Argus Press was a British
publishing company
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
. It was acquired by
British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Ren ...
(BET) in 1966, and became the publishing arm of that company. It was the subject of one of the most hotly contested
management buyouts of the 1980s when a management team led by Kimble Earl, George Fowkes, and Scott Smith secured financing of £207m from forty national and international banks to acquire the UK and US businesses from BET. The acquisition was of particular note as the publisher
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, politician and fraudster.
After escaping the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, ...
was among the rival bidders, and widely considered as capable of out-witting the management team. Only an eleventh-hour intervention by Earl – exposing members of Maxwell's secret consortium as rival newspaper publishers which meant Maxwell would fall foul of the
Monopolies Commission – brought success for the management team. The new company traded under the name of Team Argus. Its portfolio of businesses included the largest group of paid-for and free weekly newspapers in the UK, an extensive range of business titles in the UK and the USA, and a group of specialist hobby-interest magazines in the UK. Team Argus businesses were sold off to various buyers during the early 1990s.
Argus Newspapers
The newspaper division of the company, Argus Newspapers, was built up into the UK's largest group of weekly paid and free newspapers during the 1970s and 1980s by chairman Norman Richards and his successor Kimble Earl. Their philosophy was to act under the radar, shunning publicity whilst they acquired and launched throughout
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and
Southern England
Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...
. They were renowned for cutting unnecessary costs whilst insisting on competent editorial coverage, believing it to be the only reason the public would continue buying or reading. At its peak, the group published and printed over a million copies per week. Argus Newspapers were pioneers in the joint-publishing of paid and free newspapers in the same town. Among the titles were ''
Reading Chronicle
The ''Reading Chronicle'' is a weekly newspaper covering Reading in Berkshire, UK and surrounding areas, which began its life as the ''Berkshire Chronicle''. It is currently edited by Katie French, serving as group editor for its parent compan ...
'', ''
Surrey Mirror'', ''Sutton Herald'', ''Walthamstow Guardian'', ''
South London Press'' and ''
The Crawley News''.
Argus Newspapers was purchased by Trinity International Holdings (later
Trinity Mirror
Reach plc (known as Trinity Mirror between 1999 and 2018) is a British newspaper, magazine and digital publisher. It is one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, publishing 240 regional papers in addition to the national ''Daily Mirror'', '' ...
) in 1993, who immediately sold a number of titles to other provincial press publishers.
Argus Specialist Publications
The hobby magazine division of the company was Argus Specialist Publications. Among its titles were several devoted to
model engineering, photography, woodworking, and other hobbies and interests. It published several computer magazines for popular
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...
s including ''
Commodore Disk User'' (November 1987 – October 1991), ''
Your Commodore'' (October 1984 – October 1991), ''Computer Gamer'' (April 1985 – June 1987), and ''ZX Computing'' (1982–1987).
The business was based in
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...
, and following the management buyout from BET in 1988 was run by chairman Kimble Earl and
MD Terry Pattison. The operation included a book publisher and an exhibition business which staged hobby-related shows of national importance at venues including
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in North London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A listed building, Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and th ...
,
Sandown Park and
Olympia. Argus Press Group sold the business to Nexus in 1994.
Argus Consumer Publications
Argus Press Group ran a significant portfolio of consumer magazines from premises adjacent to London's
Leicester Square
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
. These included Mother & Baby, Mother, Slimming and True Story. The business was run by chairman Kimble Earl and MD Gill Butler from the Argus Press management buyout in 1988 until being sold to
EMAP
Ascential (formerly EMAP) was a British-headquartered global company, specialising in events, intelligence and advisory services for the marketing and financial technology industries. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was ac ...
in 1991. The division also owned a chain of
slimming clubs and a retail magazine distribution business SMD.
Argus Business Publications
This business was a major player in
business-to-business
Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) refers to trade and commercial activity where a business sees other businesses as its customer base. This typically occurs when:
* A business sources materials for its production process for ...
publications in both the UK and the USA, with publishing centres in
Redhill, Surrey
Redhill () is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of London Borough of Croydon, Croydon in ...
, and in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
,
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
,
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19t ...
and others. Titles served a wide range of commercial sectors including mining, duty-free trading, electronics, and agriculture. The chief executive of the division was George Fowkes, who looked after the UK business publications with Scott Smith reporting to him for the US division. All titles were sold during 1994-1995.
Argus Press Software
The
software
Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications.
The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
division, Argus Press Software, was active in the 1980s, producing games for several home computer systems of the time. It acquired
Quicksilva
Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s.
Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1980. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Me ...
and Starcade in 1984,
Bug-Byte
Bug-Byte Software Ltd. was a video game company founded in 1980 in Liverpool, initially producing software for the Acorn Atom and ZX80. Bug-Byte's first hit was Don Priestley, Don Priestley's ''Mazogs'' which was one of the most successful title ...
in 1985, and also published titles by the
wargame
A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for Recreational wargaming, recreation, to train military officers in the art of milit ...
company
MC Lothlorien.
[''Sinclair User'', May 1985, "News"] In 1987, Argus Press Software was purchased by its managing director, Stephen Hall, and renamed
Grandslam Entertainment.
References
External links
* {{PM20, FID=co/052240, TEXT=Documents and clippings about, NAME=
Magazine publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Newspaper companies of the United Kingdom