Spring Cleaning: Time Warner Tossing Magazines into Separate Unit

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Following a break-off in talks with the Meredith Corp., Time Warner will concentrate on its film and cable tv units and separate its financially beleaguered Time, Inc. magazine unit into a separate entity, the New York Times reported this week.

Reportedly, talks between the two media conglomerates concerning creation of a company that would have combined many of Time, Inc.'s stable of 23 magazines with Meredith's periodicals collapsed because the two sides couldn't agree on the fate of Time, Inc.'s London-based IPC Media and over Meredith's lukewarm interest in Time's flagship magazines, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Time and Money, according to the Times article.

Arithmetic is the motivation for the Time Warner decision, as in the Fourth Quarter of 2012, Time, Inc. suffered a 7 percent loss in revenue to $967 million, while over the same period, Time Warner's cable holdings gained 5 percent in revenue to $3.67 billion. Time, Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher, said last month it would pare its 8,000-member workforce by 6 percent (see "TUOL" post 1/31/13).

Declining advertising revenues and shrinking circulation have plagued the magazine industry overall, as this ever-modest blog first reported rumblings by Time Warner about disgorging its red-ink pumping magazine units four years ago (see "TUOL" post 9/28/09).

Time Warner Eying Periodical Divestiture in U.K.

Image via WikipediaA shake-up by Time Warner of its IPC Media holdings may be in the offing, reports The Telegraph, which may include the sale of  groups of magazines or individual titles.

Time Warner paid venture capitalist Cinvin $1.7 billion in 2001 to acquire IPC, the U.K.'s largest magazine group. (See "TUOL" post 8/23/10.) In a restructuring last April, IPC was reduced to three divisions from five.  Among the Time Warner-owned periodicals are Horse & Hound and fashion magazine Marie Claire.

Time Warner Ditching UK Periodicals?

Image via WikipediaThe New York Post reports that Ipc Media, Great Britain's largest magazine group, is undergoing a strategic review by parent Time Warner that will lead to the jettisoning of some niche titles and the possible unloading of the entire magazine division.

Time Warner acquired Ipc Media  in 2001 for $1.7 billion from venture capitalist Cinven. Reportedly, niche periodicals Railway, Guitar & Bass and Web User are already slated to be sold and Loaded may be unloaded to Vitality Publishing.

Industry observers say it's not outside the realm of possibility that Time Warner will get out entirely from under the financial strain of owning the magazine group. Ipc titles include Horse & Hound, Now, Chat, Look, and Nuts.