Magazine publishers (Boat to Cornmarket)

This is one of six pages about consumer magazine publishers, listed alphabetically, and their magazines. List of publishers on this page to the right.

4130 Publishing to BBC Magazines
Boat International to Cornmarket (this page)
Dazed to Emap
Essential to Highbury House
IFG to Parkhill
Reader's Digest to Ziff-Davis UK

Other pages cover trade and business magazine publishers and contract magazine publishers.

Boat International Back to top

Boat International Publishing has five titles about luxury yachting and super boats.

Boat International: Monthly devoted to luxury yachts. Has series of supplements: Interiors with October issue; Superports with August; Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez (October)
Boat International USA Covers North American market
Dockwalk Quarterly for owners, skippers, brokers and specialist suppliers
Mer & Bateaux French luxury market. Published five times a year
Meer & Yachten Covers power and sail luxury yachting for Germany.

Contact (head office): Boat International, Edisea Ltd, Ward House, 5-7 Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7PW
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8547 2662. Email:info@boatinternational.co.uk

Brightday Publishing Back to top

Publishers of Learning Support magazine, which was set up in 2004 by primary school teacher Trevor Chalkley and journalist Frances Rickford for teaching assistants in primary schools. Contact: Brightday Publishing, 83 Alkham Road, London N16 6XD. Tel: 020 8806 9646

Bristol Magazines Ltd Back to top

Division set up by BBC Magazines (based in Bristol) in April 2006 when Origin sold off. Retained BBC branded titles and contract titles. BBC-branded consumer magazines:

BBC Focus
BBC History
BBC Music
BBC Sky At Night
BBC Wildlife
Gardens Illustrated

Contract titles (at April 2006): About The House; Breathing Space; HMV Choice; Fast Forward; Good Salon Guide Members Handbook; Power On; Southbank; Southbank Literature Guide; Southbank Music and Dance Guide; T&C; Unlimited; Waterstones Christmas Gift Guide

Brooklands Group Ltd Back to top

Magazines focused on the travel and home interest markets. Recent growth through titles licensed from Channel 4 production company Celador. However, Brooklands closed four of its five Channel 4 tie-ins - Property Ladder, You Are What You Eat, Location, Location, Location and Supernanny in October 2006 to concentrate on contract titles and the launch of another Channel 4 title, Popworld Pulp in spring 2007 - a magazine that closed after just a few issues.

Everything France: launched in 2003
Everything Spain:
Perfect Home:
A Place in the Sun: official magazine of the Channel 4 TV series
You Are What You Eat: March 2005 launch (May cover date). Closed October 2006
Location, Location, Location: based on TV series. Closed October 2006

John Brown Citrus Publishing Back to top

Founded in 1987 by John Brown, who left Virgin with the contract to publish Hot Air, an in-flight magazine for Virgin Atlantic. Had consumer titles but sold these in 2001 to pave way for merger with Citrus (had been BLA until 1999) and become number two customer magazine publisher. Became number one when won contract for satellite broadcaster Sky’s customer magazine, the UK's highest circulation magazine (ABC figure 5,183,964) from Redwood Publishing - though it lost this to News Magazines in 2007. Titles have included: Classic FM for the radio station; Hot Air, Hot Line for Virgin; Waitrose Food Illustrated (originally followed Gardens Illustrated format as a consumer magazine; became contract title for supermarket chain Waitrose in 1998, still sold in newsagents); Room launched in 1997 at £1 a copy with a run of 500,000 copies for Ikea's eight UK stores; Wisden Cricket Monthly. Former consumer titles:

Bare (closed 2001) Sept/Oct 2000 launch into very competitive women's market: 'Being and wellbeing'
Bizarre (M) 1997 launch. Sold to IFG in 2001; now published by Dennis
Fortean Times This 'journal of strange phenomena' bought up in 1991. Sold to IFG in 2001
Gardens Illustrated 1993 launch. Large format, innovative title. Sold to BBC
Viz (bi-M) This comic was the company's first news-stand title. Founded by former DSS clerk Chris Donald in 1979 in Newcastle (aged 19). He started selling it in pubs and describes it as 'puerile and inane'. In 1989, sales reached over a million. Sold to IFG in 2001; now published by Dennis

Customer magazines

Buck Publishing Ltd Back to top

Set up by editor and publisher Steve Doyle, who put his own cash behind the publishing of men's monthly Buck in 2008. Rather than aiming at City slickers, Buck sees itself as for the more creative man, who's happy to burnish his own image, instead of buying one off a shelf through GQ.

Burda (Hubert) Media (HBM) Back to top

Owned by German Hubert Burda Media . In April 2006, Burda took over Colchester-based Essential, which had consumer, business and contract titles. German parent Hubert Burda Media Group (HBM) has more than 250 titles publications: 60-odd in Germany and the rest in in 19 countries around the world. HBM publishes Germany's biggest selling celebrity weekly, Freizeit Revue, news weekly Focus and computer monthly Chip, as well as the German versions of Elle, In Style and Playboy. Also has TV production, radio and online divisions. Alan Urry - former UK boss of German rival Bauer - runs the company.

