Tribune Publishing Company makes strategic investment in Contend

Tribune Publishing Company has made a strategic investment in Contend, a content creation company that develops and produces entertainment and marketing solutions for local, regional and national brands. The partnership is designed to help marketers engage and activate customers across all platforms, from print to online, social to mobile.

The companies have already collaborated on an inaugural campaign for Jewel-Osco, the dominant supermarket chain in greater Chicago providing quality products at a great value. The campaign, designed to reinforce Jewel-Osco's "Something Fresh" brand promise, includes a series of videos featuring Chicagoans selecting fresh produce at their neighborhood market. The prominent video campaign is being brought to life on the brand's website, mobile and social properties, in-store and other platforms, including Taxi TV.

"Brands today seek creative solutions that help them connect emotionally with audiences, and our partnership with Contend marries our deep reach with advertisers with Contend's exceptional storytelling capabilities," said Bill Adee, executive vice president of digital for Tribune Publishing. "Together, we provide marketers with short- and long-form storytelling solutions that engage and activate audiences."

"Contend and Tribune Publishing share a common DNA for creative storytelling, and that's significant for companies seeking partners to help their messages come to life across all apertures," said Steven Amato, founder and CEO of Contend.

Contend – whose employees sit alongside with Tribune Publishing employees in Chicago and Los Angeles – was founded earlier this year and specializes in creating, producing and distributing data-driven content to deliver measurable business results. The company's mission is to innovate and produce short- and long-format content for multiple distribution channels and networks while partnering with Tribune Publishing. Amato is best known as an innovator in the worlds of entertainment and marketing, creating groundbreaking content for traditional and digital broadcast platforms.

In addition to the branded content solutions it jointly produces with Contend, Tribune Publishing also offers an array of digital solutions through its 435Digital group, which delivers SEO and SEM solutions, content marketing, paid search, social development and web development for local and national companies.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.