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Courtesy of BoSacks & The Precision Media Group
America's Oldest e-newsletter est.1993
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Everything I have is for sale, except for my kids and possibly my wife.
Carl Icahn
Dateline: Charlottesville, Va
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Money Magazine Is No Longer for Sale, and It's Going Digital Only
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Are billionaires growing bored of buying media brands?
www.adweek.com/
Big changes are in store for Money magazine: it's ceasing print publication and will be going digital-only, as owner Meredith has decided against selling the brand.
"We are going to invest in the digital
money.com brand site itself as well as leverage the Money content across our portfolio," a Meredith spokesperson said in an email. The magazine's June/July print issue will be its last. The decision came after execs reevaluated what the brand would be worth as a digital-only property versus selling it, the spokesperson said.
Total unique visitors to
money.com have wavered over the last two years, according to comScore, and peaked at 11.5 million visitors in February 2018. Last month, the most recent data available, the site attracted 5.2 million visitors.
The magazine was put up for sale not long after Meredith completed its massive acquisition of Time Inc. at the beginning of 2018, when executives decided to secure new owners for a handful of brands they inherited and prioritize other lifestyle titles in the portfolio.
Meredith executives had previously said they hoped all sales of the former Time Inc. brands would be finalized by the
end of summer last year; they later revised their timeframe to the
end of last year.
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Meredith has said it would use the money to pay down debts accrued in its $2.8 billion Time Inc. acquisition.
While
billionaires have been quick to buy up those other brands, and media organizations like The Washington Post (Jeff Bezos) or attract big investments like in The Atlantic (from Laurene Powell Jobs through Emerson Collective), today's news calls into question whether Money had the same kind of allure and dazzle to attract such similar star power.
Sports Illustrated, which Meredith is still selling, was
rumored to be eyed by a group of athletes, but no sale has been confirmed. The Meredith spokesperson said the company was still working with interested parties on selling the brand. He didn't give an updated timeline on when it might be completed.
Several other magazine titles were put up for sale last year-or at least were touted as being
explored for a potential sale. Those include Condé Nast's Brides, W and Golf Digest, in addition to the brands Meredith had put forth.
Meredith hasn't shied away from reducing-or eliminating-a magazine's print product before. Last year,
executives decided to only print special newsstand issues for Cooking Light and Coastal Living. Hearst also eliminated print production for Redbook and Seventeen and Condé Nast did the same with Glamour's print product.
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COMMENTARY
'Sports Illustrated' Loses TPG As Potential Buyer, 2 Major Bidders Still In Running
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TPG Capital, the $103 billion private-equity firm that owns talent and sports agency Creative Artists Agency, withdrew from the bidding fray for
Sports Illustrated, according to the
New York Post.
The sports magazine best known for its swimsuit issue has been on the block since last year. Publisher Meredith Corp. acquired the title with its $2.8 billion takeover of Time Inc. in January 2018.
Jon Miller, a former executive at AOL and News Corp., was
leading the possible bid by TPG, whose internet and media investments also include Airbnb, Hotwire, Ipsy, Lynda.com, RentPath, SurveyMonkey, TES Global and Uber. TPG will have a chance to cash in on its investment in Uber when the ride-hailing company goes public later this year.
Last year, Meredith announced plans to sell
Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Timeand
Money.
Time and
Fortune were sold quickly to private investors, while
SIand
Money have been in limbo.
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Meredith originally sought $150 million for
SI and has held firm on that asking price.
Two other bidders are said to be in the running for
SI, including former Milwaukee Bucks star Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman. He built a fortune with investments in fast-food franchising and Coca-Cola bottling.
News Corp. also is considering a bid for
SI, but is more interested in
FanSided,its digital property, per the
NYP.
Like many print publications,
SI has seen a steady decline in readership and advertising as audiences shifted their reading habits to digital media. The magazine had a weekly print circulation of 3.1 million in 2010, but cut its frequency to biweekly last year as ad pages dwindled.
The top sports websites include traditional media brands, like ESPN, CBS Sports, Fox Sports and
The Sporting News, and digital newcomers such as Verizon Media's Yahoo! Sports, Turner's
Bleacher Report, Vox Media's
SBNationand
Yardbarker.
The problem with sports programming is the average age of its viewership; it keeps rising as younger audiences lose interest in sports. Athletic participation for kids has dropped in the past decade, while other forms of entertainment, such as streaming video, social media and esports, are gaining the attention of younger audiences, according to IPG Media Lab.
Those trends are likely to suppress the value of any sports-related brand, including media properties like
SI.
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"The Industry that Vents Together Stays Together"
Responses to all Articles and Bo-Rants are greatly encouraged
and may be included in " BoSacks Readers Speak Out"
All news items and the various opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the opinion of, nor in agreement with the opinions of BoSacks. They are just interesting thoughts and other opinions that BoSacks thinks you should know about.
After all, as the Japanese proverb goes:
"If you believe everything you read, perhaps you better not read."
"Heard on the Web" Media Intelligence:
Courtesy of The Precision Media Group.
Print, Publishing and Media Consultants
193 Brookwood Drive, Charlottesville VA 22902
www.bosacks.com
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