UBM sells Publican for £1.7m

Pubs are feeling the squeeze from supermarkets selling cheap booze and now The Publican, their trade magazine, has been grabbed by the retailers' favourite, The Grocer.

Exhibitions-and-magazines giant United Business Media today sold The Publican for £1.65 million to the owner of The Grocer, food-and-drink publisher William Reed Business Media.

UBM, which closed or sold 13 titles last year, said the magazines market "continues to suffer from overcapacity". The owner of Music Week and Building Design believes there will only be "sufficient demand in mature markets to support one, or perhaps two, leading print titles" in each specialist sector. It added it is buying Indian travel trade show Satte as it expands in emerging markets.

Sales rose 5.6% to £889.2 million last year but pre-tax profits slipped 5.3% to £156.4 million. The shares slumped 52.5p to 660p.