Time Out
Encyclopedia
Time Out is a publishing company based in London
, England. The company's best known product is the Time Out weekly listings magazine
.
The Time Out Group Limited conducts most of its business from London
and New York City
.
.
The Time Out weekly listing magazines for a particular city contains information about events in film, theatre, fashion, literature and all other artistic events happening, as well as eat out and night out sections. A total of 60 editions are currently published --counting non-English editions-- including Amsterdam
, London
, Chicago
, New York
, Lisbon
, Jerusalem, Beijing
, Istanbul
, Tel Aviv
, Belgrade
, Cyprus
, Beirut
, Dubai
, Moscow
, Athens
, Singapore
, Saint-Petersburg, Bucharest
, Almaty
, Kiev
, Mumbai
, New Delhi
, Abu Dhabi
, Sydney
, Shanghai
and Barcelona
. On 25 March 2008, Time Out Kuala Lumpur launched in the Malaysian capital to become the 24th edition of the magazine known as 'the world's living guide'. A Time Out version for Hong Kong
was launched in May 2008. Time Out Jakarta
was launched in December 2008. Events listings are complemented with articles, typically featuring celebrities appearing in one of the listed events. Many publications are in English. Weekly city guides are in local languages (e.g. the Athens guide is in Greek). The London edition costs £
2.99 per week (May 2009 prices) and has a circulation of 86,000 copies and a readership of 374,000 people (Jan-Jun 2003 figures). These figures are down from a record high of 110,496 achieved in Jan-June 1995. The Mexico City
edition was issued from November 2003 to early 2007 along with Chilango
magazine but was replaced by the magazine's own events guide, called Guía Chilango.
Whilst the London edition is solely owned by the Time Out Group, other editions are partly or wholly owned by other entities. For instance the ownership of a Chicago edition of the magazine that launched in March 2005 was split 50-50 between the group and Joe Mansueto
.
The Singapore edition is licensed out to in-flight magazine publishers Ink Publishing. The founder of Time Out Tony Elliott has said in an interview that he wants to expand to Los Angeles
and San Francisco once the Chicago venture has been fully launched. Other editions are not owned by the Time Out Group at all – for instance Time Out Mumbai is operated solely by a publisher licencing the Time Out brand. Some critics in the financial press have questioned whether this business model has allowed the Time Out brand to expand as quickly as it might have.
In addition to the magazines, Time Out publishes food, drink and restaurant guides for London
, New York City
, Dubai
and Paris
. For London, its core city, it has also published guides for students, shopping and health and fitness amongst others. Time Out also produces 48 travel guides to cities and regions around the world. The guides are published in the UK by Random House
. Although similar in style to other guides, such as those published by Lonely Planet
and Rough Guide, the Time Out guides tend to focus on more hip happenings in each city. Time Out was instrumental in bringing about specific listings for gay and lesbian readers, a formula followed now by similar publications.
Up until 2010 the group also published an annual film guide, Time Out Film Guide, this being a compendium of short reviews of all major film releases. The decision not to publish a new edition in 2011 ('Time Out Film Guide 2012') may well have heralded the end of the physical copy of the guide. The reviews which were contained in the guides can be found on the magazine's film home page as well.
as co-editor. The early issues had a print run of around 5,000. It began as an alternative magazine alongside other members of the underground press
in the UK, but by 1980 it abandoned its original collective decision making structure (and commitment to equal pay for all its workers), leading to the foundation of a competing City Limits magazine by former staffers. By now its former radicalism has all but vanished. As one example of its early editorial bent, in 1976 London's Time Out published the names of 60 purported CIA agents stationed in England.
In 2003, the group reported revenues of £25m and a profit of £228,000. Elliott remained the sole owner of the group until November 2010, when he sold a 50% stake to private equity group Oakley Capital, valuing the company at £20million.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England. The company's best known product is the Time Out weekly listings magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
.
The Time Out Group Limited conducts most of its business from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Publications
The Time Out Group Limited has expanded over the past 40 years to publish listings guides for other cities, travel guides, guides to specific aspects of cities (such as Eating and Drinking guides) and have established a similar presence onlineONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
.
