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Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septemb ...
.


History

Richard Winfrey Sir Richard Winfrey (5 August 1858 – 18 April 1944) was a British Liberal politician, newspaper publisher and campaigner for agricultural rights. He served as Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk, 1906–1923, and for Gainsborough, 192 ...
purchased the ''Spalding Guardian'' in 1887 and later purchased the ''
Lynn News The ''Lynn News'' is published by Iliffe Media and appears each Tuesday and Friday in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. It was previously owned by Johnston Press, but in January 2017 it was bought by Iliffe Media, along with 12 other titles for £17 ...
'' and the '' Peterborough Advertiser''; he also started the ''North Cambs Echo''. He became a
Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...
politician and campaigner for agricultural rights and the papers were used to promote his political views in and around Spalding,
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington, Lincolnshire, ...
and
Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
. 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 Co., the Peterborough Advertiser Co., the West Norfolk and King's Lynn Newspaper Co. and commercial printing sections at
Rushden Rushden is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England, around east of Northampton. The parish is on the border with Bedfordshire, north of Bedford. The parish of Rushden covers an area of some ...
,
King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
and
Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
. 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 The ''Angling Times'' first printed in 1953 is the UK's largest angling newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. ...
'' was born. This was soon joined by another weekly heavyweight when EMAP bought ''
Motor Cycle News ''MCN'' or ''Motor Cycle News'' is a UK weekly Motorcycle, motorcycling newspaper published by Bauer Verlagsgruppe, Bauer Consumer Media, based in Peterborough, United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world’s biggest weekly motorcycle newspape ...
'' from its founder in 1956 for a hundred pounds. EMAP grew significantly in the late 1970s under the guidance of the extremely successful partnership of Sir Robin Miller and
David Arculus Sir David Arculus (born 2 June 1946), is a British media figure, businessman and advisor to Government who has appeared several times in ''The Sunday Times'' Power 100, ranked at number 39 in 2005. Education Educated at Bromsgrove School (Wen ...
. In 1996 EMAP agreed to sell its 65 newspaper titles, including the 300-year-old ''
Stamford Mercury The ''Stamford Mercury'' (also the ''Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury'', the ''Rutland and Stamford Mercury'', and the ''Rutland Mercury'') based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, claims to be "Britain's oldest continuously published news ...
'', to
Johnston Press Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the '' i'', ''The Scotsman'', the ''Yorkshire Post'', the ''Falkirk Herald'', and Belfast's ''The News Letter'' ...
for £111 million.
Scottish Radio Holdings Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) was a Scottish media company which owned 22 radio stations, and around 30 local newspapers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. History SRH had its origins in the 1970s when Glasgow was awarded the third licence for ...
was acquired by EMAP on 21 June 2005. In 2006, EMAP sold its French division to Italy's
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy. History The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 1 ...
. 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. 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 Are Media is an Australian media company that was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press during the 2010 ...
. On 29 January 2008, EMAP completed the sale of its
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
,
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and consumer media businesses (
EMAP Radio Bauer Media Audio UK is a UK-based radio division of the Bauer Media Group. History In early 2008, German magazine publisher Bauer bought the radio division of British company Emap, which had been established as East Midland Allied Press in ...
) to German company Bauer for £1.14bn. 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 In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...
investment group
Apax Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its ...
and the
Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the financial and e ...
in late March/early April 2008. 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 percent of the group's turnover. The database business was renamed 4C Group, and the events unit was renamed I2i Events Group. Then in October 2015 the company announced that the EMAP brand would be scrapped as all its titles move to digital-only format. In February 2015, Top Right Group sold Media Business Insight (including ''Broadcast'', ''Shots'' and ''Screen International'') to Mobeus Equity Partners and Tenzing PE. In December 2015 Top Right Group rebranded as Ascential. The company was the subject of an £800m
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in February 2016. The Guardian Media Group sold off its shares of Ascential in 2016 and 2017.


Acquisitions and sales

2014 * Money 20/20 - Acquired 2015 * Retail Net Group - Acquired 2016 * One Click Retail - Acquired 2017 * RWM - Sold * Clavis Insight - Acquired * MEED - Sold * 11 heritage brands - Sold * MediaLink - Acquired * HSJ - Sold 2018 * Brand View - Acquired * WARC - Acquired * Flywheel Digital - Acquired * Exhibitions - Sold


Operations

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. Product Design * WGSN Marketing *
Cannes Lions The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...
* Medialink * WARC * Siberia Sales * Edge by Ascential * Money 20/20 * World Retail Congress * Retail Week * Flywheel Built Environment and Policy * DeHavilland * Glenigan * Groundsure


