NEW YORK, Feb. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IBT Media, the global digital media company, owner of Newsweek, International Business Times, and one of the world's most trusted sources for news, intelligence and entertainment (the "Company"), today announced the launch of Newsweek Events, a global events business aimed at exploring some of the most pressing and exciting issues facing businesses and consumers across the globe. Newsweek Events will build on the strength of the Company's global media and branded content platform across all of the IBT Media properties. Newsweek Events will launch this March in London with a fin-tech conference focused on artificial intelligence. The Company also announced the acquisition of Structure, the successful technology sector-focused events business that was originally owned by Giga-Om, the digital media company.
Newsweek Events will include day conferences and weeklong events, tailored to consumers and businesses, across multiple content verticals with a particular focus on the finance, science, technology and sustainability sectors. The Structure events platform, known for its popular conferences like Structure, Structure Security, Structure Data and Structure Connect, caters to C-suite business decision-makers. Structure provides Newsweek Events with deep technology content and expertise that will serve as a strong foundation for the events business in the U.S. Newsweek Events expects to hold its first U.S. event in autumn 2017 and will then expand into additional markets.
"Newsweek Events is a natural evolution of Newsweek's global brand platform, and will enable us to bring to life branded content from Newsweek as well as our other world-class media properties such as International Business Times," said Dev Pragad, Chief Executive Officer of IBT Media. "Structure provides Newsweek Events with a plug and play events business in the U.S. that we can scale thanks to our strong brand platform and proven ability to drive sponsorships. Further, Structure is an editorially driven business that aligns well with the strong editorial focus of Newsweek. We look forward to building a talented team to support the business."
Pragad continued, "Over the past six months, we've made great strides in putting our business on a stable financial footing, strengthening our business from both a revenue and content standpoint. We're now focused on reinvesting for growth in a number of areas, and the launch of Newsweek Events is an important step in this direction."
Justin Tadman, who joined IBT Media in London in June 2016, will assume the role of Managing Director, Worldwide Events, overseeing the events business globally. He was previously with Reed Exhibitions. Clare Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Structure, will join the Company as Vice President, U.S. Events, reporting to Tadman. Tadman will report to Alan Press, who recently joined the Company in the newly created role of President, responsible for helping to steer the company's expansion of its global platform.
Press is a visionary digital marketer who brings significant senior-level expertise and a proven track record of scaling high-growth businesses. He most recently served as Global Vice President of Events Marketing at Gartner Inc. where he oversaw the entire Events Marketing business. Prior to this, he spent nine years at The Economist Group, where he headed marketing for all The Economist-branded businesses in The Americas, including The Economist Intelligence Unit before assuming a global brief as Head of Digital Marketing & New Product development.
"There is a compelling need to provide today's consumers and businesses with a more informed and curated global perspective on business, politics and culture," said Press. "Newsweek can provide this perspective in a digestible, consumer and business-friendly format thanks to its decades long reputation as one of the most trusted sources of information from around the world. Newsweek Events will allow us to bring to life our global content in live and streaming forums across the world, creating new experiences and communities for our customers to engage."
The Company plans to continue to hire for its new events business in both the US and UK markets, and expects to capitalize on Structure's editorial team to enhance content across its platform.
About IBT Media
IBT Media is a fast-growing digital media company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in 2006 with the launch of the International Business Times, a digital news publication that today reaches an average of 57+ million readers each month via eight separate editions, in four languages. Market-specific editions are now available in the U.S., the UK, Australia, China, India, Italy, Japan & Singapore. Today, IBT Media owns and operates a total of 14 digital properties including the International Business Times, Design & Trend, Fashion Times, iDigital Times, Latin Times, Medical Daily & the iconic Newsweek brand which it bought in 2013 as a digital-only property before enhancing the offering with the reintroduction of the print edition. Newsweek now publishes a U.S. and International edition weekly in English. The international edition - branded as Newsweek International - serves the Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions while language-specific editions are available in Japan, Korea, Latin America, Pakistan, Poland and Serbia. A separate English-language edition is also published for the Middle East. The print edition of Newsweek is now available in 68 territories while round-the-clock- coverage on the latest breaking world news can be found at newsweek.com.
Contact: Mark Lappin
T: +44 (0)20 3040 6989
M: +44 (0) 7823 770 922
m.lappin@ibt.co.uk
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