Mark Allen acquires PrintWeek in UK; PrintWeek in India remains with Haymarket

Mark Allen Group is one of the most successful independent publishing companies in the country and has singled out PrintWeek, which includes the world’s most popular industry website printweek.com, as a brand with a "brilliant future".

PrintWeek was founded in 1958, since which time it has grown into the UK’s leading title for the graphic arts industry, with licensed editions in Middle East & Africa and Russia and sister titles in Germany, India and Australia. However, Druck & Medien (Germany), ProPrint (Australia) and PrintWeek India; as well as the world's biggest print machinery portal, PressXchange, are not part of the acquisition and will remain with Haymarket.

Mark Allen Group chairman Mark Allen said: "PrintWeek is a superb brand and our aim is to enhance its appeal as a more considered fortnightly.  The print industry is going through some challenging times which we need to reflect by changing PrintWeek’s frequency from weekly to fortnightly.  Once we have made this change, our view is that PrintWeek has a brilliant future."

The acquisition is expected to complete by the end of April, at which time the PrintWeek team will relocate to Mark Allen’s head office in St Jude’s church in Herne Hill, south east London. A timescale for relaunching PrintWeek as a fortnightly is yet to be finalised.

As well as PrintWeek, Mark Allen is also to acquire another Haymarket title, Nursery World, and these latest deals follow the acquisitive group’s purchases of three other Haymarket titles in recent years.

Commenting on the acquisition and it's impact for the operations in India, Suresh Ramakrishnan, publishing director for Haymarket in India said, "PrintWeek UK has only changed ownership….the title and good part of the expert team remains intact".

Speaking about the title in India, he said, "PrintWeek India is safe and secure with us and has a bright future. The growth potential is the best among all the seven magazines we have in India, today."

He added, "While we have seen a bit of a shaky start in the year across all other titles in our portfolio, PrintWeek India has posted robust growth and the best we have seen in comparative terms since launch."

PrintWeek India which was launched in May 2008 will complete five years of its India operations in May 2013 with a special fifth anniversary issue.