Category: Journalism

We’re getting some potential names for the backers of SMD and Encanta now. It looks like SMD is a company set up by Remnant Media so that it can keep the likes of Front and Hotdog separate from its other titles. Meanwhile, Owen Davies, former financial director of Highbury, is being fingered as one of the names behind Encanta. All of this is just rumour at the moment, but I hope to firm things up.

This situation with SMD is looking mighty familiar. Yesterday, they didn’t show up at all in a Companies House search, except as a dissolved company. Today, the paperwork has made its way through the Companies House bureaucracy and we have some new info.

It’s all beginning to look very familiar:

Date of incorporation

Brush Colour: 8th December 2005

SMD Publishing: 6th December 2005

Name changes

Brush Colour: Changed name to Encanta Media Ltd on 20th January 2006 (the same day it made its Highbury acquisition)

SMD Publishing: Changed name from Astroplan Ltd on 23rd January 2006 (the same day it made its Highbury acquisition)

Appointments

Brush Colour: Registered through companies (“YORK PLACE COMPANY SECRETARIES LIMITED”, “YORK PLACE COMPANY NOMINEES LIMITED”)

SMD Publishing: Registered through companies (“ACI SECRETARIES LIMITED”, “ACI DIRECTORS LIMITED”)

Looks like someone’s been passing around the company acquisition cheat notes.

Can’t find any reference to SMD Publishing down at Companies House. Well, that’s not true actually: there’s an S.M.D. Publishing listed as having been dissolved in October 1999. No companies of similar current or proposed names are listed.

Assuming that’s the right name, for SMD not to be listed, it would have to be a sole trader or something similar (hence the lack of the Ltd monicker at the end of its name). But no one would buy Hotdog or Front without some kind of safety net, would they, unless the plan is to sell them on to a Ltd company at a later date?

It’s all very mysterious.

UPDATE: One of the names behind SMD may be Simon Robinson, co-founder of Remnant, although that’s just a rumour at this stage.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE: The Media Guardian reports that DVD World went to SMD as well.

Press Gazette has the news first, this time: Hotdog and Front have been sold off to new company SMD Publishing. Notable nugget of information:

It was confirmed today, the company’s remaining craft titles have been sold to another new company, Brush Colour.

Accountancy firm Ernst & Young, which has been overseeing the company’s breakup since it went into receivership, said it could reveal no further details about SMD and Brush Colour, although it is believed they could consist of staff or previous management from the titles.

All the deals put together very quickly, huh? The fact that the confirmation is for Brush Colour, rather than Encanta Media, speaks volumes about the new owners not wanting to be named. And I wonder what happened to Remnant, last heard of doing their due diligence over the weekend.

UPDATE: The Media Guardian reports that DVD World went to SMD as well.

As discussed on Friday, the mysterious Brush Colour has bought Highbury’s specialist titles. Now Companies House is open again, we can get a few more details on the company. They were only incorporated on the 8th December last year, just a fortnight before Highbury’s difficulties became public knowledge. Equally strangely, they changed their name on Friday to Encanta Media Ltd.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything fishy going on, but the two company appointments listed on their appointments report are “YORK PLACE COMPANY SECRETARIES LIMITED” and “YORK PLACE COMPANY NOMINEES LIMITED”. Looks like the new owners wants to stay anonymous for the moment, at the very least.

Press Gazette has picked up on Damian Butt’s letter to me. Which is nice.

Incidentally, it’s been intimated to me by various sources that since Imagine has only acquired the brands, rather than the limited company, that means there probably won’t be any provision for paying creditors.

For both selfish and altruistic reasons, I’m hoping freelances like me may be the exception rather than the rule. Anyone from Imagine want to clear up whether the titles’ freelances will get paid for their work? The last article in Press Gazette on the subject didn’t fill me with confidence, since it suggested we’d get as little as 10% of our outstanding invoices, but I always live in hope.

