Haymarket Media Group has bought media brands Marketing Week and Creative Review from Centaur Media for £3.9m in cash.
The deal also includes Marketing Week’s flagship event Festival of Marketing.
The newly-acquired brands will sit in the Haymarket Business Media division alongside the likes of ad industry title Campaign, PR Week, Performance Marketing World and newly-launched In Comms.
Centaur Media also sold its other main media brand The Lawyer this month, to Triple Private Equity-owned Legal Benchmarking Group for £43m.
The Lawyer’s editor Catrin Griffiths said the deal “gives us a bigger global platform while maintaining our distinctive brand and our voice. We’re particularly excited to expand internationally and build on our groundbreaking Global Elite strand that covers the transatlantic legal market.”
The brands joining Haymarket will continue to be led by managing director Claire Rance, initially in a separate business unit, who will report into Haymarket Business Media’s deputy managing director Donna Murphy.
Rance said: “This acquisition represents an exciting opportunity to combine the strengths of our joint businesses across the marcomms industry. Together, I hope to enhance the offering of these heritage brands, broaden their impact, and continue delivering exceptional content and lasting value to our audiences.”
Centaur’s board described Haymarket as a “compelling strategic acquirer of, and suitable custodian for, the employees and customers of Marketing Week and Creative Review for the next phase of its growth journey”.
Haymarket said the acquisitions a milestone in its “sustainable growth strategy” which is expanding its specialist portfolio in key markets. For example it expanded into Canada by buying and relaunching The Message as Campaign Canada in 2023.
Haymarket Media Group global chief executive Kevin Costello said: “These highly respected brands provide market-leading insights and analysis for their communities and align perfectly with our commitment to serving specialist audiences globally. Our combined skills and influence in the sector makes for a very exciting future working together.”
Centaur now consists of two main businesses: its Econsultancy training business and The Influencer Group, which is comprised of the Influencer Intelligence and Fashion & Beauty Monitor brands which work with PRs and journalists. It is also in the process of significantly downsizing its central functions.
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