US media and marketing group Meredith Corp on Wednesday said it was seeking a buyer for four magazines, including Time and Sports Illustrated, which it acquired less than four months ago.
The company also announced a savings plan that would allow it to reduce its annual spending by US$400 million to US$500 million over the first two years, following its US$2.8 billion acquisition of Time Inc in January.
The plan includes cutting 1,200 jobs, on top of 600 positions already removed to reduce the group’s operating costs.
Following a strategic review, Meredith decided to sell off Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money. It said it has received some interest, without offering further details.
“That was the plan all along I think,” said analyst Craig Huber, who follows Meredith at Huber Research Partners. “Meredith has never liked the weekly magazine business because the editorial content gets stale very quickly.”
Newsweek and US News & World Report were each sold for US$10 million or less, Huber said, adding that he expects Meredith would not get much more for the titles it just put up for sale “unless some rich family wants to own them for vanity reasons.”
According to Time Inc’s 2016 annual report, both Time and Sports Illustrated had a circulation of 3 million, compared with 1.55 million for Money and 830,000 for Fortune.
Meredith is to retain Time Inc’s most popular title, People magazine. Other titles in Time Inc’s portfolio when the deal with Meredith was struck included niche magazines such as Southern Living, which focuses on life in the southern US.
Among the funding obtained by Meredith to take over Time Inc was US$650 million lent by Koch Equity Development — owned by billionaire brothers and significant Republican party donors Charles and David Koch. At the time, the company said the pair would have no editorial influence.
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