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as interesting as that is ................ and hope they can resurrect a decent FR .............
............... I find this announcement even more interesting
The new CEO of brightsolid online publishing, from today known as DC Thomson Family History, has announced a new strategy and organisation structure.
Annelies van den Belt has revealed that the business will be renamed DC Thomson Family History, to align with its Dundee-based media company owner and to focus on its core business, leading digital family history brands: findmypast and Genes Reunited.
The core focus on the family history market means that Friends Reunited will be re-incubated elsewhere in the DC Thomson Group.
Van den Belt said: “We’re operating in a competitive marketplace, and I’m confident that this restructure will allow us to focus on what we do well – and to do more of it. The proposed changes are designed to make our business scalable and agile creating a “lean, mean family history machine”.
“At the heart of this name change and new structure is the recognition that we are a global digital family history business, headquartered in Shoreditch, supported by centres of excellence in London, Dundee, Sydney, Dublin and Boston. The new structure will go hand-in-hand with a new name, DC Thomson Family History. In my view this name reflects all that we stand for – our core strength is family history and we are an integral part of a long-standing family business.
“Building on the knowledge and experience within the company there are some very clear and exciting opportunities in this fast moving market. ”
DC Thomson Family History owns findmypast and Genes Reunited – two of the largest genealogy businesses in Europe – and recently launched in the US. The company has successfully developed partnerships with a host of major cultural and historical institutions that are digitising and making available parts of their archives, including the Imperial War Museum, The National Archives and The British Library.
Chairman Richard Hall said: “Our strategy is to lead the way in the family history market, creating a single scalable organisation, driving value more efficiently from our technology platform, data assets and partnerships, building a single customer view and delivering more customer-focused product development.”
- See more at: http://www.brightsolid.com/brightsolid-group/latest-news/recent-news/the-future-for-family-history-is-digital.html#sthash.JxN5vXw0.dpuf
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oh yes, Friends Reunited - such a wonderful thing! cost me my husband,son and home when an old "girlfriend" was found
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Just been and had a dekko .
Its still a load of ........ :-P
Found I could access my GR Tree from FR and, its in the old format. (nice)
I added a recent death date whilst there, came back on here ,checked and yes it had added the date here also.
:-D
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In case you missed this.
Friends Reunited to be restructured
DC Thomson will run site as a standalone business with possible outside investment as digital division focuses on genealogy
Mark Sweney
theguardian.com, Wednesday 2 October 2013 16.23 BST
Friends Reuinted
Friends Reunited, which was bought by DC Thomson for £25m in 2009, may be run as a standalone business with outside investment
Beano publisher DC Thomson is considering strategic options for social media site Friends Reunited, including bringing in an outside investor and "re-incubating" it as a standalone business.
The move follows a review of DC Thomson's digital division Brightsolid, which is home to Friends Reunited, carried out by new senior executive Annelies van den Belt.
Van den Belt, the ex-News UK and ITV senior executive, joined at the end of August as chief executive of DC Thomson division Bright Solid Online Publishing.
She said that BSOP will focus on its genealogy properties, which include findmypast.co.uk and successful Friends Reunited sub-brand genesreunited.co.uk, with the Shoreditch-based division renamed as DC Thomson Family History to become a "lean, mean family history machine".
As part of the restructure, Friends Reunited, which it acquired from ITV in 2009 for a cut-price £25m, is to be "re-incubated" as a separate business.
Van den Belt said DC Thomson remained "committed" to running the once-powerful social networking site, but that the "next phase" is best served by putting more focus on it as a standalone operation.
She said Friends Reunited, which ITV paid £170m for in 2005 only to find it rapidly outpaced by the inexorable rise of Facebook and other social networks, still has plenty of potential.
"The idea of re-incubation is you get more air, more light to develop it with an outside team [separate to DC Thomson Family History] that can look at different platforms in an agile environment," she said. "It has strong brand equity, huge data on schools and millions of users both in the UK and internationally. It is still a very valuable proposition."
Van den Belt said she has held talks with a "couple of interested parties" elsewhere within the Dundee-based media company about finding a home for Friends Reunited.
She also said that the company might look to bring in an external investor, but that no talks or approaches are in progress at this stage, and that DC Thomson is "committed to staying with Friends Reunited".
One internal possibility could be to hive Friends Reunited into IDEALondon, the innovation "hot house" established at London's Tech City as a joint venture by DC Thomson, Cisco and UCL.
The venture aims to host about 25 digital and media companies supporting those "championed by one of the key partners", which could make Friends Reunited a candidate.
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