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News

May 11, 2010 Vincent Heeringa

Press release • 11 May 2010

A big new voice in Kiwi media

HB Media and Tangible Media merge to form New Zealand’s largest independent publishing company

HB Media, the company behind award-winning magazines Idealog and Good, has merged with Tangible Media to form New Zealand’s largest independent publishing business.

The new company, known simply as Tangible Media, will be part of the Image Centre Group. Tangible already publishes multiple award-winning magazines such as Dish, NZ Retail and NZ Rugby World.

The new Tangible will publish 13 of its own magazines, ten customer titles, nine websites and several events. It will also manage AUT Media, the publishing arm of AUT University, a contract previously owned by HB Media.

Mike Hutcheson, executive director of Image Centre, says: “We have been associated with the HB team since inception and are delighted that the association is now formalised into such a strong and innovative new structure. The combined talent pool of the merged company will make it a formidable force in the publishing world.”

Martin Bell and Vincent Heeringa, founders of HB Media, say the merger is the realisation of a five-year dream.

“When we launched HB in March 2005 our ambition was to create a significant, Kiwi-owned, multi-channel media company. Tangible Media has the same vision. And with a great stable of products, highly talented staff and experienced leadership, we’re confident that not only will the merger go smoothly but that the company will be an enormous success,” says Bell.

Experienced team

The merger will occur on July 1.

Hutcheson says the terms of the deal remain confidential. “But we can reveal that Vincent and Martin will become significant shareholders in the new Tangible, reflecting their success in building HB Media into such a solid company with award-winning products and a long list of blue-chip clients,” says Hutcheson.

The business will managed by a senior team of experienced publishers including Martin Bell, John Baker, Julian Andrews and Vincent Heeringa.

John Baker, publisher at Tangible, says the addition of HB will create a dream team of publishing talent.

“We have been big fans of HB for many years and have often discussed the potential to collaborate. Like us, HB has a fundamental commitment to delivering world-class editorial experiences to engage with their audiences, be it in print or online. We have no doubt we will be able to build a brilliant business together.”

Multi-channel future

One of the key motivations for Tangible merging with HB is to tap into the online success of products such as Stoppress.co.nz and Celsias.co.nz.

“The Tangible titles have enormous online potential and with the addition of HB Media’s online team, we expect very soon to do as much business online as we do in print,” says Bell.

For more information, contact:

Mike Hutcheson, Image Centre
Phone 09 360–5700

Martin Bell, HB Media
Phone 09 966–0999

Products in the Tangible stable now include:

Magazines

Customer magazines

Websites

Events

 

April 20, 2010 HB Media team

Good, Idealog and Celsias win carbon first

Good magazine has notched another New Zealand first: it’s one of three Kiwi magazines to be awarded the highly regarded carboNZero badge, certifying carbon neutral status. Also certified are Idealog and Celsias.

All three titles originate from HB Media, which itself has been awarded CEMARS status—the first Kiwi publishing company to be awarded the certificate.

CEMARS is the first two steps of the carboNZero programme. It enables businesses and organisations to measure their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in compliance with ISO 14064-1, understand their carbon liabilities, and put in place management plans to reduce emissions in their organisation and more widely through their supply chain.

The carboNZero certificate shows that the magazines have gone one step further and purchased officially approved carbon offsets to ameliorate the remaining GHG emissions that cannot be avoided.

“We’re totally thrilled with the receiving these certificates. It’s the end of a fairly arduous process but demonstrates our commitment to innovation and to being an environmentally responsible company,” say HB Media director Martin Bell.

HB Media joins a growing list of more than 200 companies to receive the carboNZero badge of approval.

Bell says the process has been made easier by the cooperation of HB Media’s suppliers, in particular Image Print, the company which prints Idealog and Good.

