APA completes buy of Rough Guides, promising 'revitalisation'

The sale of Rough Guides from Penguin Random House to APA Publications has been completed, with APA c.e.o. René Frey promising a "revitalisation" of the brand.

Everyone who was in the Rough Guides team employed by Penguin Random House has now transferred under TUPE to Rough Guides Ltd, it has been confirmed. Ian Hudson, DK c.e.o., said DK was "very proud of all the Rough Guides team has accomplished and look forward to seeing their achievements with APA".

DK's decision to sell Rough Guides to APA Publications was announced earlier this month (2nd October) in wake of a "wide-ranging travel publishing review". DK's travel division (which also includes brands such as Eyewitness) has seen in steady sales for the last five years through Nielsen, up 5% in 2014 and with boosts of 2-3% over the last couple of years; but in 2017 sales plunged back down to 2013 levels, its lowest-selling full year on record post-2002. 

Frey said the purchase of Rough Guides "truly cements our position as a dedicated specialist in the travel publishing arena" and will "almost double" APA Publications' turnover. Rough Guides’ "significant web presence" will benefit its online strategy, too, he said, with projections its reach will expand by as much as 10 times. The involvement of Rough Guides' experienced content marketing team will meanwhile complement what it is able to offer on the Insight Guides platform.

While the next two months will be spent integrating the team, Frey has undertaken to "put the passion [back] into Rough Guides" which he said "may have been missing" in recent years at PRH, with plans for next year including a "refresh" of its books.

“I’m delighted to have completed the transaction with DK," Frey said. "Three years ago APA was struggling and now, after a few years hard work, we are strengthening our position in the market. Our rebuild and re-launch of Insight Guides has demonstrated our commitment to APA’s heritage, and today we take responsibility for the revitalisation of Rough Guides with even greater confidence.”

He added: "In the long term, we want to be very successful ... What we know we have to do [in the short term] is integrate the team, we have to adjust their structure and processes to our processes. That will take us until the end of the year, so hopefully at the beginning of next year we can start planning and strategising for the future. 

"The response from the market has been very positive. And we will put the passion into Rough Guides it may have been missing for the last couple of years because it was part of such a large corporation.

"If you look at what we have done with Insight Guides, you will see how we see it. We will certainly look at the books first, because that’s the core of the business, and we will look into how we can refresh the books next year, how we can revitalise the brand, how we can model up everything - but that will take some time. At the beginning of next year we start that process," he said.