British publishing company
Ascential plc
(formerly
EMAP
) is a British business-to-business media company specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 250 Index
.
History
[
edit
]
Richard Winfrey
purchased the
Spalding Guardian
in 1887 and later purchased the
Lynn News
and the
Peterborough Advertiser
; he also started the
North Cambs Echo
. He became a
Liberal
politician and campaigner for agricultural rights and the papers were used to promote his political views in and around
Spalding
,
Boston
,
Sleaford
and
Peterborough
. During World War II Winfrey's newspaper interests began to be passed over to his son, Richard Pattinson Winfrey (1902?1985). In 1947, under the direction of 'Pat' Winfrey, the family's newspaper titles were consolidated to form the East Midland Allied Press (EMAP): this was achieved by the merger of the
Northamptonshire
Printing and Publishing Company, the Peterborough Advertiser Company, the
West Norfolk and King's Lynn
Newspaper Company and commercial printing sections at
Rushden
,
King's Lynn
and
Bury St Edmunds
.
[2]
The magazine division was founded on a hunch when the company's printing presses lay dormant between printing issues of the local papers. The staff gambled that a weekly angling publication would be a hit - and in 1953
Angling Times
was born. This was soon joined by another weekly heavyweight when EMAP bought
Motor Cycle News
from its founder in 1956 for a hundred pounds.
[2]
EMAP grew significantly in the late 1970s under the guidance of the extremely successful partnership of Sir Robin Miller and
David Arculus
.
[3]
In 1992 and 1993, EMAP moved into trade magazines by acquiring titles from
Maxwell Communication
and
Thomson
.
[4]
In 1996 EMAP agreed to sell its 65 newspaper titles, including the 300-year-old
Stamford Mercury
, to
Johnston Press
for £111 million.
[5]
Scottish Radio Holdings
was acquired by EMAP on 21 June 2005.
[6]
In 2006, EMAP sold its French division to Italy's
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
.
[7]
On 27 July 2007, EMAP announced that it was undertaking a review of the structure of the group in response to receiving a number of unsolicited proposals to purchase parts of the company.
[8]
On 12 September 2007, EMAP announced that it had completed the disposal of its Australian consumer magazine division, Emap Australia for approximately £38m to
ACP Magazines
.
[9]
On 29 January 2008, EMAP completed the sale of its
radio
,
television
and consumer media businesses (
EMAP Radio
) to German company
Bauer
for £1.14bn.
[10]
The remainder of the company was taken over by Eden Bidco Ltd, a company incorporated for the purpose of the acquisition by its owners, the
private equity
investment group
Apax
and the
Guardian Media Group
in late March/early April 2008.
[11]
In March 2012, the company announced that it would be renamed
Top Right Group
, and that its magazines, events and data businesses would be separated into three standalone companies. The EMAP name would continue to be used for the magazines operation, which at the time accounted for around 18 per cent of the group's turnover. The database business was renamed 4C Group, and the events unit was renamed I2i Events Group.
[12]
Then in October 2015 the company announced that the EMAP brand would be scrapped as all its titles move to digital-only format.
[13]
In February 2015, Top Right Group sold Media Business Insight (including
Broadcast
,
Shots
and
Screen International
) to Mobeus Equity Partners and Tenzing PE.
[14]
In December 2015 Top Right Group rebranded as Ascential.
[15]
The company was the subject of an £800m
initial public offering
in February 2016.
[16]
The Guardian Media Group sold off its shares of Ascential in 2016 and 2017.
[17]
In June 2017, Ascential sold heritage brands (business-to-business titles) to
Metropolis International
. The transaction include the rights to EMAP name (as EMAP Publishing Ltd).
[18]
Acquisitions and sales
[
edit
]
2014
- Money 20/20 - Acquired
[19]
2015
- Retail Net Group - Acquired
2016
- One Click Retail - Acquired
[20]
2017
- RWM - Sold
[21]
- Clavis Insight - Acquired
[22]
- MEED - Sold
[23]
- 11 heritage brands - Sold
[24]
- MediaLink - Acquired
[25]
- HSJ - Sold
[26]
2018
- Brand View - Acquired
[27]
- WARC - Acquired
[28]
- Flywheel Digital - Acquired
[29]
- Exhibitions - Sold
[30]
Operations
[
edit
]
Ascential operates four informational service categories focused on businesses in the digital economy. The four areas are product design, marketing, sales, and built environment and policy.
[31]
Product Design
Marketing
Sales
- Edge by Ascential
- Money 20/20
- World Retail Congress
- Retail Week
- Flywheel
Built Environment and Policy
Previous publications
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Preliminary Results 2023"
(PDF)
. Ascential
. Retrieved
28 March
2024
.
