Estates Gazette, a B2B magazine and information service covering UK commercial real estate, is to close after 166 years.
The title, which is published by RELX subsidiary Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions and rebranded as “EG” in 2017, announced on its website that all its products will be “withdrawn” from the market next year.
As well as its weekly print magazine and website, EG runs a listings service named Propertylink, data business EG Radius and a bulletin of industry events and award shows.
The title attributed the decision to the “irreparable impact” of “headwinds that have struck the whole of the commercial real estate industry hard”.
Chris Fleetwood, its managing director, said: “The past few years have been very difficult for the real estate industry as a whole, and EG has been caught in these headwinds too. We have worked hard to fortify the business but have unfortunately had to make this extremely difficult decision.”
He also said: “EG has been such an integral part of the UK commercial property market for such a long time, so this decision has understandably been very hard. However, we are immensely proud of all that the business and its people have delivered over the many, many years, from being the property journal of choice to becoming the first contributory database for the UK property sector.”
EG added two new reporters to its staff as recently as this summer.
Samantha McClary, who has edited EG since 2019 and spent 20 years at the newsbrand in total, posted on Linkedin that she had “been overwhelmed by all the beautiful messages and memories that have been shared…
“Because I know the wonderful family of individuals that make up EG, I can promise you that we’re not going to stop doing any of the brilliant stuff we do. We will keep delivering the goods, championing the sector and poking when necessary until the very last moment.
“Because it matters. Because you matter. And because we bloody love it.”
Adam Tinworth, a consultant and trainer in audience engagement at City University, commented on social media that the closure meant “every magazine I worked on before my move into digital will soon be gone”.
Estates Gazette was founded in 1858. RELX predecessor company Reed Elsevier acquired it in 1990 for £59m, which is equivalent to £142.6m today adjusted for inflation. It was then Reed Elsevier’s largest-ever deal, according to Flashes and Flames, who reported in 2021 that the price was ten times the magazine’s annual profit at the time.
RELX is the largest media company by revenue in the UK, reporting global turnover of £9.2bn in its 2023 full-year accounts.
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