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October 5, 2015updated 10 Dec 2015 6:34pm

Emap name to be ‘retired’ as Health Service Journal, Drapers and other titles phase out print

By Dominic Ponsford

The Emap name is to be "retired" as it plans to move completely out of print over the next 18 months.

Update (16/12/15): Top Right Group has said that Emap is to be renamed Plexus.

The move comes eight years after Guardian Media Group and Apax paid £1.1bn for Emap.

Business publisher Emap changed its name to Top Right Group in 2012 but retained the name Emap for its business-to-business publishing division – which includes print titles Drapers, Retail Week, Construction News, Architects' Journal and Health Service Journal.

Emap, 4C, Planet Retail and MEED are to be merged into one as yet un-named division.

Two-thirds of Emap revenue currently comes from digital and events versus one third from print.

Top Right Group said in a statement: "As part of this watershed event for the group, the 4C and EMAP company brands are being retired as the company enters the final stages of its migration to a pure digital subscription and large scale events company.

"The new business will help accelerate the conversion of former Emap products into pure play digital and event businesses. Glenigan, Groundsure, De Havilland and Planet Retail/RNG are already 100 per cent digital and events businesses."

Top Right Group chief executive Duncan Painter said: "Customers are sending a clear message: digital subscriptions and live events are the formats they want to engage with. This change finalises our group’s migration to a digital and large scale events company.”

The new operating company will be holding a customer launch in November.

Emap chief executive Natasha Christie-Miller will head up the new merged business.

She said: “This is a fantastically exciting time in the evolution of our businesses and creating this new company is an opportunity to finalise the successful digital migration of our great brands which started 4 years ago. The 4C, Planet Retail and EMAP businesses already have many things in common, including a lot of the same customers and we create products that meet similar customer needs. These needs are all linked by the need to know more, and the need to connect with the right people.”

Top Right Group is still jointly owned by Apax and Guardian Media Group.

In 2014 it reported EBITDA profit of £85.3m on turnover of £312.7m.

Emap began life in 1947 as regional newspaper group the East Midland Allied Press. It moved into magazines with the launch of Angling Times in 1953.

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