- ^
a
b
"History"
. EMAP. Archived from
the original
on 17 June 2006
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Sir David Arculus likes a challenge, so at 67 he has entered the world of wealth management"
. The Telegraph. 31 May 2014.
Archived
from the original on 11 August 2016
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Emap buys Thomson titles in pounds 21m deal"
.
The Independent
. 18 February 1993.
- ^
"Johnston Press is still a shrewd investment"
. City Wire. 10 May 2004
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
Brook, Stephen (21 June 2005).
"Emap snaps up Scottish Radio Holdings"
.
The Guardian
.
Archived
from the original on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
Tryhorn, Chris (20 June 2006).
"Emap France sold for £380m"
.
TheGuardian.com
.
Archived
from the original on 28 July 2018
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Emap reviewing group structure following proposals"
. City Wire. 27 July 2007.
Archived
from the original on 29 June 2016
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Emap sells Australian consumer magazines for £38m"
. Campaign Live. 12 September 2007.
Archived
from the original on 16 June 2016
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Emap sells magazines and radio divisions to Bauer for £1.14bn"
. Campaign Live. 7 December 2007.
Archived
from the original on 16 June 2016
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
Andrews, Amanda (24 December 2007).
"Guardian and Apax snap up a fifth of Emap"
.
The Times
. London.
Archived
from the original on 12 June 2011
. Retrieved
1 May
2010
.
- ^
"Emap to change name to Top Right Group and split into three"
.
The Daily Telegraph
. 28 March 2012.
Archived
from the original on 31 March 2012
. Retrieved
3 April
2012
.
- ^
"Emap brand to be scrapped as all its titles move digital-only"
.
The Guardian
. 5 October 2015.
Archived
from the original on 25 October 2017
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Broadcast-owner completes management buy-out"
. Retrieved
10 March
2021
.
- ^
"Top Right Group rebrands to Ascential"
. Fipp. 15 December 2015.
Archived
from the original on 9 August 2016
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Guardian and Apax share £80m from Ascential flotation"
.
The Guardian
. 9 February 2016.
Archived
from the original on 1 June 2016
. Retrieved
11 June
2016
.
- ^
"Guardian Media Group announces outcome of three year turnaround strategy"
.
Guardian Media Group
. 1 May 2019.
- ^
"Ascential sells 11 former Emap magazine brands to Metropolis for £23.5m"
.
Press Gazette
. 1 June 2017
. Retrieved
10 February
2023
.
- ^
Smith, Oliver (26 October 2014).
"Top Right Group eyes up £100m events takeover"
. City A.M. Limited
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
"Ascential Buys eCommerce Analyst One Click"
.
MRWeb
. MrWeb Ltd
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
Slow, Elizabeth.
"RWM sold to Prysm Group"
.
LetsRecycle
. Environment Media Group Ltd
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
Taylor, Charlie.
"Irish ecommerce firm Clavis Insight acquired by Ascential in €100m deal"
.
Irish Times
. The Irish Times
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
"Ascential has to sell MEED to Global data for $17.5 million"
.
Reuters
. Reuters
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
"Ascential sells its 11 remaining UK-based Heritage Brands to Metropolis International for £23.5M"
. Fusion. June 2017.
Archived
from the original on 9 September 2017
. Retrieved
9 September
2017
.
- ^
Atkinson, Claire (7 February 2017).
"MediaLink gets acquired by Cannes Lions operator Ascential"
.
New York Post
. NYP Holdings, Inc
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
Khan, Mehreen.
"Ascential sells Health Service Journal for £19m"
.
Financial Times
. The Financial Times Ltd
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
"Reading: Brand View acquired by Ascential for £38m"
.
The Business Magazine
. Elcot Media & Events Ltd. 27 September 2018
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
Cherubini, Elena.
"Ascential Acquires Digital Marketing Business WARC For GBP24 Million"
.
Morningstar
. Alliance News
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
Babcock, Stephen (8 November 2018).
"Flywheel Digital acquired by UK-based Ascential for $60M"
.
Technical.ly Baltimore
. Technically Media Inc
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
Hosking, Patrick.
"ITE Group pays £300m for Ascential trade exhibitions"
.
The Times
. Times Newspapers Limited
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
"Ascential - Our Brands"
.
Ascential
. Retrieved
24 April
2019
.
- ^
"BIG!".
BIG!
(37).
EMAP
: 55. 9?23 September 1992.
External links
[
edit
]
Links to related articles
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Subsidiaries and
divisions
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Joint ventures and
shareholdings
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- Ascential
(50%)
- Development Hell (29.5%)
- Seven Publishing (41.9%)
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Former holdings
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Other
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UK national newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals
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Principal
channels
(
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and
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Studios
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Resources
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