I’m sure you’ve seen the news by now, but just for good measure, I’m thrilled to share that MDM has been acquired by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), effective Jan. 18. Make sure to check out our official announcement if you haven’t yet.

I’ve been covering the wholesale distribution sector as an editor for nearly 10 years now, and during that time, I’ve published thousands of content items about M&A in the form of news briefs, blogs and articles, podcasts, webcasts and more. That’s made it fascinating to be on the other side of a transaction.

For decades, NAW has been a key industry advocate, championing the role of wholesale distribution in the U.S. economy. This $8.2 trillion business sector has benefited from NAW’s and MDM’s respective missions, and our combination will only strengthen that going forward.

Naturally, I’m sure much of our MDM readership is wondering what this transaction means for our editorial content, so I want to share what I can.

First of all, Tom Gale — MDM’s owner and steward for the past 32 years — will continue to lead us forward. His strategic vision, vast network and coaching has been vital for our editorial staff since I became Executive Editor in early 2022, and will remain so.

Our coverage of the entire spectrum of this industry – independents to international – will continue doing what it does best: providing market intelligence, analysis, exclusive research, original thought, education and industry coverage — but with more firepower. With NAW, our resources of distribution leaders, consultants and service providers expands considerably today, and we’ll tap into them. That means a deeper pool of insights across every sector of distribution – what’s working, what’s not – that we’ll compile to help you benchmark, triangulate and support you and your team going forward. 

MDM’s content pillars in recent years have centered on best practice and business model transformation across sales, digital, data analytics and talent. These will continue as our North Star; NAW’s resources will help us explore much further. On the MDM Premium side, our members gain access to our most in-depth reports, insights and exclusive data. We will continue to enhance the level of our Premium content, and there’s never been a better time to become a Premium subscriber.

Our editorial content has always aimed to reflect the core value of distribution, which reflects the fragmented, diverse spectrum of companies and go-to-market strategies that comprise wholesale distribution. Our core mission doesn’t change. And some core foundations will be our guideposts going forward. Our annual Top Distributors feature — which ranks North America’s largest distributors across 17 different industrial, commercial and building supply verticals by annual revenue — will remain a crucial resource for the industry as the definitive guide to understanding the competitive landscape defining these markets. And we’ll be asking you to help guide us in how we can expand and make this even stronger going forward. 

I know it’s a cliché, but the combination of NAW and MDM is truly a win-win in every sense of the term. We’re taking the advice of so many leaders in distribution which we profile across our channels – we’re disrupting ourselves before others do to create a new and more powerful, more customer-centric value proposition that our team is excited to deliver. We’ll continue to roll out additional details and benefits from this combination in the weeks and months ahead.

Thank you for your continued support of our combined mission to strengthen the future of distribution. I hope you’ll join us to celebrate this next great chapter. Now it’s time for our team to roll up our sleeves and get to work!