Tony Elliott, Whose Time Out Clued Readers In, Dies at 73

Tony Elliott, who started the Time Out global publishing empire in his mother’s London kitchen in 1968 with a capital investment of 70 pounds and a simple idea — tell people where they can see the right movie or band, or find a haircut or a falafel — died on July 16 in London. He was 73.

The cause was lung cancer, his wife, Jane Elliott, confirmed.

From its first issue, in 1968 — a single poster-size sheet, folded four times, that functioned as a guide to the local counterculture — Mr. Elliott’s creation grew into a worldwide enterprise, with businesses in 327 cities and 58 countries, including close to 50 magazines devoted to particular cities. Its websites draw 63 million unique visitors per month, said Julio Bruno, chief executive officer of Time Out Group.

“His thing was, ‘I had one idea, but it was a good one,’” Ms. Elliott said.

Mr. Elliott, who left college to start the business, was an accidental tycoon whose idea arrived at a ripe moment — when the cultural map was shifting too quickly for the established news media to keep up, and people not in the know needed guidance from those who were.

“If you were in the in crowd, you knew,” Ms. Elliott said. “If you weren’t, that’s what Tony provided.”

Through the hippie, punk and cyberculture eras, the magazines championed fringe theater, cheap eats, family activities and occasional politics. They were also among the first in the mainstream press to cover gay life, and an early column, Meet the Fuzz, listed forthcoming demonstrations and political activities.

Mr. Elliott felt that the original magazine should be part of the world it covered; Time Out’s first office was in the basement of the home of Pink Floyd’s keyboard player, Rick Wright, Ms. Elliott said.