User:S3venevan/Time Out Group

Time Out Group (Time Out Digital Ltd) is a digital and print publisher of web sites, apps, magazines and guidebooks covering events, entertainment and culture in cities around the world. Tim Arthur is the Global CEO of Time Out Group. Based in London, New York and Paris, Time Out Group provides entertainment, food, and drink recommendations to an international audience through print and digital platforms. Time Out was established in 1968, by founder Tony Elliott and has developed into a global media group spanning 109 cities in 39 countries with a monthly audience of 39 million. Time Out provides original editorial content for users to find things to do in the city as well as curated lists of the best films, restaurants and music. Time Out recently curated sci-fi films, a global sex survey, and provides unique content for its social fans.

History
The original Time Out magazine was first published in 1968 by Tony Elliott with Bob Harris as co-editor.The magazine was a one-sheet pamphlet with listings for London. The magazine started as a counter-culture publication that had an alternative viewpoint on issues such as gay rights, racial equality, and police harassment. Early issues had a print run of around 5,000 and evolved to a weekly circulation of 110,000.

The brand was expanded to North America with Time Out New York magazine also known as TONY in 1995 followed by Time Out New York Kids in 1996. The success of taking the Time Out brand abroad led to the expansion of the magazine worldwide. The brand grew to include travel magazines, city guides, and books.

Time Out was able to withstand print competition; however, its late integration of a digital platform during the online revolution proved to be a challenge. When Time Out New York launched it did not have a website and was competing against well-established online publications such as Citysearch and The Village Voice. The company; however, continued to expand with licensing of the brand and in 2009 launched its iPhone app in New York and then London, which was sponsored by Smirnoff, enabling the app to be free of charge.

Financial loss and the necessity to expand the Time Out brand led Tony Elliott to sell half of Time Out London and 66 percent of TONY to private equity group Oakley Capital in 2010. Under new ownership, the company expanded the brand digitally through partnerships with software companies to develop a common online platform for the brand and to create multi-city mobile applications. The company continued to grow digitally and launched an iPad app for New York and London in July 2012. The iPad app was initially sponsored by Mastercard.

Lisbon Market
In April 2014 Time Out Lisbon launched the Time Out Mercado da Ribeira. The market hosts 35 small restaurant and artisan kiosks from the best chefs offering local specialties and has been widely recognised as one of the top tourist attractions in Lisbon.

Acquisitions
In August 2011, Time Out acquired the personalisation business LikeCube. Kelkoo, a daily-offers business, was acquired by Time Out in December 2011.

The Time Out brand license was acquired for the Chicago publication March 2013. The acquisition was part of a strategy to build an international media organization in 50 cities. Changes included moving from print publication to exclusively digital format as only a limited few cities still have a printed Time Out Magazine edition including London and New York.

Time Out acquired the event discovery platform Huge City in May 2014.