Advance Publications, owner of publishing companies Conde Nast and Fairchild, is expected to announce as early as today that it will buy Golf Digest and three other golf titles from the New York Times Co. for more than $350 million.
    The four publications represent the remainder of the Times Co.’s magazine holdings aside from newspaper supplements.
    The unit Advance will acquire also includes Golf for Women competitor Golf Digest Woman, as well as 13 golf schools and an internet division, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported last week that the Times Co. had put its magazines up for sale.
    Besides Advance, the company also reportedly tried to interest Time Inc. in the titles. Talks with Time Inc. weren’t expected to yield a deal, though, as the company is just coming off last fall’s $475 million acquisition of Times Mirror Magazines, a group that includes the 1.4 million-circulation Golf Magazine.
    The New York Times was among the other bidders for Times Mirror Magazines, teaming up with National Enquirer publisher American Media in a joint bid.
    Golf Digest, with a rate base of 1.55 million, is the largest title in the category by circulation. It’s also the advertising leader, with 1,507.11 ad pages and $161 million in advertising revenue last year, compared to 1,441.12 pages and $121 million for Golf Magazine.
    The Times Co. has been reducing the size of its magazine group for years. In 1994, it sold women’s magazines McCall’s and Family Circle to current owners Gruner & Jahr USA. Three years later it dumped sports titles Sailing and Tennis.
    The company indicated that it planned to hang onto the golf magazines, however. But with powerhouse Time Inc., publisher of Time, People and Sports Illustrated, now in the golf game, it’s thought that Times Co. executives finally felt it was time to move on.
    Advance, meanwhile, seems to be on something of a mini spending spree. 
   The company, which is owned by the Newhouse family, is reportedly on the verge of acquiring Mode, the four-year-old fashion and beauty magazine for full-figured women. Publisher Tracy Franklin and editor in chief Corynne Corbett have both resigned, although neither has left the company yet.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life

Printer-Friendly Version |  Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us

© 2001 Media Life