Magazine publisher Dennis is buying politics and current affairs webzine The First Post to fit the site alongside its own weekly news digest The Week. Started three years ago, under-the-radar The First Post is owned by its own First Post News Group Limited, funded by digital media private investors and professes to be “a place to find out what the news means, a place to read about the issues of the day in short, sharp, informative articles”. Like 13-year-old The Week, it publishes roundups of news and opinion from other news media – but every morning at 9am. The Week, which doesn’t publish online, will now get to play in the world of daily online publishing at a stroke.
The two are “natural stablemates”, editor Mark Law told Press Gazette. The acquisition fee is not apparent. For Dennis, it is “the ideal next step” for growth in online current affairs publishing and will be used to grow The Week subscriptions in the UK and US, Dennis CEO James Tye added. The First Post claims “a steadily growing regular readership (reported at over a million a month) which, two years after going online, rivals or exceeds that of any equivalent magazine publications”. Its 13-strong editorial team was nominated in the consumer category of the most recent AOP awards.