Europress

Europress is a name most readers of the British games press met only once, in December 1991, when it appeared on the masthead of CRASH after Newsfield went under. By then the group behind it had been publishing computer magazines for most of a decade, from an office in Cheshire, under a different name: Database Publications. It also had a software business that had published Mini Office, the Fun School series and, under its Mandarin label, AMOS.

Database Publications

The group’s founder and chairman was Derek Meakin. In 1991 Amiga Computing said he had “founded the group 21 years ago”; a later secondary summary gives 1965, and the public sources do not settle the year.

Its computer magazines came out under the name Database Publications Ltd, at Europa House, 68 Chester Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport. In January 1983 Database was publishing Windfall, a magazine for Apple computers, with Meakin as managing editor, and a trade paper, Computer Dealer. In March 1983 it launched The Micro User for the BBC Micro. In 1987 it took over a rival: Newsfield passed its Amstrad magazine Amtix! to Database, whose Computing with the Amstrad absorbed its best features.

By June 1988, when Database launched Amiga Computing, it had moved to a new Europa House at Adlington Park, near Macclesfield. That November the magazine’s small print added “Database Publications is a division of Europress Ltd”.

Software: Database, Mandarin and AMOS

The group sold software too. Database Software published the Mini Office business suite, and in early 1988 ACE reported that “Europress International (owners of Database Software, publishers of Mini Office)” had set up a new label, Mandarin, run by Chris Payne. It opened with an exclusive distribution deal for the adventure house Level 9, which had “severed relations” with Rainbird. Mandarin later published Lombard RAC Rally and, in 1990, François Lionet’s AMOS, a BASIC for making Amiga games. By 1991 both labels had become Europress Software; Amiga Format in February 1992 told readers that AMOS “is published by Mandarin Software, now also known as Europress Software”. The same business made the Fun School educational series, and Fun School 3 won the best home education package award reported by Amiga Computing in June 1991.

In the spring of 1990 a deal between Database and Gollner Publishing of Chichester created Interactive Publishing, which brought Gollner’s Amiga Action to Adlington Park and managed Amiga Computing for fourteen months. In June 1991 Meakin put everything under one name. “With the creation of new subsidiaries in recent years, all with different names,” he said, “there was a growing danger of the parent group losing its identity. From now on all companies forming part of the group will appear under the Europress banner.”

Amiga Computing listed the result:

Europress Publications: Amiga Computing, Atari ST User, PC Today, The Micro User and Let’s Compute!
Europress Interactive: Amiga Action, ST Action and Games-X
Europress Software: formerly Database Software and Mandarin Software
Europress Trade Publications: Computer Trade Weekly

Michael Meakin became managing director of the holding company, Europress Ltd.

Europress Impact and the Newsfield titles

Newsfield went into liquidation in the autumn of 1991. Its CRASH and ZZAP!64 missed their November issues and returned in December from a new Europress company, Europress Impact, still in Ludlow. CRASH’s December 1991 issue told the story as a space rescue: the staff had been carried off to “the planet GONEBUST” until “Help arrived, lasers set to stun, in the form of Europress”. The masthead named Roger Kean as publisher, Jonathan Rignall as managing director and David Wren, who also appears on Amiga Computing’s mastheads, as circulation manager. Faulty covertapes went to “EUROPRESS IMPACT LTD, CRASH TAPE CLINIC”, Ludlow. One writer mentioned in passing that “CRASH work isn’t all I do at Europress”.

Europress Impact did not keep CRASH long: it ran until April 1992 and then merged into EMAP’s Sinclair User. ZZAP!64 lasted until November 1992 and was relaunched as Commodore Force, which ran until March 1994. With Kean as publishing director, Impact also launched its own console and Amiga titles, among them N-Force, Amiga Force and SNES Force. A later secondary account says Europress Impact went into administration in March 1994.

The sale to IDG

At the end of 1994 Europress sold eleven of its magazines. Amiga Computing reported it in its Christmas 1994 issue under “AC joins IDG”: the magazine, “along with 10 other magazines published by the group”, had been sold to IDG, “the US-controlled multinational that forms the world’s largest computer magazine publisher”. Meakin, “founder of the Europress Group”, explained the buyer’s interest:

“IDG is pre-eminent all round the world, with more than 220 publications in 64 countries. One significant gap in this global network has been the UK. With the acquisition of the Europress titles, IDG now has a core business with which it can expand to become the major player here as it already is in so many other countries.”

The same issue’s colophon read “Published by IDG Publications”. Amiga Computing stayed at Adlington Park under its new owner.

Software to the end

The software business carried on under the Europress name. In July 1999 Hasbro agreed to buy Europress, by then described as a consumer software house in Macclesfield whose best-known label was Fun School.

Sources

Windfall vol. 2 no. 7, January 1983: masthead (Derek Meakin, managing editor); order forms to Database Publications, Europa House, 68 Chester Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport. Windfall vol. 2 no. 10, April 1983: “Windfall and Computer Dealer, from Database Publications in Stockport”.
The Micro User issue 1, March 1983: colophon (Database Publications, Hazel Grove) and masthead (Derek Meakin).
Amtix! issue 18, April 1987: the title passing to Database Publications and Computing with the Amstrad.
ACE issue 6, March 1988: “Level 9 Join Mandarin” (Europress International, Database Software, Mini Office, Chris Payne).
Amiga Computing issue 1, June 1988, and November 1988: colophons (Adlington Park; “a division of Europress Ltd”).
Amiga Action issue 7, April 1990 (Gollner Publishing replaced by Interactive Publishing), and issue 10, July 1990 (Interactive Publishing at Europa House, Adlington Park).
ACE issue 38, November 1990: AMOS “from Mandarin Software”.
Amiga Computing issue 37, June 1991, p. 14: “Amiga Computing goes Euro” (Meakin founding the group “21 years ago”, his quotation, the four Europress companies and their titles, Michael Meakin); the same issue’s awards list (Fun School 3, Europress Software).
CRASH issue 94, December 1991: the rescue strip, the Europress Impact masthead, the tape clinic address and the “at Europress” aside.
Amiga Format issue 31, February 1992: AMOS “published by Mandarin Software, now also known as Europress Software”.
Amiga Computing issue 66, November 1993: Lombard RAC Rally made by “Europress Software, then under the moniker of Mandarin”.
Amiga Computing issue 81, Christmas 1994: “AC joins IDG” and the IDG colophon.
For CRASH and ZZAP!64 under Europress Impact, Commodore Force and the Impact titles, see the sources for Newsfield, ZZAP!64 and Roger Kean.
Wikipedia, “Europress” (web, secondary): the 1965 founding date and Europress Impact’s administration in March 1994. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europress
The Register, “Europress falls into Hasbro clutches”, 27 July 1999 (web, secondary). https://www.theregister.com/1999/07/27/europress_falls_into_hasbro_clutches/