One small step for Food Man, one giant leap for the industry

The food and drink information world took a bold step into the future last month as Food Manufacture's publisher William Reed Business Media (WRBM) acquired digital media publisher Decision News Media (DNM). DNM publishes FoodNavigator.com and 16 other websites serving the international food, nutrition, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

Joining the leading media organisations with a strong focus on food and drink will boost information resources and services for food and drink professionals. DNM will speed up the growth of WRBM's online brands and benefit from WRBM's involvement in conferences, roundtables, recruitment, data services and directories.

Franck Metzger (pictured above centre), joint founder and md of DNM said: "For both companies, the core market is the food and drink industries. That is an opportunity to keep on building; doing more and doing it better. There are clear synergies regarding knowledge about the markets, content and audience ... together we can have a more global view."

He added: "We want to be faster at moving into new markets with WRBM and because we are bigger, we will be stronger in what we do. Both companies have expertise in areas that are complementary."

WRBM's chief operating officer Robert Marr added: "The businesses are a good combination, with DNM's expertise in online advertising and William Reed's in face-to-face, print publishing and complementary digital skills. As well as a common culture of passion for our products, we both enjoy the trust of our customers and readers, and have a forward- looking drive.

"DNM covers industries that we are mostly familiar with. Both businesses are highly successful already. We will be working on several projects over the coming year in order to generate synergistic revenues."

With so much information now available on the internet and with people living busier lives, Metzger stressed the role of the enlarged organisation was to identify which information was most important to the industry so that it could be made available in a concise yet informative manner.

Since its formation, DNM, based in Montpellier, France, has established a reputation for authoritative, in-depth and hard news reporting. As well as foodnavigator.com, other websites owned by DNM include nutraingredients.com, dairyreporter.com, bakeryandsnacks.com, beveragedaily.com and foodproductiondaily.com.