Just got this email from Damian Butt, MD of Imagine

Hi Rob

Just saw your blog (great name by the way).

To clear up the latest news on Imagine Publishing, we have acquired 24 titles in Bournemouth, which is the entire Highbury Entertainment portfolio. We haven’t bought the company, that’s gone into receivership, but we have bought the titles and the right to publish them. The titles include all the computing titles you mentioned, and also the videogames ones, but of course not Hotdog or Front, which are based in London.

We are now trying to create as many new jobs for the existing employees as we can

Thanks

Damian Butt

Managing Director

So that’s that mystery solved. Without Hotdog and Front in the mix, that’ll leave Imagine far more money to invest in the titles it’s just bought, which clears up that worry.

It’s good to know that Imagine are doing their best to save as many jobs as possible: if you recall, Highbury employees in Bournemouth voted almost unanimously for NUJ recognition recently, they were treated so badly. My hopes are that Imagine proves a better employer for them than Highbury. Since many are being re-interviewed for their jobs, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them.

Two more mags have picked up the Imagine-Highbury story since my coverage yesterday: Next Generation and Gamasutra. It looks like Imagine have only bought five computing titles, including iCreate, Play Magazine, GamesTM, Advanced Photoshop and Digital Photographer. These are all pretty good complements to Imagine’s existing portfolio, but there is considerable overlap on some titles: iCreate doesn’t really compete with Imagine’s Mac Creative, for example, but Advanced Photoshop and Photoshop Creative are very much going for the same readers. It remains to be seen how many of the new titles will be dropped in favour of Imagine’s exisiting titles (or vice versa).

As for the remaining part of Highbury’s portfolio, that remains a mystery. Although the PA reported that the special interest titles had gone to Brush Colour, I can’t find even the slightest reference to Brush Colour anywhere on the Net and my copy of the Writer’s Handbook doesn’t list them. So the possibilities are: they’re very new (maybe even set up specifically for the deal); they’re very low profile – which doesn’t bode well for this group of mags which could do with a boost; PA got the name wrong, which isn’t like them; or Highbury’s been telling porkies – which is very like them. We’ll have to see what further details emerge on Monday.

But of course, five computing titles plus Highbury’s special interest magazines don’t add up to the full Highbury portfolio. Just on the computing side, there’s PDA Essentials, Website Maker, Practical Web Projects and Web Designer, to name but a few: you can get the full list at the Highbury Entertainment site. However, various news stories, including a piece in the Irish Independent, say that Imagine has bought the entire Highbury Entertainment division outright. Since that includes Hotdog, I think there’s been some confusion as to how big the division is.

Kleinwort Capital’s just invested £7 million in Imagine. That might be enough to launch the company into new markets, if they also bought Hotdog et al, but it would leave them stretched. But Imagine are really the old Paragon, the original owners of iCreate et al who were doing really well until they were acquired by Highbury. Their focus has been gaming and computing titles. Equally, analysts were arguing that all of Highbury’s titles would go for £5-8 million. So, to have acquired the entire Highbury Entertainment division would have taken the bulk of Kleinwort’s investment, leaving Imagine with little for consolidation. That makes me think the acquisition is limited to just the titles mentioned.

So that leaves the rest of the Highbury Entertainment titles, Front and a variety of other mags. I suspect quite a few of the mags aren’t going to find a new home, simply because they’re too close to existing titles. But that still leaves a few rich pickings for wily buyers: expect to hear a few more deals next week, with Remnant in the mix.

As expected, Imagine has leapt in and bought iCreate and various other computing titles from Highbury. The special interest titles have gone to Brush Colour. No info on whether Front and Hotdog have stayed with Highbury or whether they’re making their way over to Imagine as we speak, but if they haven’t, I suspect they could be pounced upon by Remnant Media any moment now, if they haven’t been already.

Phew. Close escape for the Highbury crowd there! Good luck to you all, guys. Hope you like your new homes.