Posts by mwright

When Time Inc. declared it was putting the brakes on a potential sale, the announcement served — among other things — as a reminder that the public equity markets have not been kind to magazine media. Time Inc. spun out from Time Warner in 2014, emerging as a standalone company with some of the most storied magazine brands in history, but also $1.3 billion in debt and a lengthening record of declining revenue. Last year was no exception, with revenue falling to just under $3.1 billion. In 2010, by contrast, the company’s revenue was $3.7 billion. Time Inc.’s stock peaked at $25.62 just a month or so after the spinoff, and after a rally in early 2015, it’s never gotten close to that point again. It was trading at under $15 early this week.

Press Release: Stockholm, Sweden: 17 May 2017: Readly, the digital magazine newsstand, today announced it has raised €13m in additional funding to drive the next stage of its development. The series B funding has been provided by funds managed by Zouk Capital and Hermes GPE as well as from existing shareholders. Channel 4’s Commercial Growth Fund and Aggregate Media Fund have also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to further its international expansion and support growth in its existing markets.

MA Exhibitions Limited, the exhibition arm of the Mark Allen Group, has completed its acquisition of the UK’s largest special educational needs show, TES SEN Show, from TES Global Limited. Under the terms of the deal, TES Global has agreed to licence its name to MA Exhibitions for an undisclosed period.

Epiris’ portfolio company AXIO Group scored a 5-times return and a 79 per cent IRR through the £455m sale of TechInsights to Oakley Capital. TechInsights is an intellectual property and technology service provider, offering consulting, patent brokerage and technical reverse engineering.

In Austria, marcoms giant Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired full-service media agency media.at, which provides consulting, research and data analysis relating to comms strategy, ad planning and buying, and ad verification. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

EQT VI Limited (“EQT VI”) has entered into an agreement to sell Bureau van Dijk (or the “Company”) to Moody’s Corporation (“Moody’s”) for an enterprise value of EUR 3.0 billion

As part of an announcement about earnings, Time inc CEO, Rich Battista suggested it will cut costs by selling “non-core assets,” but did not give further details

Not showing advertisers their own ads has been the elephant in the programmatic room from day one. The minute clients like Marc Pritchard at P&G — and others like him working for premium brands — start requesting “checking copies” of their online ads, programmatic advertising will have a huge problem

Event revenues surpass print revenues as Northstar takes on 10 hospitality events.

Gulf Publishing Company has made its first major move since spinning off from its former London-based parent via management buyout last August from Euromoney

The Economist is following the trend of Trump-era subscription success, with a growth of 19 percent in North American digital subscriptions since the election. This puts the London-based magazine in the ranks of Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The Atlantic, which have all seen subscriptions surge since November

Trinity Mirror has reported a fall of nearly 20% in print ad revenues as it confirmed it is to close the New Day after just two months

Press Release: MCH Group, a globally leading live marketing company with its head office in Basel (Switzerland) has acquired a 100% holding in MC2 (“MC-squared”), a recognized leader in the and event marketing industry in the U.S. This is by far the biggest acquisition in the 100-year history of MCH Group and a key strategic expansion. “The acquisition of MC2 marks a tremendous step forward in the implementation of our corporate strategy, which we have been pursuing since 2005”, explains René Kamm, CEO of MCH Group. “With MC2, we will be greatly boosting our international presence and activities, as well as expanding our range of services in the live marketing field.”

Japanese advertising giant Dentsu has agreed to acquire an 89 per cent stake in Indian digital agency SVG Media. Dentsu said its subsidiary Dentsu Aegis Network would acquire the stake in SVG Media Group with the option to increase its share to make the Indian company a wholly owned subsidiary

Two companies increase their advertising duopoly by earning a combined $106.3bn, nearly double the figure of five years ago

Press Release: Investment Week founder Tim Weller and the leadership team of parent Incisive Media have secured a management buyout (MBO), that allows the business to accelerate its growth strategy under long-term private ownership. The MBO was led by Tim Weller, founder and chairman, CFO Jamie Campbell-Harris and CEO Jonathon Whiteley; a team who have worked together in the business for two decades.

The luxury magazine market, for so long a well-heeled haven from the turmoil facing the rest of the print media industry, could be about to confront the same headwinds battering other magazines and newspapers. Analysts say that glossy magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair are starting to see a shift in readers and advertisers to online social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. But they are also being hit by forces specific to the industry that has for so long offered them protection.

Iliffe Media has acquired KM Media Group as the Kent publisher struggled under massive “pension liabilities” that had impacted on investment. The group produces nine paid-for and four free newspapers including the award-winning Kent Messenger series and the Kentish Gazette, established in 1717

US and European publishers have given support to the idea of Google introducing an ad-blocker to its widely used Chrome internet browser despite fears it would hit their online advertising revenues. Details of the technology group’s plans have not been disclosed but Google has said it held “initial conversations” on the idea with publishers.

21st Century Fox is in talks with private equity giant Blackstone to buy Tribune Media, one of America’s largest television station operators, sources familiar with the matter have said.