Freshwire Content Company Created in Joint Venture

Amos Content Group — composed of freelance writers, photographers, producers, and editors, and creates content for the web and media outlets — was acquired this week by public relations firm Fleishman Hillard and GMR Marketing.

Amos Content Group was purchased for an estimated price between $5 million and $10 million, according to The New York Times’ Tanzina Vega.

Chief Executive of the company Shawn Amos said, “The way to create P.R. in this day and age is to create content that’s relevant to the consumer.”

The new name of Amos Content Group will be Freshwire, and freelancers will be “creating editorial-like content for brands, including videos, blogs, slideshows and more,” says Vega.

Amos Content Group is among the few companies outsourcing with freelancers to produce quality content.

Chief Executive of GMR Marketing Gary Reynolds told The Times’ Media Decoder blog that branded content has to tell a story, “and the story can’t be so commercial.”

Forbes’ David Martin reiterates this point, writing that simply putting out branded content is not enough.

“Let’s tell a story with conflict, and characters and tension and resolution,” he says. “We may not be able to force consumers to watch our ads, but what we can do is create something that is so compelling that consumers will feel a need to watch it.  And if we really get our story right, we might even make them want to share it with their friends.”