The UK-based Dennis Publishing has had a great first year under private equity ownership. The company which (together with The Week in the US) was acquired for £166m by Exponent, increased its UK revenue by 24% to £133.2m in 2018 with EBITDA of £16.1m. While the profit was a mere 2% up, it included the…
Hearst launches Delish in UK
Hearst UK is launching a local version of the successful Delish digital brand whose US website has built a powerful business of more than 22m monthly uniques by becoming “the destination for recipes and videos that inspire people to get cooking”. In simple parlance, it’s cooking for the home cook, nothing too fancy or complicated….
Vice buys Refinery29
Vice Media has bought Refinery 29, reportedly for around $400m, predominantly in shares. The Financial Times estimated the deal valued the combined company at $4bn which would represent a decline in Vice’s valuation since its 2017 investment from TPG valued it at $5.7bn. Refinery29, launched in 2005, was valued at $500m in a 2016 funding…
RBI to sell Farmers Weekly
The RELX-owned, UK-based Reed Business Information, which has been transformed into a data-tech group, is preparing to sell one of its last B2B magazines, Farmers Weekly. It is believed that up to six companies are currently conducting due diligence with a view to final bidding for the c£15m-revenue business later this month and completion of…
Dotdash buys Liquor
The Interactive Corp-owned niche digital publisher Dotdash has acquired Liquor.com in its fourth acquisition of 2019. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but according to Dotdash CEO Neil Vogel, the consideration was similar to that paid to Condé Nast earlier this year for the now digital-only Brides. Dotdash’s brands include: MyDomaine, The Spruce, Byrdie,…
Byron Allen’s $290m TV deal
Entertainment Studios (ES) is to buy 11 broadcast TV stations from USA Television Holdings and from USA Television MidAmerica Holdings for a combined price of $290m. The stations will be held within the Allen Media Broadcasting division which covers smaller local TV areas in the US. ES was founded and is owned by its chairman/…
DTN buys Weatherzone in Oz
DTN has bought Australian company Weatherzone from the Nine Entertainment Company, of Sydney. DTN, based in Minnesota, US, provides insight and decision support services to the agriculture, energy and transport sectors while Weatherzone serves both business and consumers with weather information. The deal adds weather information to the information offer provided by DTN and expands…
WebMD buys Aptus Health
WebMD Health Corp, part of Internet Brands, is to buy Aptus Health, a company which offers digital information to companies in the health and life sciences sectors. The deal includes Univadis the information/education platform which delivers news, research updates and conference information to 4m healthcare professionals globally; also the brands EngagedMedia, a mobile messaging platform…
CoStar buys Star hotels report
Commercial property data group CoStar, of the US, is to buy STR Global for $450m. STR was founded in 1985 as Smith Travel Research. The company’s key brand is the STAR report which supplies benchmarking data to hotel groups, aggregating data from 65,000 hotels across 180 countries. STR is based in Tennessee and has 370…
Lutheran books deal
1517 Media, the US based Christian publishing and media company linked to the evangelical Lutheran Church of America, has acquired Lutheran University Press (LUP). Both companies are based in Minneapolis. Lutheran University Press (LUP) was established in 2000 and has 75 titles which will transfer, becoming the fourth imprint for 1517 Media which already has…
