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NewBay Media acquisition of Intent Media – Editor’s comment

Earlier this month, it was announced that Intent Media, publisher of Installation, has been acquired by NewBay Media. Here's Editor Paddy Baker's comment on this development.

I originally joined the company that publishes this magazine in 2005, when it was called CMP Information. Back then, CMP’s Entertainment Technology Division contained a roster of US-based counterparts to the UK-published titles. So while the UK operation published Installation Europe (as it was then), the US produced Systems Contractor News and other audiovisual-related publications; Pro Sound News Europe had an American counterpart in Pro Sound News; and corresponding to TVB Europe was TV Technology in the US.

In 2006, CMP Information decided to divest itself of these US-based titles; a new company was formed to buy them, called NewBay Media. Since then, NewBay has gone from strength to strength. Thanks to organic growth and acquisition, it is now responsible for more than 40 publications, 50 websites, 30 e-newsletters and 50 custom publications each year.

In early December, it was announced that NewBay Media has purchased Intent Media – not only the former CMP/UBM publications, but the entirety of the media produced in our London and Hertford offices. This creates NewBay’s European operation.

This is a very exciting development. For me, it feels like an invitation to a party that I missed the first time round. I only moved to this magazine in 2007, so this is my first opportunity to work in co-operation with SCN editor Kirsten Nelson and her numerous colleagues; but over on PSN Europe, I know that editor Dave Robinson is itching to get back to sharing information, intelligence and, yes, gossip with PSN’s Frank Wells and his team after a
six-and-a-half year hiatus.

You probably won’t notice any immediate change in the magazine or website. It’s business as usual here in our London and Hertford offices; and any worries that there might be some kind of rigid, cookie-cutter ‘this is how we do things’ induction process from our new owners have evaporated after meeting NewBay CEO Steve Palm.

What does change, though, is that it moves Installation into a whole new league. As well as SCN, our US sister publications include broad-based brands Sound & Video Contractor and AV Technology, as well as more specialised titles including Residential Systems, Rental & Staging Systems, AV in Education, Healthcare AV and AV Worship. Plus there are the daily newspapers for the InfoComm, CEDIA and AES shows in the US. This is a hugely impressive array of media – I haven’t even mentioned NewBay’s live events – and one that I’m pleased and proud to join.

www.nbmedia.com