Foundry to close trade publication CMO Australia
Marketing trade publication, CMO Australia is set to be closed by parent company Foundry, Mumbrella understands.
Editor and publisher, Nadia Cameron
Along with the closure of the publication, will also be the retirement of the popular yearly CMO 50 list, which recognises and ranks some of Australia’s top marketers.
The title was launched by IDG Communications in 2013, with Nadia Cameron as its editor and publisher.
Following the publishing of this article, Foundry confirmed the title is to be closed, and that Cameron will be leaving the business.
It also issued the following statement: “Since that time, Foundry has been reviewing its international operations and organisational structure to best position the company moving forward. As part of this review, the business has engaged in significant discussion and work internally over the past six months to determine the path forward for the CMO Australia brand.”
“While the audience is important and Australia remains a significant market to Foundry, the existing CMO brand in Australia is unfortunately not something the business can map to other markets and scale in the way it has other flagship media brands represented locally and internationally, such as CIO, CSO and Computerworld.”
Foundry management did not respond to Mumbrella after several approaches, while Cameron declined to comment. It’s understood staff within the Foundry business were told last week.
CMO “focuses on the unique leadership, customer, data and technology challenges facing marketing leaders and senior customer experience executives today,” according to its website.
In 2022, the owner of CMO, IDG Communications became Foundry, which marked “the company’s transformation from legacy media network to integrated marketing technology (MarTech) and data provider” it said.
This also followed an acquisition of Foundry by private equity firm, Blackstone in 2021 for US$1.3 billion (A$1.89 billion). Foundry said at the time the acquisition would help the company invest in “additional opportunities for ongoing growth across its technology and product portfolio”, marking a shift away from the publishing business.
“For years, IDG has been the top publisher in the B2B tech world,” said Robyn McRae, Global VP of paid media and marketing automation, IBM, last year. “As Foundry, we’re excited to see the ways the company will elevate to new heights and look forward to seeing what lies ahead in the coming months and years.”
In Australia, Foundry also operates PC World, Computerworld Australia, CSO Online, ARN and GoodGearGuide.
CMO will be closed on 1 March.
This article was updated after publishing with comments from Foundry.
Linkedin
Have your say