The Nikkei-owned, UK-based Financial Times is believed to be negotiating to acquire or invest in The Information, the subscription-based digital media company founded by Jessica Lessin in 2013. The Information derives some 90% of its revenue from subscriptions (the rest from events) and more than 10,000 subscribers pay $399 for a service which now employs…
B2B back to the future?
It is over 70 years since Norman Cahners, the legendary US creator of B2B magazines and trade shows, introduced the world to ‘controlled circulation’. The concept of qualifying free circulation and ads-supported publishing came to account for so much of the growth in the 20th century heyday of B2B magazines, especially in the US and…
How far will Informa go?
Informa Plc, which became the world’s largest exhibitions organiser in 2018 with its £3.8bn acquisition of UBM, has begun divesting non-core operations with the $100m sale of its life sciences portfolio to MJH Associates. The New Jersey-based publisher of Pharmacy Times, Dentist’s Money Digest, and Contemporary Clinic (advised by Oaklins DeSilva + Phillips), now claims…
Penske gets 100% of Rolling Stone
The privately-owned Penske Media Corporation, of New York (publisher of Women’s Wear Daily, Variety, Deadline, Robb Report and almost 20 other magazine-centric brands) has purchased the remaining 49% stake in the 52-year-old Rolling Stone from Singapore-based BandLab Technologies. The deal gives it full ownership of the magazine including the international editions (formerly been managed by…
AgriBriefing prepares for the big time
It is more than six months since the London-based Horizon Capital (formerly Lyceum) hired advisers to find a buyer for AgriBriefing. The increasingly international B2B specialist had been launched in 2010 as Briefing Media, by Neil Thackray. He had started out by selling UK recruitment advertising for Reed Business Information before becoming a CEO in B2B…
Boat industry mag rocks on
Magazine conglomerates are part of the past and not just because print audiences have been eclipsed by digital. The London-based predecessors of TI Media (IPC Media and Time Inc UK) built profitability through the scale economies of printing, distribution and sales. As the company’s new private equity owners shuffle through their diverse, wobbly portfolio trying…
Immediate Media buys UK exhibitions
The UK-based magazines group Immediate Media has plunged deeper into live events with the £10m acquisition of Upper Street Events. It is the organiser of consumer exhibitions including The Cycle Show, the Knitting and Stitching shows, Festival of Quilts, Country Living Fairs, Adventure Travel Show and The London Cruise Show. The events are said to…
Schibsted: new era for online classifieds
Schibsted has paid €100m to acquire the 10% of Spanish classifieds group SCM that it did not already own. The deal comes just ahead of the Norwegian company’s demerger of its online classifieds outside Scandinavia. SCM, whose brands include Milanuncios, Coches, InfoJobs, Fotocasa and Habitaclia, has a leading position in the Spanish market and grew…
Reed Exhibitions buys Mack Brooks
Reed Exhibitions is buying the high-rated, UK-based Mack Brooks for a price believed to be some £200m. The privately-owned Brooks was established in 1965 and holds more than 30 business-to-business events in 14 countries, across airport technology, chemicals, packaging, and fasteners. The company, whose major brands include Euro Blech, InPrint, RailTex, FastenerFair, InterAirport and ChemSpec, has long been one of the UK’s most…
Discovery snaps up UK cycling specialist
In a deal which underlines both the increasing value of specialist-enthusiast content and the fusion of online and broadcast media, the $13bn Discovery Inc has acquired control of the cycling digital Play Sports Group (PSG). The UK-based company produces over 1,000 online videos annually on YouTube. It gets 45m monthly video views, 3.1m subscribers and 5.7m social followers for…
