Haymarket-owned ad industry magazine Campaign has acquired Toronto-based title The Message.
The Message, which launched in 2019 and covers the advertising industry in its home country, will be rebranded Campaign Canada in early 2024.
Haymarket Media Group said the acquisition comes as Campaign “looks to expand into new markets, with Canada as the core first focus due to its unique and fast growing advertising market”. The value of the purchase was not disclosed.
The Message has been rebranded to carry an “in association with Campaign” message on its masthead. Haymarket said it intends to expand The Message’s activities beyond editorial and into awards and events in Canada, and that it will be hiring locally “to support marketing, subscriptions and licences, and business leadership, as well as investing immediately in additional editorial staff”.
David Brown, one of The Message’s two co-founders and editors, said: “We launched The Message in part because we love covering marketing, media and advertising, but also because we believed we could contribute something good for the industry itself. By shining a light on the people and work that deserve to be spotlighted, while also making sure to ask questions and set expectations, The Message strives to ensure the Canadian industry keeps moving forward in positive ways.”
Chris Powell, the other of the co-founder-editors, added that “for the Canadian industry to truly take the place it deserves on the world stage, we also needed to pay attention to what was happening there, to achieve that Best-in-the-World standard. Becoming part of Campaign will help The Message achieve both of those goals”.
Haymarket global chief executive Kevin Costello said: “Canada is set to become the sixth biggest advertising market by 2025 – it’s currently in eighth place. We know we are entering a market flooded with opportunities at the right time, as we undoubtedly see the industry will boom.”
The company’s global portfolio director Jess MacDermot, who takes on day to day management responsibilities for the new purchase, said: “We are so proud to be expanding the Campaign brand into such a vibrant and dynamic advertising market, which is currently going from strength to strength and increasing its significance on the global ad scene.
“This is a perfect marriage between the vast wealth of local knowledge, talent and experience that David and Chris bring with them and Campaign’s truly unique global perspective and heritage.”
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