PMP Group, once a jewel of the Murdoch empire, disappears with Ovato rebranding
ASX-listed printing and marketing services firm, PMP Group, has announced it will consolidate operations under a new name, Ovato.
The rebranding will see the last echoes of Rupert Murdoch’s Australian magazine empire built during the 1970s and 80s disappear with the PMP name.
Murdoch was forced to divest the then Pacific Magazines and Printing group which included titles such as TV Week and New Idea in 1991 as his empire struggled to restructure $US7.6b in debt that nearly bought News Corp down.
PMP included Pacific Magazines, which was in turn was sold to what is now Seven West Media in two tranches over 2001 and 2002.
In 2017 the slimmed down group merged with fellow printing and marketing services business IPMG which included the notorious Offset Alpine Printing which came to prominence in 1993 after the insurance payout from a fire at its Sydney printing plant enriched a wide cast of colourful Sydney businesses characters including Rene Rivkin and jailed Labor minister Eddie Obeid.
