The Intermedia Group, publisher of HM magazine and hotelmanagement.com.au, is pleased to announce it has acquired A LIST Guide – Australia’s leading print and online corporate event guide and its sister title Food Wine Sleep – an online Australian guide for consumers seeking food, beverage and accommodation experiences.
Effective from July 1, 2013, all products within the A LIST Guide and the Food Wine Sleep portfolio in both print and online as well as all associated events including the A LIST Guide Open House concept, launched at the AIME trade fair earlier this year, will join The Intermedia Group.
All existing A LIST Guide and Food Wine Sleep sales staff will relocate to The Intermedia Group and it is expected that there will be no interruption to the ordinary business activities.
The acquisition will grow Intermedia’s corporate events and business tourism portfolio, which currently includes SPICE magazine and the twice-weekly online newsletter SpiceNews.com.au. Intermedia also publishes the leading publications for the Australasian hotel accommodation market – Hotel Management (HM) magazine and the twice weekly online newsletter HotelManagement.com.au
“A LIST Guide is a natural fit for Intermedia and we expect the synergies to provide benefits and opportunities for both businesses immediately,” said The Intermedia Group Managing Director, Simon Grover.
“Food Wine Sleep is also a well-established product that will benefit from working within the Intermedia stable,” Grover said.
The founders of A LIST Guide and Food Wine Sleep, Amy Merriman and James McGregor, believe that Intermedia is in the best position to take the businesses on the next stage of its evolution.
“A LIST Guide and Spice News are a natural fit, as two market-leading editorial and information source products. Having previously collaborated on a number of initiatives in the past, this acquisition is an excellent step towards establishing a unique and powerful media force for advertisers and a superior resource for subscribers,” Merriman said.
“Advertisers in A LIST Guide and Food Wine Sleep will now have broadened opportunities for cross promotional activities through The Intermedia Group’s stable of titles,” she said.
“Everyone involved is excited about the new stage in the product’s lifecycle and are looking forward to working together to continue providing advertisers and subscribers with the same high quality service A LIST Guide and Food Wine Sleep is renowned for.”
Amy Merriman and James McGregor established A LIST Guide in 2006 and launched Food Wine Sleep in 2009. A LIST Guide is Australia’s leading corporate event guide, which was recently awarded Best Product & Service in the Australian Event Industry Awards.
The Intermedia Group is among Australia’s largest business to business publishing companies with 25 separate printed magazines and 20 separate online newsletters and digital products. Following the acquisition, this will grow to 26 printed publications and 22 online newsletters and digital products.