Media UK

Emap

Emap is a media conglomerate with interests in magazines, radio and television.

The name of the original company, which included newspapers until their sale in the late 1990s to Johnston Press, was 'East Midlands Allied Press'. This has been shortened to Emap. (It's incorrect to write 'EMAP', incidentally; indeed, their logo is all in lower case.)

Emap's history

In 1947, Emap was formed as a regional newspaper company, operating out of Peterborough (where the head office still is).

Angling Times, Emap's first consumer magazine, was first published in 1953, and in 1956, Motor Cycle News was acquired for just £100.

Smash! Hits was launched in 1978, and Emap's first acquisition in radio - excepting the short-lived Radio and Music magazine - was Kiss FM in 1990. In 1991, with Tim Schoonmaker at the helm, Emap's next foray into radio was buying Radio City in Liverpool, and taking over Owen Oyston's Trans World Communications group (Preston's Red Rose Radio, Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, and Leeds's Radio Aire).

Kiss FM's Gordon Mac sold most of his shares to Emap in 1992. The station continued to have an arms-length relationship with their new owners for many years, finally moving from their studios in Holloway Road to Mappin House in 1999.

The Metro Radio Group was taken over by Emap in the mid 1990s, creating a problem for Emap executives. Bradford's The Pulse, and their AMer Great Yorkshire Radio, overlapped a large percentage of Aire FM and Magic 828 from Leeds, which blocked their purchase on regulatory grounds. The Pulse was disposed of, to a management buyout mostly formed out of ex Metro Radio Group management, The Radio Partnership.

Emap's first purchase in television was cable music channel The Box, which was purchased in 1996 - the year the group sold their newspaper business to Johnston Press.

'Middle youth women' were all the rage in 1997. Emap launched Red, a magazine aimed at 30-something 'feel-young' women; and a 1998 takeover of Melody FM was followed by its re-branding to a radio station aimed at a similar audience - Magic. The AM stations the group inherited in the northern cities were also re-branded. The 'less talk, more music' format was initially not too successful, replacing oldies stations.

In 1998, Emap acquired Petersen, a publisher in the US - much to the consternation of some staff, Petersen published such politically-correct titles as "Guns'n'Ammo" - and launched FHM there two years later. However, the US experience was not a good one. Emap ended up closing their USA operations in 2001: gaining £366m for the sale. (Petersen's purchase price was £1bn).

2000 to 2002 saw large expansion in music television and digital radio.

And, highly unusually for this acquisitive company, Emap won its first analogue radio franchise in its own right in 2003, with Kerrang! 105.2 in the West Midlands.

2004 saw Emap acquire 28% of shares in SRH from SMG; a full takeover of the company occurred the next year.