The Mega Agency launched its newly-signed syndication deal with American Media Inc. (AMI), one of America’s biggest publishers, with world-wide coverage of the first wedding of Prince Harry’s new girlfriend Meghan Markle.
Newspapers, magazines and websites across the world ran exclusive photographs of the American actress’s 2011 Jamaican beach wedding to producer Trevor Engelson.
In the UK, there were big shows in the Mail on Sunday, the Sun on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Mail Online, Sun Online, Heat and OK! magazines and on the ITV show Loose Women.
The photographs also ran in Germany’s daily newspaper, Bild, and Gala, Bunte, Das Neue, Frau in Spiegel, and Das neue Blatt magazines; Italy’s Gente magazine; and Australian weekly, Woman’s Day.
Mega’s Chief Content Officer David Leigh said he was delighted Mega had secured the syndication deal with AMI, whose publications include the National Enquirer, Globe, Star, OK! Radar Online, and a number of fitness and health magazines, with a combined circulation of more than 2.3 million.
AMI’s digital properties reach an average of 50 million unique visitors and over 350 million page views monthly. The National Enquirer’s UK edition was last year named “Magazine of the Year” in the UK’s National Federation of Retail Newsagent Awards. The year prior, The Enquirer won the ACE Press Award for the Best International Publication delivered in all of Britain.
Leigh, Mega’s Chief Operating Officer Paul Tetley, and Mega founder and President Kevin Smith have all previously worked closely with AMI’s Chief Content Officer and Vice President Dylan Howard.
Said Howard: “Our team of dogged reporters and investigators around the world are excited to embark on the MEGA journey.
“As a company, American Media remains committed to supporting MEGA and all our content partners as the publishing industry evolves. These stakeholders are the best of the best — particularly Kevin, Paul and David who all mirror the insatiable appetite that we have, as a company, to deliver our readers compelling and exclusive content.”
Added Leigh: “It’s great to be syndicating material from a publisher which has broken so many hugely significant news stories over the years.
“Tiger Woods, O.J. Simpson, Charlie Sheen...the list of stories goes on and on. Most notably, the Enquirer received Pulitzer Prize consideration for its story on the John Edwards sex scandal, that caused the downfall of the former US presidential hopeful.”
Tom Tramborg, Mega CEO, added: “The AMI team gets great content and we’re delighted to form this strategic partnership with AMI, syndicating their content. By combining MEGA's expertise and leveraging our innovative platform and technology, we will secure performance and a wider spread of AMI's amazing and unique content, presenting an even more exciting content mix for our growing costumer base.” And added “If there are other publishers out there who are looking for an agency to syndicate their material, we’d love to talk to you.”
Mega, a state-of-the-art media agency selling visual content directly in 15 countries across the globe, has signed a number of partnership deals with widely-respected picture agencies, including Bauer-Griffin, whose hundreds of thousands of images and videos are being syndicated worldwide.