“To recieve these certificates requires a heap of data and a willingness from your suppliers, which we received in spades from Image Print. Together with our suppliers in the printing and distribution business we can now offer corporates carbon neutral printing, design and publishing services—something we expect to ramp up this year.”

Last year Image Print won a Pride in Print award for its work on Good magazine.

 

June 26, 2009 Vincent Heeringa

Doom defying behaviour
Investing in good ideas & people proves a win for HB Media & AUT Media

At a time when many companies are cutting back, one Kiwi outfit is proving that investing in ideas and talent is the best way to get results.

Magazine and web publisher HB Media and sister brand AUT Media (publisher of Idealog) won one-third of the categories at the 2009 MPA Magazine Awards—and took home half of the Supreme awards.

“We were thrilled to be nominated for 16 of the 37 categories in this year’s MPA awards,” says HB editorial director Vincent Heeringa. “But to take out 13 of them on the night was a huge result for us. We’ve worked hard on our titles, we’re very proud of their success and we really appreciate the recognition from our peers in the magazine industry.”

He’s toast
Heeringa says art director Adrian Clapperton is “the toast of his industry” today after winning the Supreme Designer of the Year and Supreme Cover of the Year for his work on Idealog and Good. Idealog also won the award for Best Use of Photography. “We make magazines that people want to read, and a big part of that is their top-notch design and illustration,” he says. “Adrian’s work means reading Good and Idealog is always a pleasure. He deserves his plaudits.”

Inspiring
Other highlights include Idealog’s wins for Magazine of the Year, Designer of the Year, Website of the Year and Cover of the Year in the Business category. In the ultra-competitive lifestyle section Good magazine took the plaudits for Designer of the Year. Inspire magazine took out three major wins in the custom category, with Sarah Heeringa winning Editor of the Year and Ben Gibb and Sarah Yetton winning Advertising Sales Achievement of the Year and the magazine itself winning the Custom Magazine of the Year.

Good launch
And there’s another sweet victory. “Launch of the Year was a very closely-watched category this year, where Good competed against two other great magazines—Mindfood and Oh Baby,” says HB business director Martin Bell. “To win it against such competition is fabulous—particularly as Idealog won the same category two years ago!”

Butt kicking
To round out the evening, HB Media sales manager Ben Gibb and former account manager Sarah Yetton won the only sales award, Advertising Sales Achievement, for their work on travel title Inspire. “It’s proof that we’re kicking butt in every part of our business,” says Bell. “Sales, editorial, design and circulation are all critical and we reckon we have the best in the business.”

HB’s success comes despite a record number of entrants and the recent consolidation of the MPA awards structure. “This year saw the widest range of publishers entering in the awards history—22 publishers compared with 20 last year—with 188 entries across 11 awards,” says Kath Hurley, MPA marketing and communications manager. “Forty-four different titles entered this year.”

In many cases, the consolidation of categories meant that entries were judged against a broader range of their peers. “Comparisons with past awards are difficult because of this year’s new structure,” says Heeringa, “but HB Media’s win quite possibly represents the biggest collective win of any one publishing company, in one year.”

Marketing et al
Next year HB will have another entrant in the awards—the relaunched NZ Marketing magazine, which it bought this month from former owner 3Media. Other HB innovations include the forthcoming Celsias.co.nz, a new climate change social network, and an effort to make all of HB Media’s business carbon-neutral, as Good magazine already is.

Record win
For the record, here’s the full list of the wins:

HB titles also received two Highly Commended mentions:

About HB Media & AUT Media
HB Media was founded by Vincent Heeringa and Martin Bell in 2005. It specialises in magazines, books, online and custom publishing. It also manages AUT Media, the university press for AUT.

AUT Media publishes Idealog magazine and also books including the bestselling children’s book Awesome Aotearoa, Margaret Mahy’s history of New Zealand.

For more information about HB Media contact:

Vincent Heeringa
09 966-0991 or 021 845 693

For more information about AUT Media contact:

Tiffany White
09 921-9241