Over its 61 year history, the company has been forced to tackle many crisises such as recession, the challenge of free newspapers and the emergence of new technology.

But in the end it was demands of the big institutional shareholders, forever wanting bigger returns for their investment in a highly challenging market, that has brought down the Emap empire.

Faced with changing faces at the top – the chief executive's slot was never filled after the departures of first Kevin Hand and then Tom Maloney – and a strategy that failed to bring satisfactory growth.

Indeed, last November the company announced a 16 per cent fall in profits.

Now the a large chunk of the business is poised for life under German ownership. Perhaps this mirrors the changing business environment, which has moved away from the local to the global.

Read more:
Feature: Emap: Story of the city publishing giant 1947 - 2008
The story of city publishing giant Emap and its sale to German publisher Bauer in January 2008.
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How they voted

Resolution 1: To authorise the disposal of Emap's consumer media business: Votes for: 110,441,374 – 97.95 per cent of vote, votes against: 566,236 – 0.50 per cent of vote, votes withheld: 1,745,341 – 1.55 per cent of vote.

Resolution 2: To authorise the disposal of Emap's Radio business

Votes for: 110,437,474 – 97.95 per cent of vote, votes against: 569,509 – 0.50 per cent of vote, votes withheld: 1,745,968 – 1.55 per cent of vote.
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Emap was a British-created company and owes it beginnings to the vision and energy of one local family – the Winfreys.

Sir Richard Winfrey's decision to buy the Spalding Guardian in 1847 was the catalyst which paved the way for the construction of this empire, which for 61 years was a defining feature of the Peterborough business scene, and which saw three generations of the Winfrey family at its helm. That connection was effectively brought to an end with the 50th anniversary of the company in 1997 with the retirement of Richard Winfrey as deputy chairman. However, he did remain as chairman of the company's pension fund trustees until the fund was sold to Paternoster last year.

In 1947, it was decided to create EMAP – a public company with a stock exchange quotation – with the merger of five regional newspapers which had all been started or nurtured to promote the Liberal political interest. The political focus of the business faded with the end of the war. But it was replaced with a new focus – to build a bigger and better business.

Just six years later, Emap was expanding its business operations into magazines with the founding of Angling times in 1953. It was quickly followed by MotorCycle News and then Garden News.