EMAP

History

East Midlands Allied Publishing (or EMAP, as it’s better known) took form when four regional newspaper groups merged in 1947, and began to expand into niche magazine publishing. The first magazine it published was the Angling Times in 1953 and its popularity quickly saw new titles launched.

By the 1980s, EMAP had moved into primarily the video gaming and media space, but this was still very early days for the industry – the technology for taking screenshots hadn’t even yet been created, so all pictures were illustrated! Throughout the 80s, EMAP acquired other titles and grew their offering to include magazines on Sinclair computers, 16-bit computers and new gaming consoles, before focusing on PCs in the early 90s.

By this time, almost all of EMAP’S publications were tech or media focused and the group was spurred on by the commission of the official Nintendo Magazine in 1992; a huge win for the publisher as the first of its kind in the UK.

As technology progressed and moved on, EMAP moved its focus back to more niche magazines and published its last video games title in the 00s. Instead, it took on magazines primarily in the B2B space including the likes of Nursing Times, Retail Week, Local Government Chronicle, The New Civil Engineer and The Architect’s Journal. This allowed for growth into the events and exhibition space to facilitate suppliers and buyers from various industries to meet and develop their markets.

Key selling points:

• A constituent of the FTSE 250 on the London Stock Exchange (under Ascential Group)
• Continually evolving company – from regional newspapers to print magazines to digital titles
• A variety of industries and markets catered for with their publications.