[June 7] United News and Media said
Wednesday that it expects to invest over $400 million in new media over
the next two years.
Based in the U.K., United News and Media announced that it plans to
rebrand its subsidiary Miller Freeman U.K. as United Business Media,
making it an umbrella company for its magazine publishing, conference
and events assets. It is also creating a business unit named
eBusinessMedia to control its portfolio of e-commerce interests.
United News and Media will invest between $120 million and $180 million
in eBusinessMedia, the unit being headed by Chief Executive Officer
Graham Elton and Chief Operating Officer Ethan Stock.
“Most attempts to address the potential of B2B vertical e-markets have
come either from technology-focused, start-up businesses which lack
a deep insight into the way individual markets work, or from a consortia
of major buyers and sellers within a market who have a vested interest
in protecting their own market positions,” noted Graham Elton.
eBusinessMedia would differ from other players in this sector by
maintaining a neutral position between buyers and sellers, Elton said,
adding that this approach would create truly effective markets and
reduce the total costs of commerce.
“Our target now is to become Europe’s number one developer of B2B
e-commerce,” said Elton.
eBusinessMedia will begin by turning its attention to such
vertical markets as agriculture, healthcare, food and pharmaceutical
ingredients, print/packaging, interiors, building and construction,
music and entertainment, fire/health and safety/security,
entertainment technology, travel and venues.
The services will embrace all the main delivery platforms,
including WAP, digital TV, broadband, and PDAs.
Among United News and Media’s online brands are
musicians’ resource
MusicPlayer.com,
Europe’s most popular consumer music site
Dotmusic.com, and
travel portal UTravel.co.uk.
