IDG stable expands with new life science acquisition

IDG Communications, publisher of Australian Biotechnology News (ABN), this week acquired two titles -- Today's Life Science (TLS) and Lab News -- from Vertical Markets.

All three titles will be incorporated into the ABN business unit, according to publisher Andrew Birmingham.

"As we have demonstrated through our first year, IDG is very committed to developing excellent editorial products in the Australian life sciences sector. This acquisition complements our phase one strategy of targeting the most senior decision-makers by extending our reach much deeper into the life science industry."

Birmingham said the combination of ABN's senior executive audience and TLS's scientific readership also made a very compelling story for advertisers. "We are now able to provide a marketing and recruitment channel from the lab manager to the managing director, and our clients are able to choose between the commercial environment of ABN and the scientific environment of TLS and Lab News."

"And of course the weekly frequency of ABN allows advertisers to marry their marketing strategies to their individual product cycle, something that was impossible in the Australian market until the arrival of ABN."

All existing staff from the Vertical Markets titles moved across to IDG this week, and production is already well underway on the November and December issues of the titles.

Birmingham also announced that Iain Scott, the current editor of ABN, would be promoted to editor-in-chief of the group, with responsibility across all three titles. Scott would also continue as editor of ABN.

At the same time, it was announced that Australian Biotechnology News had signed on as a sponsor of the 19th International Congress of Genetics, to be held in Melbourne next year. ABN will join Applied Biosystems, Hewlett Packard, Science, and the Victorian government as a major sponsor of the event.

Launched in March 2002, Australian Biotechnology News is a weekly newspaper for senior decision-makers in the Australian biotechnology community. According to research from Quantum Market Research, on a weekly basis it is read by nearly nine out of ten CEOs chief scientists and IT managers in the Australian life science sector.

Established in 1988, Today's Life Science is the pre-eminent peer-reviewed journal for the life science community, providing Australasia's life scientists with plain-English feature articles on the latest developments in biological and medical science, research techniques and biotechnology. Its readers include senior scientific and technical purchasing managers.

Lab News is a leading source of news and product information for Australian laboratory managers and personnel. Established in 1980, Lab News covers multiple scientific disciplines and offers news together with research results, laboratory techniques, in-depth product articles and applications.