Previous publications

* ''
Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was kn ...
'' * ''
Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism †...
'' * ''BIG!'' * ''Business Matters'' * ''
Car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...
'' * ''
Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...
'' * ''
Commodore User ''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vic ...
'' * ''
Construction News ''Construction News'' is a monthly publication, plus digital and events services, primarily targeting the United Kingdom construction industry. History Early history The magazine was first published as ''Labour News'' on 30 August 1871, having be ...
'' * ''Datacom'' * ''
Drapers Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...
'' * ''
Eye magazine ''Eye'' magazine is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture. History First published in London in 1990, ''Eye'' was founded by Rick Poynor, a prolific writer on graphic design and visual communication. Poynor edited ...
'' – Issue numbers 13–25, 1994–1997 * ''Ground Engineering'' * ''
Health Service Journal ''Health Service Journal'' (''HSJ'') is a news service that covers policy and management in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. History The '' Poor Law Officers' Journal'' was established in 1892. In 1930, it changed its name after ...
'' * ''H&V News'' * ''
Internet Magazine ''Internet Magazine'' was a monthly print title launched in October 1994 by the UK publishing house, Emap. Its last issue, number 119, was published in July 2004. History ''Internet Magazine'' covered almost anything internet-related, as long a ...
'' * '' J-17'' * ''
Local Government Chronicle The ''Local Government Chronicle'' (''LGC'') is a British weekly magazine for local government officers, and is published by Metropolis. The magazine was launched in 1855 by bookseller and publisher Charles Knight . It was then published by E ...
'' * ''Materials Recycling World'' * ''Maximum'' * ''
Mean Machines ''Mean Machines'' was a multi-format video game magazine published between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. Origins In the late 1980s '' Computer and Video Games'' (''CVG'') was largely covering the outgoing generation of 8-bit computers l ...
'' * ''
MEED MEED, formerly ''Middle East Economic Digest'', is a media publishing company founded in 1957 focused on economic and business news related to the Middle East. MEED also provides advertising and marketing services. History The first issue o ...
'' * ''MEED Projects'' * ''
New Civil Engineer ''New Civil Engineer'' is the monthly magazine for members of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the UK chartered body that oversees the practice of civil engineering in the UK. First published in May 1972, it is today published by Metropoli ...
'' * ''
Nintendo Official Magazine ''Official Nintendo Magazine'', or ''ONM'', was a British video game magazine that ran from 2006 to 2014 that covered the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii, and Wii U video game consoles released by Nintendo. Originally published by EMAP a ...
'' * ''
Nursing Times ''Nursing Times'' is a website and monthly magazine for nurses, which is published in the United Kingdom. It covers original nursing research and best practice for nurses at all stages in their career, as well as daily news, opinion and other infor ...
'' * ''
PC Leisure ''PC Leisure'' was the United Kingdom's first magazine dedicated exclusively to IBM PC compatible (PC) entertainment and was published by EMAP between spring 1990 and September 1991. A total of nine issues were published in its lifetime, the first ...
'' * ''PC Review'' * ''PC User'' * ''
Pleine Vie ''Pleine Vie'' ( French: ''Full Life'') is a French language monthly general interest and women's magazine published in Paris, France, since 1981. History and profile The magazine was established in 1981. The founder was Antoine Adam. It was re ...
'' * ''
Retail Week Retail Week is a London-based news website, data service, events producer and magazine covering the retail industry, primarily in the United Kingdom. History and profile Founded in 1988 by financial journalist Patience Wheatcroft and her husban ...
'' * ''Refrigeration & Air Conditioning'' (RAC) * ''Retail Jeweller'' * ''
Running Fitness ''Running Fitness'' is a globally circulated monthly magazine for recreational runners, published by Kelsey Media in Peterborough, in the United Kingdom. History The magazine was established in 1985. EMAP sold the title to Kelsey Media in 200 ...
'' * ''
Sega Saturn Magazine ''Sega Saturn Magazine'' was a monthly UK magazine covering the Sega Saturn, a home video game console. It held the official Saturn magazine license for the UK, and some issues included a demo CD created by Sega, ''Sega Flash'', which included ...
'' * ''
Sinclair User ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was publi ...
'' * ''
SKY Magazine Sky Magazine (or 'Sky Mag') was a magazine distributed to subscribers of the BSkyB satellite service Sky Digital. Availability The magazine was available to subscribers of the Variety Pack or all packs of entertainment. Content The magazines ...
'' * ''
Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...
'' * ''
SPORT Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...
'' * '' ST Review'' * ''
The One The ONE is a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is built on the site of the former Tung Ying Building at 100 Nathan Road. It was developed by Chinese Estates Holdings and opened in 2010. Owner Joseph Lau Luen-hung g ...
'' * ''
The Face The face is a part of the body, the front of the head. Face may also refer to: Film * ''The Magician'' (1958 film) or ''The Face'' * ''The Face'' (1996 film), an American television film * ''Face'' (1997 film), a British crime drama by Antonia ...
'' * ''Which Computer?''


References


External links


Ascential Official websiteEMAP website
{{Authority control Companies based in the City of Westminster British companies established in 1947 Publishing companies established in 1947 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Apax Partners companies Mass media in Peterborough Companies based in Cambridgeshire 2016 initial public offerings