Archant buys London titles
The business publishes high quality monthly lifestyle magazines in London and fortnightly property magazines.
The deal underlines Archant’s commitment to growing its local community publishing business and to "layering" local magazines with newspapers and websites in given areas.
Archant is acquiring a portfolio of six monthly lifestyle magazines from Highbury. These have a total circulation of nearly 400,000 and are distributed to upmarket homes in North, West and South London. The main brands are: Southwest, The Hill, The Guide, Living South, The Green and Northwest.
These titles will now join the Archant Life group of quality county and town-based magazines under managing director Johnny Hustler.
The transaction also includes Highbury’s Property Mart series of free advertising–driven fortnightly titles in West Essex, South Essex and East London.
The glossy A4 publications are distributed through estate agents, garages, supermarkets, and door-to-door delivery. They will join the fast-growing Archant London stable under managing director, Enzo Testa.
John Fry, Archant chief executive, said: "This acquisition fits our growth strategy perfectly, coming directly after our recent purchase of Romsey Publishing.
"We have a clear local community publishing ethos and we will continue to seek purchases, launches and organic growth that add good quality community publications to our fast-growing portfolio. We aim to widen our footprint in the UK and deepen its tread by layering magazines, newspaper and local websites in our chosen areas."