I’ve always had a huge amount of respect for the team over at HB media – this isn’t just because I’ve been involved with them in past and present projects – long before my work with Idealog magazine I commented on their innovative business model that takes the (arguably) dying world of traditional media and infuses it with something new. In fact even when I was writing for the competition I was publicly complementing the innovation they were bringing (and privately bemoaning the fact that others weren’t doing likewise).
The aforementioned business insight property that I’m curating (I see my role as different from content creation, editorship or moderation – curator being the best way to describe my role) on behalf of HB is an example of their creative approach – take a look at the website, the printed publications and the other parts of the IBM media campaign to see what new media can, and should, look like.
HB is run but a couple of smart guys, Vincent Heeringa and Martin Bell, and was originally co-founded by them along with David Macgregor, a person with whom I’ve argued often, but never lost a great deal of respect for (and whom one day, I’m sure, I’ll actually meet in person).
Anyway – HB is announcing this morning that they have acquired NZ Marketing magazine along with the awards it owns, the TVNZ Marketing Awards. NZ Marketing Magazine was part of the stable of publications owned by the failed group 3Media which was put into liquidation last month.
While I haven’t discussed it with them, I do know that HB have some ambitious plans around building an integrated media company and I’m sure they’ll do great things with both the magazine and the awards, but more importantly with the synergies that exist between them and their current offerings.
Check out the slideshare from a presentation Vincent gave to the Sustainable Business Network last week – it’s better with his (often self-deprecating) commentary, but it gives you an idea of what they’re about.
So congratulations to everyone at HB – looking forward to seeing what comes of the new babies…
