IDG
The American publisher that bought eleven British computer magazines at the end of 1994
International Data Group bought the Europress magazine titles late in 1994 — Amiga Computing, Amiga Action and nine others — and ran them from the same Macclesfield offices under IDG Media. Europress's founder framed the deal as IDG filling the one gap in a network of 220 publications across 64 countries: Britain.
IDG — International Data Group — bought the British magazine titles of Europress at the end of 1994. Amiga Computing announced it in its own news pages that Christmas, under the heading “AC joins IDG”, and reported that ten other magazines went with it.
The reason given is worth quoting because it states the shape of the deal from the buyer’s side. Derek Meakin, described as the founder of the Europress Group, said:
“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.”
Britain was the hole in the map, and eleven magazines were the patch.
Nothing moved
The Christmas 1994 colophon is already IDG’s — “Published by IDG Publications”, “©1994 IDG Publications Ltd”, “a key member of the IDG communications group” — at the same Adlington Park, Macclesfield SK10 4NP address, the same telephone number, the same staff list, the same printer in Maidstone. By 1995 the imprint is styled IDG Media Ltd. The magazines carried on from where they already were.
This is the second time a title in this Vault changes owner without changing anything else about itself. Europress had done the same in 1991, running the Newsfield magazines from Ludlow rather than bringing them to Cheshire, and the Italian editions of Zzap! and The Games Machine changed publisher in September 1991 with the printer, distributor and registration untouched. What the colophon records in each case is a change of owner, not a change of magazine.
What it means for these entries
Amiga Computing ran until October 1997 and Amiga Action until June 1995. Their last years belong to IDG, not to Europress — a distinction easy to lose, because the address, the staff and the look of the page all stayed put.
⚠ This entry covers IDG only where it touches the titles this library holds. The company was large, American, and long-established before any of this, and none of that is described here. The count of eleven magazines is the figure Amiga Computing printed; this library does not hold enough Europress titles to check it.
See also
- Europress — the seller
- Amiga Computing — IDG from Christmas 1994
- Amiga Action — acquired with it
- Newsfield — the earlier handover that also stayed put