Market Outlook
(continued)

Rickenbacher Media Background

Rickenbacker Media is a publications brokerage firm. All transactions are handled with discretion and confidentiality.

Ted Rickenbacher is president of the firm. Prior to establishing the company in 1986, he was a fourth generation newspaper publisher. He was successful in ownership of newspapers for 29 years.

Jim Afinowich, a former newspaper publisher and past president of the International Business Brokers Association, is western states director.  He represents Rickenbacher Media in California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Idaho.

During his years at Texas Christian University, Rickenbacher began working at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He remained there for four years until he became publisher of a small daily newspaper in Kansas.

After it was sold in 1962, Rickenbacher started the
weekly Trinity Herald in the area between Dallas and Fort Worth. Later he started the Grapevine Herald. In l966 he sold these papers to the Star-Telegram but operated them until l969.

In l969 he acquired the Carrollton Chronicle and the Farmers Branch Times northwest of Dallas. He started weeklies in Lewisville, North Dallas and Addison. The five papers were sold for a substantial return in l980.

In l980 Rickenbacher acquired Southwest Floor Covering, a trade publication. Southeast Floor Covering was launched two years later in Atlanta and it served as a companion of Southwest Floor Covering. These publications were sold in l985.

Rickenbacher owned other businesses and target market publications before he acquired in the l980s a group of Texas weekly newspapers in Duncanville, DeSoto, Lancaster, Cedar Hill, Ferris, Midlothian and Red Oak. These papers later were sold.

He has a strong understanding of a business owner’s interests. He was owner of 21 newspapers and five target market publications in the 25 years after 1960. He has been active in community affairs, including service as Rotary Club president and member of a church governing board.

Rickenbacher is a past member of the board of trustees of the American Management Association, and past officer and director of Suburban Newspapers of America. He has been designated a Certified Business Intermediary by the International Business Brokers Association. He has completed the President’s Course and the Management Course through the American Management Association.

Afinowich served on the board of directors of the Arizona Newspaper Association for several years and was its president in l982. At the age of 23 he purchased the Nogales International. During his 10 years in the publishing business he started a group of shoppers, several specialty publications, and he developed a central printing plant.

After leaving the publishing business, Afinowich began a second career in the business brokerage business, and in the past 20 years has sold several hundred businesses.

He is recognized as an expert in the sale of businesses. He is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences. He has been designated a Certified Business Intermediary, a designation held by only 350 brokers in the United States.

Afinowich is a founding partner of Fox & Fin Financial Group of Scottsdale, Arizona, a regional mergers and acquisition firm. Arizona Business Magazine ranked Fox & Fin the number one brokerage firm in Arizona for the last 10 years. He can be reached at (480) 421-9789.