Partners, LLC, a New York based investment firm, and company management.
