The 132-year-old Hearst Corporation is arguably the world’s oldest multi-media group as a 19th century newspaper publisher which invested in magazines and movies before Rupert Murdoch was born. It also has a fair claim to be the best. Not because it has consistently been the most successful in any or all of its chosen media…
Can Time Out make it?
Exactly three years ago, Time Out magazine promoted its £145m IPO by telling would-be investors that the UK’s star fund manager Neil Woodford would be buying shares. It was a prize endorsement from the celebrated stock-picker whose £32m investment ultimately accounted for 35% of the £90m raised by the IPO. But the price was at…
Euromoney prepares for pricing deals
It is 50 years since the ground-breaking Euromoney magazine was launched by the UK’s Daily Mail Group whose finance editor Patrick Sergeant had predicted the expansion of international banking as a result of the UK’s relaxed foreign exchange regulations. Euromoney championed the boom and became the leading magazine of the financial wholesale markets. The £6,200…
Meredith completes mags sell-off. Just
Meredith Corp, of the US, has sold the intellectual property of Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands for $110m, lower than the $150-200m it had reportedly been looking for after seeking a buyer for almost a year since it was acquired as part of Time Inc. Authentic Brand (AB)s is a brand licensing company. In a…
Who wants ‘all you can read’?
As sales of iphones, ipads and macbooks slow, Apple is is rapidly moving into the content business. Its video streaming challenger to Netflix is coming soon. But first comes Apple News+, the revamped Apple News which incorporates Texture (“the Netflix of magazines”) which was acquired last year from publishers Condé Nast, Rogers Media, Meredith, and Hearst….
BandLab buys NME in “£7m deal”
Singapore-based music-making platform BandLab Technologies, which last year acquired Guitar and MusicTech magazines, is increasing its investment in media by buying New Musical Express (NME) and Uncut from TI Media (formerly Time Inc UK). NME was one of the UK’s oldest music weeklies and (copying America’s Billboard) became the first to publish the record charts…
Why Discovery bought a magazine
Discovery Inc, of the US, has acquired the monthly magazine Golf Digest from Condé Nast in a deal estimated to be worth $30-35m. Discovery is making a push into golf entertainment with a 12-year, $2bn PGA Tour contract, a content deal with resurgent champion Tiger Woods, and its GolfTV streaming service which offers instruction, equipment…
How Axel Springer changed everything
The Berlin-based Axel Springer is selling its 51% share in the @Leisure Group, of Amsterdam, a rental company which offers more than 100,000 holiday homes across 50 countries. The buyer is OYO Hotels & Homes which is paying Springer €180m – equivalent to 15 x EBITDA – for the company which generated €24m profit in…
What next for David Pecker?
American Media Inc (AMI) has sold the 93-year-old sensationalist US tabloid the National Enquirer, along with the National Examiner and The Globe, to James Cohen, former owner of Hudson newsstands in US airports and rail stations. The price was $100m. The brands reportedly generate almost $30m of EBITDA (about 25% of AMI’s total profit), although…
Classy problems at The Economist
The Economist this week appointed Lara Boro, CEO of Informa Intelligence and former boss of Middle East Economic Digest (MEED), to succeed Chris Stibbs who has been CEO for the past six years. The Economist is the UK-based media company whose 175-year-old eponymous weekly “newspaper ” is widely hailed as a post-digital success with its brilliantly…
