A true American success story, ours begins like many, quite humbly. Flash back to Albany, Georgia in 1978. Family rooted and entrepreneurially driven, NCI created The Real Estate Book®, an innovative, digest-sized, full-color consumer catalog of homes for sale, distributed free to the public.

As you can imagine, The Real Estate Book® was a hit with sellers and shoppers alike.

MOVING UP

As demand grew for The Real Estate Book, NCI moved to the Northeast Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville. Following the success of The Real Estate Book, NCI developed other titles to reach more consumers in the real estate related marketplace such as The Apartment Blue Book (first introduced in 1979 and eventually converted to the Apartment Finder brand after NCI acquired the assets from Southeastern Publishing Ventures in 1998), Mature Living Choices, Unique Homes, Enclave, Black’s Guide and New Home Finder.

NCI welcomed the Internet age as well, publishing top-notch web sites for each publication along with online services, and more tools to help connect advertisers in the real estate community with their most-qualified prospects.

NCI THRIVES IN THE GLOBAL INFORMATION ECONOMY

As more print and online products were added to the roster, NCI caught the eye of Gallarus Media Holdings CEO Dan McCarthy. Gallarus was formed to identify and invest in strong media companies with leading brands that had a clear path to growth, and NCI fit the bill. Now, a few million issues and 24 years after the introduction of The Real Estate Book, Network Communications, Inc. became part of Gallarus Media Holdings in June 2002 with Dan McCarthy as President and CEO.

Leveraging the company’s strengths, acquiring new titles and developing new products paid off. In January 2005, Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners acquired NCI. Home Improvement and Design were slated as a major expansion area.

Through the years, the company’s entrepreneurial spirit has flourished and still resides in today’s employees and business partners, making NCI the world’s largest and fast-growing publisher of local print and online magazines for the real estate market.