Blake Freeman Johnson Media rebrands as Soho Friday Media

Richard Johnson, John Blake and Derek Freeman are changing the name of their new web-based publishing start-up from Blake Freeman Johnson Media to Soho Friday Media. The founding trio said they felt the new "fun and rebellious"-sounding name "more fully encompasses the company’s ethos".

As announced yesterday (1st November), the former Bonnier Publishing employees' new venture will specialise in mainly popular adult non-fiction while undertaking to offer authors "much higher royalties and faster publication dates".

Each of the founders stepped down from their respective positions at Bonnier Publishing (since rebranded Bonnier Books UK) this year: Johnson abruptly stepped down from his role as group chief executive in February after nine years at the helm; former journalist Blake left the company in April two years after it snapped up his eponymous company John Blake Publishing; and Freeman, a former Octopus group c.e.o., retired from the role of executive chairman in June.

Johnson, Soho’s c.e.o., commented: "The new name Soho Friday better reflects our venture, the journey ahead and the publishing we will do. Our previous name was beginning to sound like a firm of lawyers in Holborn to us and on a Friday afternoon in late summer I would rather be in Soho than a soulless office discussing contract law. The concept for the company arose from a meeting in Soho and the whole area has a fun and rebellious feel about it – which is what our guiding philosophy will be."

Some in the trade had remarked on the similarity between Blake Freeman Johnson and the well-known literary agency Blake Friedmann.