Emap magazine brand name in Britain to be retired as company goes digital-only

The Emap brand name, which has been prominent in the British and wider European magazine industry and particularly in b2b publishing, is going to disappear over the next 18 months as the company moves completely out of print. The Emap name had been retained to cover such b2b titles as Drapers, Retail Week, Construction News, Architects' Journal, Nursing Journal and Health Service Journal. The company publishes a total of 17 magazines. Emap had changed its name to Top Right Group after being acquired by the Guardian Media Group and Apax eight years ago. (GMG owns less than 33%.)

According to a story in Press Gazette, 2/3 of the company's revenue currently comes from digital and events and one-third from print; it had profit of £85.3m on turnover of £312.7m in 2014. Emap began as a regional newspaper group in 1947 and moved into magazines in 1953 with the launch of Angling Times.  Emap sold its TV, radio and consumer magazine business to Bauer in 2008.

The company said in a statement:

"As part of this watershed event for the group, the 4C and EMAP company brands are being retired as the company enters the final stages of its migration to a pure digital subscription and large scale events company. 

"The new business will help accelerate the conversion of former Emap products into pure play digital and event businesses. Glenigan, Groundsure, De Havilland and Planet Retail/RNG are already 100 per cent digital and events businesses." 

Top Right Group chief executive Duncan Painter said: "Customers are sending a clear message: digital subscriptions and live events are the formats they want to engage with. This change finalises our group’s migration to a digital and large scale events company.”