08 July 2009

Travel Weekly has new surprise owner

Holiday Autos founder Clive Jacobs has bought out travel trade title Travel Weekly for an undisclosed sum.

Travel Weekly, the online publication Travolution and Gazetteers.com, the online service for travel agents, were owned by Reed Business Information (RBI), a Reed Elsevier company.

The deal was initiated by Simon Ferguson, who left RBI in March 2009 after six years as publishing director of the travel portfolio.

He will become chief executive of the newly-acquired
business, TW Group Ltd.

The new management team will also comprise non-executive directors Michael East, travel industry management consultant, Colin Morrison, who has managed international media businesses at RBI, NatMags, Future and Emap, and and Ian Findlay, M&A director at Ariadne Capital and former director of corporate development at Emap plc, and development director at RBI.

Staff at Travel Weekly were informed of the changes today.

It is not yet known whether there will be any redundancies among staff.

In 2003, Jacobs joined the board of lastminute.com after it bought Holiday Autos.

He left a year later and has since been a shareholder and chairman of various online businesses.

In 2008, he became the owner of the Michelin starred New Angel in Dartmouth.

By Bev Fearis