The 15-year history of podcasting has been a gift to journalists who love writing about this or that technology “coming of age”. But this is the year when former US President Obama gave his first campaign interview not to a newspaper or TV network but to the “Pod Save America” podcast. But his wife’s podcast…
BuzzFeed marries HuffPost
The US news and entertainment company BuzzFeed is to acquire HuffPost (formerly known as Huffington Post) from telco parent Verizon. The all-share deal brings together the two most famous digital news brands after 15 years of great expectations and heavy losses. It marks a further stage in the consolidation of US digital media following Vox…
Trade shows look to 2022
Everything about forecasting trade show business over the next 1-2 years is problematic, of course. But the impending release of Covid-19 vaccines certainly encourages organisers to start planning the resumption of exhibitions rather than slowly dripping out the bad news of more postponements as many have been doing until now. The trouble is, of course,…
MediaFutures on M&A
In our continuing review of MediaFutures International 2020, we focus this week on M&A. In the US survey, 42% of companies expect to be involved in some kind of M&A activity over the next two years. Some 50% of B2C companies expect to sell and 25% expect to acquire. But 64% of B2B companies do…
Simon & Schuster sale soon
The ViacomCBS sale of Simon & Schuster is nearing the end game with all bids apparently coming from existing major book publishers. Private equity interest has reportedly fallen away. NewsCorp (owner of Harper Collins) has entered the fray adding to interest from Bertelsmann-owned PenguinRandomHouse and Vivendi, part owner of Hachette. Simon & Schuster was founded…
Sandow buys Metropolis mag
US architecture and design magazine Metropolis has been acquired by Sandow, the privately-owned New York-based media company. Terms not disclosed. Metropolis was launched in 1981 by Bellerophon Publications, Inc., led by the late Horace Havemeyer and his wife Eugenie. It self-describes as “a compelling storyteller in the architecture and design industry worldwide”. The 17-year-old Sandow Media, founded by Adam…
Cocoa Girl UK mag launch
When the pandemic hit the UK in March, Serlina Boyd (whose plans for a nursery business were lost in lockdown) went looking for a magazine that would captivate her six-year-old daughter, one that would help her feel good about her British-Jamaican heritage. Now, Boyd (who has a background in publishing, design and events) and her…
Valnet buys Collider
Valnet, the Canadian online media investor with brands including ScreenRant and GameRant, has acquired entertainment website Collider.com. Founded in 2005, Collider covers film TV and gaming news. Terms were not disclosed. Valnet
Is this the future of exhibitions?
In the week when a Covid-19 vaccine suddenly became visible, share prices everywhere rebounded. None more so than the exhibition companies whose business had come to a shuddering halt in March. News that several vaccines may become widely available in the next few months – among all else – provides a challenge to the strategies…
What can we expect in 2021?
In 2009, the UK consultant Jim Bilton started publishing his annual MediaFutures survey. It benchmarked the performance, promise and pitfalls of the country’s publishers. Eleven years later, it still does. A growing audience of CEOs, publishers, research directors, and professional advisers depend on MediaFutures for practical insights into the state of the media market. This…