Amber (Q): March 2003 launch for version of popular German title Young Lisa, but closed soon after. Had adopted 'handbag' size used for Glamour
Full House (W): March 2005 launch at 40p (rising to 60p; by 27 April 2006 copy cost 90p). Reported by Guardian as having £9m launch budget. Traditional women's weekly combines celebrity gossip with puzzles and real-life stories.
Living & Gardens (M): launched in March 2006. Burda already had homes titles in France, Germany and Italy. Closed after four issues

Business Traveller Back to top

Business Traveller, launched in 1976, is the leading magazine in its field. It has ten editions worldwide including the UK, US, Asia-Pacific, China, Germany, Spain and South Africa. German edition published with Gruner & Jahr. Middle East edition launched spring 2000. BT is owned by Panacea Publications, which also publishes Buying Business Travel, The International Medical Travel Journal and Mix, a magazine about meetings in Asia.

Cabal Communications (later Highbury) Top

Consumer and contract publisher set up in June 1998 by former IPC editor-in-chief Sally O'Sullivan. Ambitious plan for six launches in a year not achieved. Mixed record, with Front the most successful title in terms of sales. In March 2003, Highbury House bought Cabal for £10 million. However, Highbury itself then collpased and its magazines were split among several publishers, including Future.

Crime Weekly Delayed by launch of IPC's 'spoiler' Chat Crime and Passion in February 1999. Never appeared
Front (M) Lads magazine aimed at younger market than Loaded and FHM. First ABC came in at 140,000, well below target of 200,000. It had been hit by supermarkets refusing to stock the first issues because of raunchy content
Good Health (M) Bought from Pantile Publications in Feb 1999. Since closed
Mondo (M) Nov 2000 launch for the global hedonist. Closed in 2000
Maximum Mountain Bike (M). Closed
Pro Cycling (M). Closed
The Real Homes Magazine (M) First ABC at 130,000, against 150,000 target. Went to Highbury and then sold to Hachette Filipacchi .

Centaur Publications Back to top

Has more than 30 trade magazines; 20 exhibitions; 150 conferences and 25 websites. Good links from home page. Leading titles include Creative Review, The Lawyer, Marketing Week, Money Marketing, New Media Age. Bought several titles from Miller-Freeman in 1999, including The Engineer, which Graham Sherren had edited before founding Centaur. Mad.co.uk is an online community for media, marketing, advertising and design based on the company's magazines.

Condé Nast Publications Back to top

Upmarket publisher of fashion-based monthlies. Massive success with launch of 'handbag-sized', cut-price Glamour to overtake long-term women's monthly leader Cosmopolitan (Nat Mags). High profile failure of Trash in 2003, a contract title for clubbing group Ministry of Sound.

Subsidiary of US parent, which publishes 18 titles, including The New Yorker, GQ, Vogue and Wired. Outbid Hearst to buy Fairchild Publications from Disney in August 1999 for $650 million. The purchase of W, Women's Wear Daily and Jane made Condé Nast the biggest US fashion magazine publisher. Online strategy focused around Condenet

Business (closed 1991) (M): Condé Nast teamed up with the Financial Times in 1986 to back Kevin Kelly in launching this glossy monthly.
Conde Nast Traveller (M)
Easy Living (M): April 2005 launch aimed at women aged 35+
Glamour (M): A5 'handbag-sized' women’s lifestyle/fashion glossy overtook Cosmopolitan as the bestseller within a year of its April 2001 launch
GQ (M)
Tatler (M) Society magazine launched in 1901. In 1989, started to lay claim to the heritage of Addison and Steele's Tatler established in 1709
Trash: Only one issue: July/Aug 2003. Contract title for Ministry of Sound. Editor Rachel Newsome, former Dazed & Confused editor
Vogue (M) Fashion monthly (though was often published twice a month until 1980s). Liberis Publications launched Greek edition in spring 2000; the thirteenth version worldwide.
World of Interiors (M) Upmarket interiors title with international flavour. Founded as Interiors in 1981 by Kevin Kelly with Min Hogg as editor. Changed name in 1983 to World of Interiors and bought out by Conde Nast to enable international expansion

See A to Z of women's monthlies

Cornmarket - see Haymarket Back to top

Founded in 1950s by Michael Heseltine and Clive Labovitch, who had met at Oxford university. Labovitch had bought What's What, a student guide to cinemas, restaurants and clubs. The company bought John Taylor's Man About Town from Tailor & Cutter and the short-lived weekly news magazine Topic from Dome Press. Then Geoffrey Crowther, chairman of printers Hazell Watson & Viney bought a 40% stake in Cornmarket, which was renamed Haymarket.
Man About Town case study

Magazine publishers on this page

Boat International Publications
Brightday Publishing
Bristol Magazines
Brooklands Group
John Brown Citrus
Buck Publishing
Burda (H)
BusinessTraveller
Cabal (Highbury)
Centaur
Condé Nast
Cornmarket

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