Greenleaf Book Group and Amplify Publishing Group, two of the country’s oldest and best-known hybrid publishing companies, have been acquired by Civica Media, a new publishing company formed by the private equity firm BlackBern Partners.

Civica is headed by CEO Laura Albero, whose background includes leading business development for Lezen Holdings, the publishing company anchored by Arcadia Publishing, and has done strategic advisory, financial modeling, and investor material development for a number of publishing houses and literary agencies. “Greenleaf and Amplify are two of the strongest independent publishing brands in the market today,” Albero said in a statement. “They exemplify the potential of the hybrid model, and we’re excited to provide the resources and platform to help them scale.”

Greenleaf was founded by Clint Greenleaf in 1997 and has been led in recent years by Tanya Hall. It has seven imprints including Wonderwell Press and Kiplinger Books and also provides distribution services. Originally known as Mascot Books, Amplify was cofounded in 2003 by Naren Aryal, who remains CEO and publisher. Amplify has six imprints, including RealClear Publishing.

Albero, the lone Civica employee at the moment, told PW both companies will continue to operate largely independently with their existing leadership teams and brands. Civica will look to take advantage of economies of scale in certain administrative functions, Albero said, and will also be investing in editorial, marketing, distribution, and analytics "to establish best practices to be applied across the Civica portfolio." She also confirmed that Civica will actively pursue acquisitions and partnerships that will add scale and capabilities in traditional, niche, and hybrid publishing.

BlackBern, founded in 2010, describes itself as private equity firm that invests in lower middle market companies. It has made 23 investments in a range or markets, including the plastic containers and packaging industries.

The Civica purchases come as the publishing industry increasingly looks to alternative business models to help boost sales by finding new ways to connect with authors and readers.

This story has been updated.