YachtsandYachting.com and Sail-World.com join forces

Sail-World NZ will continue to be NZ owned and operated SW

YY Online Services Ltd., the publishers of YachtsandYachting.com, have announced the purchase of Sail-World.com at the London Boat Show.

There will be no change in the way Sail-World New Zealand operates, except for enhancements emanating from the expanded group. Content is expected to improve further, and duplicated content can now be eliminated between the Y&Y and other sites. Ownership of the Sail-World New Zealand region will remain in New Zealand. The move was signalled to advertisers in New Zealand some two months ago.

Sail-World NZ has been operating in New Zealand for over 10 years. Its Editor, Richard Gladwell has been covering sailing since 1983, and was accredited as a photographer and also functioned as a web journalist at the 2010 America's Cup (Valencia), the 2013 America's Cup (San Francisco), the 2008 Olympics (Qingdao) and 2012 Olympics (Weymouth) and is in the final stages of accreditation for the 2016 Olympics (Rio de Janeiro).

Sail-World is the largest sailing news network in the world, with over 20 websites running from a single content management system. The sites attract over 300,000 unique visitors per month and 650,000 visits. According to the independent rating agency, Sail-World.com is the most popular sailing website in the world.

YachtsandYachting.com and Sail-World.com have both been running for over 20 years and have organically grown in their regions to provide the very latest in sailboat racing news and the best editorial content. While YachtsandYachting.com has a majority UK readership, Sail-World.com has built a huge audience in Australia, North America, New Zealand, Asia and Europe.

Mark Jardine, Managing Director of YY Online Services said, 'Combining these two great resources into a single organisation will provide the best sailing news network on the planet. There have been many parallels in the growth of the two sites, but very little overlap in readership due to domination in respective territories. Each site has utilised different methods for getting the latest news to readers, and we aim to bring together the best practice from each website to make both stronger.'

Sail-World.com has a worldwide network of editors, including highly respected writer Richard Gladwell of Sail-World New Zealand who said about the merger, 'It's a great combination, Mark and his YachtsandYachting.com team lead the way in the dinghy scene and we have strengths with Olympics, America's Cup and major offshore events and between us we lead the pace on major issues and events. I am especially looking forward to seeing a forum for our combined audiences.'

'We will continue to offer our advertisers strong editorial support and access to the UK market will open a raft of opportunities for NZ companies,' he added.

Sail-World Asia's Guy Nowell agreed, 'Sail-World is already a great 24/7 world-wide network. Now with YachtsandYachting.com's large UK audience and the combined technology and resources, it's a great step forward.'

The next few months will see the technologies behind the two websites start to combine and the editorial content of both sites increase.

Companies interested in reaching the global audience of the Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com network should contact Richard Gladwell on nzeditor@sail-world.com - phone 021 30 10 30 or Colin Preston nzsales@sail-world.com