Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
- How I overcame Severe Tire Damage to become the oldest influencer in town - April 20, 2024
- Free as a (Kiwi) bird and flying high in Haikou - April 13, 2024
- Discovering Food Accademia’s world of fine flavours at a Hong Kong cha chaan teng - April 6, 2024
The Moodie Report’s friendly rival DFNI’s biggest breaking news story of the year turned out to be about itself. The long-standing title, it revealed exclusively, is to be sold to Frontier owner Metropolis. “We expect to conclude our discussions within two weeks,” said Christopher Fordham, a Director at Euromoney, the parent of DFNI publisher Raven Fox since acquiring it from Vivian Raven and Julian Fox for £7 million in 1995.It’s moved on for a bit less – estimated at around £300,000 by one well-placed source. But almost everyone in the industry will welcome the consolidation, not least our much courted advertisers who will now have just three choices (The Moodie Report and Travel Retail Business as well as Metropolis) for their budget allocation rather than four.
DFNI Editor Gavin Lipsith noted: “Combining Raven Fox and Frontier creates an undisputed leader in travel retail media.”
Undisputed? Steady on Gavin! We suspect both remaining independents might very much dispute that claim. Especially now that we can confirm exclusively that we are in discussions to combine The Moodie Report with Travel Retail Business via a complex double reverse takeover. However these are at a preliminary stage given that the two parties historically don’t talk to one another.
“We expect to conclude our discussions within two decades,” said* Douglas Archibald Newhouse (pictured), a Director at Travel Retail Business, “by telling each other to shove off.” Well that’s what we think he would have said – Ed