Kappa Publishing Group, Inc. is a

Blue Bell, Pennsylvania Blue Bell is a census-designated place (CDP) in Whitpain Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 6,067. Blue Bell was originally known as Pigeontown, after the large flocks of the n ...

-based publishing company concentrating on adult puzzle books and magazines as well as children's magazines and maps. It is a private company founded in 1955 with $11.5 million in annual sales.

History

In January 2012, Kappa announced that they had acquired Modern Publishing.

Subsidiaries

It has a number of subsidiary companies, such as London Publishing or GAMES Publications. It original owner, H.L. Herbert ("Larry") founded his puzzle business, Official Publications in Manhattan with titles including Teen Word-Finds, Superb Word-Finds, Variety Word-Finds and countless crossword puzzle, crosspatch and fill-it-in titles. Sons Anthony Herbert (Editorial Director) and Paul Herbert (Sales) helped the business grow to the success it became. Edward Tobias was the Editor. Prior to Mr. Herbert, Sr.'s passing in the 1980s, he sold the business to Nick Karabots, who owned the printer where the titles were being printed. The business was then moved to Ft. Washington, PA. Top word-find contributors in the early 80's included Rich Latta and Frank J. D'Agostino.

Brands

Kappa Publishing Group has a number of brands used for publishing magazines and books for puzzles and games. * GAMES, which is used for

GAMES Magazine ''GAMES World of Puzzles'' is a puzzle magazine formed from the merger of Games and World of Puzzles in October 2014. The entire magazine interior is now newsprint (as opposed to the part-glossy/part-newsprint format of the original ''Games'') an ...

and other magazines and books * Official, such as for Official's Logic Puzzles and Official's Variety Puzzles * Blue Ribbon, such as for Blue Ribbon Word Find * Children's Fun Puzzles

Kappa Map Group

Kappa began acquiring map publishers in 2007 with the acquisition of

Universal Map Kappa Publishing Group, Inc. is a Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based publishing company concentrating on adult puzzle books and magazines as well as children's magazines and maps. It is a private company founded in 1955 with $11.5 million in ann ...

. It acquired Mapsco in March 2010 and the map division of travel publisher

Langenscheidt Langenscheidt () is a German publishing company that specializes in language reference works. In addition to publishing language, monolingual dictionary, dictionaries, Langenscheidt also publishes bilingual dictionaries and travel phrase-books. ...

in August, including its brands ADC (Alexandria Drafting Company), Arrow Map, Hagstrom Map, American Map and Trakker Map. The Kappa Map Group suddenly ceased operations in early 2022 when the group's Managing Director departed for another position and no so-called "white knight" was found to rescue the mapping group. Decades of cartographic work was abandoned when the Map Group closed down.

Publications

Kappa also publishes ''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publish ...

'' and ''Horoscope Guide''. Former boxing publications include: * ''

Ring Magazine ''The Ring'' (often called ''The Ring'' magazine or ''Ring'' magazine) is an American boxing magazine that was first published in 1922 as a boxing and wrestling magazine. As the sporting legitimacy of professional wrestling came more into questio ...

'' * ''

KO Magazine ''KO Magazine'' was a popular United States boxing magazine. It was first published in 1980, to compete with '' The Ring''. It was founded by Stanley Weston, long-time publisher of numerous boxing and pro wrestling titles. ''KO Magazine'', nickn ...

'' * '' World Boxing''

Lawsuit

In December 2005, Kappa Publishing settled a class-action lawsuit in which they were accused of sending junk faxes. The settlement was for $1.5 million to 13,500 potential class members, $560,000 in attorneys' fees and expenses and $65,000 for administrative expense

References

External links

Kappa Publishing website

Kappa Map Group
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