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Walt Disney Co. may finally be ready to sell Los Angeles magazine. Six months ago, Disney, under mounting pressure from stockholders, sold off Fairchild Publications, which puts out fashion titles W and Women’s Wear Daily, as well as a variety of trades. The buyer was S.I. Newhouse’s Advance Publications, parent of Conde Nast. At the time, Disney decided to keep Los Angeles despite the magazine’s marginal success, arousing widespread speculation. Some said Disney wanted to prevent the magazine from leaving Burbank, Calif.; others said the company just desired to keep Los Angeles from joining the chorus of media voices criticizing Disney. Disney officially said that it felt the magazine fit in with its other entertainment-related holdings. Whatever the reason, Disney heads are apparently reconsidering the decision, and are reportedly floating the magazine to would-be buyers for upwards of $30 million. Potential purchasers include Primedia Inc., which publishes New York and Seventeen magazines, and the Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications Corp.
GQ ups rate base with P.O.V. subscriber list
GQ has snapped up P.O.V. magazine’s list of 340,000 subscribers, announced Conde Nast yesterday. P.O.V. won’t be needing the list anymore, as the small men’s lifestyle monthly closed earlier this month after only five years in operation. Your loss is our gain, says GQ, which also announced it will raise its rate base from 700,000 to 750,000 in June on the strength of the acquisition. Though GQ’s ad sales growth has been markedly slower than that of competitor Maxim—GQ boosted ad revenue only 4.3 percent last year, compared to Maxim’s 211 percent hike—it remains the leader in the men’s category. Its 1999 sales of $92 million were nearly twice those of closest rivals Esquire and Maxim. Drew Massey, founder of P.O.V., has said that he believes GQ and Esquire to be in a different category than "young men’s" titles such as Maxim, P.O.V., and Details. However, P.O.V.’s median reader age is the same as GQ’s—31—according to numbers supplied by Conde Nast.
Oxygen Media and MSN in ad deal
Oxygen Media, just weeks away from the
launching of its cable network, has entered into an advertising agreement with Hotmail,
the Microsoft-owned web-based email service. The agreement will give Oxygen premier
placement in the Hotmail Women's newsletter. Oxygen will also be an anchor tenant within
Hotmail's Health and Fitness category and its Teen category. The agreement also means
Oxygen will provide content for the Hotmail Web Courier, a service that sends free
newsletters out three times a week to Hotmail's 45 million subscribers. The Oxygen content
will derive from its online properties, which include Girls On, Moms Online, Breakup Girl,
Oprah.com, and Thrive Online. Oxygen Media was founded in 1998 by Geraldine Laybourne in
partnership with Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Caryn Mandabach and Oprah Winfrey. The Oxygen
cable network is scheduled to launch Feb. 2.