Robinson sells JancisRobinson.com

By Lisa Riley

Published: 31 August, 2021

Jancis Robinson has sold JancisRobinson.com to Recurrent Ventures, for an undisclosed sum.

Robinson said that JancisRobinson.com had reached a size that was “really quite difficult for our small team to manage – especially from the tech and administrative point of view”.

Robinson added the team, which comprises 17 employees including regular contributors, was “inordinately proud” of how popular and successful the website had been to date.

Noticeably, without any marketing effort on the subscription-focussed title’s part, it has increased membership of its Purple Pages every year, recording members in more than 80 countries at its last count.

“Conscious of my age and the need to assure an even brighter future for the site, and wanting to continue to improve it, I am delighted to announce that we have found the ideal partners to help shepherd JancisRobinson.com to its next chapter,” said Robinson.

“As of today we are part of Recurrent Ventures, an innovative, US-based digital media company. I have no intention whatsoever of retiring. I shall continue to work my socks off doing the things I really enjoy: tasting and writing about wine, and travelling to the extent that is possible in this pandemic-restricted era. I just won’t have to worry about the less-interesting (to me) aspects of running the company.”

Founded in 2018, brands owned by Recurrent include Saveur, Popular Science, Domino, MEL, Outdoor Life, The Drive, Field & Stream, Bob Vila and Task & Purpose.

Together, the brands have a combined audience of more than 45 million monthly unique visitors.

Robinson added: “Unlike us, Recurrent is extremely focused on tech. Together we are keen to make your experience of JancisRobinson.com as smooth and rewarding as possible. We look forward to continuing to improve the site.

“The only difference to our superlative team is that it is likely to be expanded. Our values of integrity, authenticity, independence and trustworthiness remain the same and will be zealously guarded."