IPC Media is a large British publishing company, mainly producing consumer magazines.

The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963 following the takeover of three leading UK magazine publishers – George Newnes, Odhams Press and Amalgamated Press (later Fleetway Publications) – by the Mirror Group of newspapers to form the International Publishing Corporation (IPC), which also included substantial printing and book publishing operations. The consumer magazines of the three companies were merged into one division, IPC Magazines, five years later, in 1968, as part of a general reorganisation of IPC. At the same time the trade and technical publications were merged into a further division, IPC Trade & Technical.

But those three original magazine businesses each had their own illustrious history, having been established in 1881, 1890 and 1880 respectively, with a number of the titles they launched in the late 19th Century still being published today under the IPC umbrella. And when The Field, launched in 1853, joined the IPC stable in 1994 following the acquisition of Harmsworth Magazines, it further extended the company's roots back over a century and a half.

IPC Magazines was acquired by the Reed Group together with the other subsidiaries of the International Publishing Corporation in 1970 to form Reed International. It was sold to venture capitalist Cinven in a £860m management buyout in 1998, reformed into five operating divisions in 1999, renamed IPC Media in 2000 and sold to Time Warner in 2001 for £1.15bn.

As of 2004 the company is selling 30 million copies of its 86 different magazine titles each year, all except two of them in consumer markets. Its magazines are said to reach over 70% of UK women and 50% of UK men – approximately 28 million UK adults.

The current CEO is Sylvia Auton, who was internally promoted from her previous role as managing director of the company's Country and Leisure Media division in 2003.

Examples

Magazines published by the group include What's on TV, Marie Claire, Wallpaper*, Loaded, NME, Country Life, Rugby World , Practical Boat Owner and many others.

External links:

• The IPC Media website