Andy Bird, the former chair of Walt Disney International, will today (Friday) be confirmed as the new CEO of Pearson Plc, the world’s largest education company. A virtual shareholders meeting will approve what some feel is an over-generous package for the new boss. But some have worried about his appointment for other reasons. Bird’s entire…
How trade shows will survive
Just two months after parent company RELX Plc said Reed Exhibitions had incurred a loss of £117m during the six months ended June 30 (compared with a profit of £231m in the first half of 2019), it has confirmed that its largest UK event, the World Travel Market, will not take place in November. What…
Red hits the online big time
Red Ventures, of the US, is acquiring the CNET Media Group of tech sites from ViacomCBS for $500m (5 x revenue). The brands include: ZDNet, Metacritic, Chowhound, TVGuide and Gamespot. CBS had acquired CNET for $1.8bn in 2008, a decade before its merger with Viacom. The deal is expected to propel the acquisitive online media…
Bonnier starts its US sale…
Octane Lending, a US company serving the lending needs of consumers in the motorsports market, has bought the digital assets of Bonnier Corporation’s US Motorcycle Group whose brands include: Motorcyclist, ATV Rider, Cycle World and Cycle Volta. Octane was founded in 2014 and has established a finance platform and partnerships with motorsports dealers. The acquisition…
Mediahuis buys NDC
Mediahuis NV, the seven-year-old, privately-owned Benelux media group which also publishes the Irish Independent, is acquiring Dutch media group NDC, publisher of the daily newspapers Dagblad van het Noorden, Leeuwarder Courant, Friesch Dagblad and dozens of regional newspapers and weekly magazines. NDC reaches more than 2 million people every week, in print and online. It…
What’s next on Penske’s list?
The 17-year-old, privately-owned Penske Media Corporation is believed to be negotiating to acquire The Hollywood Reporter and perhaps also its stable-mates Billboard and Vibe. The potential deal would make Penske, which owns Variety, Deadline, Rolling Stone and Music Business Worldwide, the B2B leader in the entertainment industry. The unconfirmed “early stage” negotiations highlight the rapid…
NewsGuard to be sold
NewsGuard, the US-based online service that rates and ranks news websites for credibility and transparency, is believed to have been put up for sale. It was launched in 2018 by Steven Brill (founder of American Lawyer and of Court TV) and Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of The Wall Street Journal. It seeks to address the declining…
JPI for sale – again
The regional news publisher JPI Media, of the UK, (formerly known as Johnston Press) is set to resume sale talks with interested parties following their postponement due to the pandemic. JPI publishes a range of regional titles include The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post. It is assumed that the UK newspaper veteran David Montgomery (whose National…
De Gruyter buys 8 journals
De Gruyter, the German publishing house, is to buy eight scientific journals from Carl Hanser Verlag. The titles centre around materials testing and research including the International Journal of Materials Research. De Gruyter is an independent academic publisher, based in Berlin and publishing more than 1,300 books and 900 journals annually. Terms not disclosed. De…
Discovery buys TV in NZ
Discovery Inc, listed on Nasdaq in the US with a $11bn market cap, is to buy the free-to air TV interests of New Zealand’s MediaWorks including Three and Bravo channels, ThreeNow streaming service and news platform Newshub. The MediaWorks radio and outdoor interests are not included in the sale. MediaWorks has a 4m audience across…
