Burda buys Essential Publishing

The move boosts Burda's presence in the UK magazines market by adding six consumer titles to its own magazines, real life weekly, Full House, and home interest monthly, Living & Gardens.
Essential's other consumer magazines are all home interest titles: Your Home, Period House, Homestyle and Essential Kitchens, Bathrooms and Bedrooms.
It also publishes Essential Business, a trade magazine launched this year, and contract magazines for clients including CenterParcs and Rolls Royce.
Essential has specialised in buying underperforming titles from bigger publishers and publishing them at a lower cost from its Colchester offices, where its operations will remain.
Real was previously published by Bauer, TV Hits by Attic Futura and Your Home by Natmags.
Luke Patten, Essential's managing director, becomes Burda's group managing director, filling a vacancy left by the recent departure of Simon Hesling.
Alan Urry, who retired as managing director of rival publisher Bauer UK in 2004, remains Burda's chief executive.
Neither party would comment on whether the move affected any other staff roles at Essential, which employs 75 people, or the future direction of the titles acquired.

This article was first published on Media Week