The Time Out weekly listing magazines for a particular city contains information about events in film, theatre, fashion, literature and all other artistic events happening, as well as eat out and night out sections. A total of 60 editions are currently published --counting non-English editions-- including Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, Jerusalem, Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Saint-Petersburg, Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
, Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. On 25 March 2008, Time Out Kuala Lumpur launched in the Malaysian capital to become the 24th edition of the magazine known as 'the world's living guide'. A Time Out version for Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
was launched in May 2008. Time Out Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
was launched in December 2008. Events listings are complemented with articles, typically featuring celebrities appearing in one of the listed events. Many publications are in English. Weekly city guides are in local languages (e.g. the Athens guide is in Greek). The London edition costs £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
2.99 per week (May 2009 prices) and has a circulation of 86,000 copies and a readership of 374,000 people (Jan-Jun 2003 figures). These figures are down from a record high of 110,496 achieved in Jan-June 1995. The Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
edition was issued from November 2003 to early 2007 along with Chilango
Chilango (magazine)
Chilango is a Mexican monthly humouristic and entertainment magazine published by Grupo Expansión since November 2003 in Mexico City.-About the term Chilango:...
magazine but was replaced by the magazine's own events guide, called Guía Chilango.
Whilst the London edition is solely owned by the Time Out Group, other editions are partly or wholly owned by other entities. For instance the ownership of a Chicago edition of the magazine that launched in March 2005 was split 50-50 between the group and Joe Mansueto
Joe Mansueto
Joseph D. Mansueto is the founder and CEO of Morningstar, Inc.. In 2011, his majority ownership of Morningstar gained him inclusion on the Forbes World's Billionaires list, with a net worth at time of publication of $1.6 billion....
.
The Singapore edition is licensed out to in-flight magazine publishers Ink Publishing. The founder of Time Out Tony Elliott has said in an interview that he wants to expand to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and San Francisco once the Chicago venture has been fully launched. Other editions are not owned by the Time Out Group at all – for instance Time Out Mumbai is operated solely by a publisher licencing the Time Out brand. Some critics in the financial press have questioned whether this business model has allowed the Time Out brand to expand as quickly as it might have.
In addition to the magazines, Time Out publishes food, drink and restaurant guides for London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. For London, its core city, it has also published guides for students, shopping and health and fitness amongst others. Time Out also produces 48 travel guides to cities and regions around the world. The guides are published in the UK by Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
. Although similar in style to other guides, such as those published by Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
and Rough Guide, the Time Out guides tend to focus on more hip happenings in each city. Time Out was instrumental in bringing about specific listings for gay and lesbian readers, a formula followed now by similar publications.
Up until 2010 the group also published an annual film guide, Time Out Film Guide, this being a compendium of short reviews of all major film releases. The decision not to publish a new edition in 2011 ('Time Out Film Guide 2012') may well have heralded the end of the physical copy of the guide. The reviews which were contained in the guides can be found on the magazine's film home page as well.
History
The original magazine, with listings for London, was first published in 1968 by Tony Elliott with Bob HarrisBob Harris (radio)
Robert Brinley Joseph "Bob" Harris, OBE , known as "Whispering" Bob Harris, is British radio host who currently works for BBC Radio 2, presenting music two nights a week...
as co-editor. The early issues had a print run of around 5,000. It began as an alternative magazine alongside other members of the underground press
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
in the UK, but by 1980 it abandoned its original collective decision making structure (and commitment to equal pay for all its workers), leading to the foundation of a competing City Limits magazine by former staffers. By now its former radicalism has all but vanished. As one example of its early editorial bent, in 1976 London's Time Out published the names of 60 purported CIA agents stationed in England.
In 2003, the group reported revenues of £25m and a profit of £228,000. Elliott remained the sole owner of the group until November 2010, when he sold a 50% stake to private equity group Oakley Capital, valuing the company at £20million.
Currently published editions
- Abu Dhabi
- Almaty
- Amsterdam
- Bahrain
- Bangkok
- Barcelona
- Beijing
- Beirut
- Bangalore
- Berlin
- Boston
- Bucharest
- Buenos Aires
- Cape Town
- Chicago
- Cyprus
- Delhi
- Doha
- Dubai
- Dublin
- Dubrovnik
- Edinburgh
- Hong Kong
- Israel
- Istanbul
- Krasnoyarsk
- Kyoto
- Kuala Lumpur
- Las Vegas
- Lisbon
- London
- Los Angeles
- Madrid
- Manchester
- Melbourne
- Miami
- Milan
- Moscow
- Mumbai
- New York
- Naples
- Nice
- Novosibirsk
- Omsk
- Paris
- Porto
- Prague
- Rome
- San Francisco
- São Paulo
- Shanghai
- Singapore
- Split
- St Petersburg
- Stockholm
- Sydney
- Tel Aviv
- Tokyo
- Toronto
- Tyumen
- Vancouver
- Venice
- Zagreb