Immediate Media Co, the special interest content and platform company, has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in River Street Events Ltd. The deal sees Immediate acquire the remainder of the business in late 2020.
Future has acquired two specialist media brands cyclenews.com and Procycling magazine.
Immediate Media Co, the special interest content and platform company, is to acquire Upper Street Events Ltd, one of the UK’s leading producers of consumer enthusiast events. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Radio Times publisher Immediate Media has bought the BBC Good Food brand including its magazine, digital and live events businesses. Immediate, which publishes other food brands including Delicious magazine, Healthy Food Guide and Olive, said the acquisition makes it the “largest food media publisher in the UK”.
Press Release: Exponent Private Equity (“Exponent”) today announces that it has agreed to sell Immediate Media Co (“Immediate”) to Hubert Burda Media for an undisclosed sum. Immediate is the UK’s leading and fastest-growing special interest content and platform company. It is home to some of the UK’s best-loved brands – including the Radio Times, the most valuable and profitable magazine brand in the UK. Immediate engages over 19 million passionate consumers each month, offering them world-class content and innovative new products and services, including e-commerce and TV shopping.
Sky News has learnt that Hubert Burda, which publishes the YourHome and Wedding lifestyle magazines, is putting the finishing touches to a takeover of Immediate Media, which has been owned by Exponent Private Equity since 2011
According to the Sunday Times, the publisher’s private equity owner Exponent is interviewing advisers for handling the sale that is expected to be completed before the summer.
One of Britain’s biggest magazine publishers, Immediate Media sells 74m magazines every year including BBC titles like Good Food, Homes & Antiques, Gardeners’ World, and Match of the Day among others. The media house also owns other UK consumer titles like Triathlon, Urban Cyclist, You and Your wedding, and Horrible Histories
Immediate Media is still probably best known for its print titles, including Radio Times, BBC Top Gear Magazine, BBC History and Gardeners’ World. But the West London based publisher which has recently celebrated its fourth anniversary isn’t stopping there. “Strategically when you are looking at the next five or ten years I don’t think that’s enough,” said Chief Executive Tom Bureau in a recent interview. “So we are now focusing on the third part of our proposition – becoming a platform business.”
Immediate Media has acquired the channel – which broadcasts 24 hours a day on Sky, Virgin, Freesat and Freeview to devotees of jewellery making – to expand its reach into the lucrative £3bn market for craft-loving British consumers
Although Immediate Media Co is still a month shy of its four-year birthday, it has made a lot of headway in the marketplace. Bureau said it has shifted its focus from being a publication company to becoming a special interest content and platform company.
Mercury Events has joined forces with Immediate Media to launch the National Triathlon Show in April next year. The “unrivalled experience for triathletes” will tap into the sport’s core support by showcasing more than 100 exhibitors at Lee Valley VeloPark in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Private equity-owned publishing house Immediate Media has offered to sell three magazines in a bid to appease the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
Immediate Media has reported a 75% rise in profits to £14.3m in its last financial year. Immediate Media, which struck a £121m deal with BBC Magazines to buy, licence or contract publish its 34 titles in 2011, saw group operating profits rise from £8.2m to £14.4m in the year to the end of March 2014
Colin Morrison’s latest blog looks at Tom Bureau and Immediate Media
Immediate Media has moved the show to the NEC from Olympia after previoulsy announcing the launch odf a Scottish edition at the SECC
Tom Bureau is bucking the gloom in magazines
Publishing companies are increasingly talking about the need to become tech companies as well as content producers if they are going to survive the transition to digital
Radio Times, which accounts for 60% of its publisher’s profits, is undergoing a transformation to woo younger readers The Guardian reports in an interview with Tom Bureau, CEO of Immediate Media
Pre school magazine titles Mister Maker and Tickety Toc are set to launch next year following two publishing deals between brand owner Zodiak Kids and Immediate Media and Signature Publishing
It is easy to believe that free titles (as well as online) are squeezing the life out of the UK paid-for magazine market
