40 000­–member strong online community MacTalk has been bought out by Niche Media, publishers of Marketing mag, for an undisclosed amount. Niche Media will assume operation of MacTalk from June 24.

 As part of the deal, MacTalk co-founder and editor Anthony Agius will continue to assist Niche in running the site for a three-month hand-over period.

"While I'm selling MacTalk to move on to other things, I'm excited about MacTalk's future. It will be great to see MacTalk harness the skills and experience of Niche," Agius says.

“There were many bidders for MacTalk,” he adds, “but ultimately, I decided to pass MacTalk on to Niche because they are one of the few, perhaps the only publisher who can take MacTalk further, whilst being true to it roots.??“Niche has been in the Apple sphere for over 20 years. No other group in Australia has. Niche understands and loves Apple. MacTalk's uniqueness and community, combined with Niche's skills in the publishing industry, mean that MacTalk can grow and prosper.”

Niche Media has been across the Apple and Mac publishing market for over 20 years, originally publishing MacNews. In 1994 Niche Media bought the publishing rights to MacUser and combined the two titles. In 1997, Niche Media was offered the publishing rights to Macworld Australia.

MacTalk joins a growing stable of Apple related publications brought out by Niche Media – the hugely successful Macworld Australia magazine and the newly released publication touch, Asia-Pacific’s only iPad, iPhone and iPod magazine for both the PC and Mac market.

All three brands will form a new Consumer Tech Division under Niche Media. The three will co-exist while continuing to be separate and strong brands, run by an experienced and passionate team of tech journalists and Apple enthusiasts. Niche Media is now ?the No.1 publisher in the Apple/Mac market.

The new structure sees Liana Pappas become Publisher across the division. Dave Bullard is now Editor-in-Chief, assisted by two full-time editorial staff and a team of top contributors across the brands. Content across the three brands will remain separate, with MacTalk continuing to run under the MacTalk brand.

“Despite Niche Media taking over MacTalk, we will continue running the site the way it currently runs. It will not merge with Macworld Australia,” Pappas says. “The community is a huge reason for the success of MacTalk. Over the past few months we’ve been reading what the community has to say in regards to design and functionality, so we’ll be taking all of this into account and work closely with Anthony to bring in a fresh new design. We’ll also continue with the contributors currently involved with MacTalk.”

After the hand-over period, Agius will re-asses his involvement with MacTalk.

“We’ve had many discussions, and it will ultimately be Anthony’s final decision,” Pappas says. “However, we’d love to have Anthony as a regular part of MacTalk for many years to come.”

MacTalk was initially listed for sale on the Flippa.com website, but the deal between MacTalk and Niche was done off the site, from early March to mid-June.

About MacTalk Media ?MacTalk (http://mactalk.com.au) is Australia's largest Apple online community, consisting of over 40,000 members. It started in 2004 and has grown over time to be the place Australian Apple fans discuss and learn about their passion.

About Niche Media?Niche Media is a rapidly growing publishing house based in Melbourne,  Australia. Among its titles are Architectural Review, Desktop, Facility Management, HeliNews, Inside, Macworld Australia, Marketing, MoneySaver, touch and the Welcome To travel series. In addition to publishing targeted, market leading titles for over 20 years, it also runs two successful industry events – IDEA and Create Awards – and provides custom publishing services.