TIMES MIRROR MAGAZINE GROUP RELIEVED BY PURCHASE

By: Lisa Granatstein Time Inc. Has No Plans To Break Up Group





(Mediaweek) Last Friday morning at Times Mirror Magazines' offices, Time Inc.'s Michael Klingensmith met with TMM CEO Jason Klein and his division heads, all of whom were relieved that their days as Tribune Co. foster kids were finally over. Executives of Golf were particularly jubilant that Time Inc. had won the bidding for Times Mirror Magazines. Speculation had abounded that Golf Digest publisher the New York Times Co. (which placed a joint bid for TMM with American Media) would have folded Golf.



Klingensmith, president of the Sports Illustrated group, was designated by Time Inc. CEO Don Logan as the point man for the acquisition. Klingensmith told TMM executives that the company will remain a stand-alone operation and that Time Inc. has no plans to break it up, according to an executive who attended the meeting.



Time Inc. agreed to pay $475 million for TMM's 20 titles, including Golf, Field & Stream, Popular Science and TransWorld Snowboarding. Tribune put the magazines up for sale in June, following its acquisition of the Times Mirror Co. The deal is expected to close by late December.



In 1999, TMM posted an operating profit of $19.2 million on revenue of $279 million. Time Inc. is said to have agreed to pay $100 million above the value several other bidders had put on TMM.



"It's complimentary to what we do," said Klingensmith. "We don't have a lot of representation in vertical special-interest titles, and it gives us a base to grow in that area."



The deal makes Time Inc. a player in young-skewing specialty sports titles, along with Emap and Primedia. The Sports Illustrated group currently includes the 3.2 million-circ flagship, Sports Illustrated for Kids and Sports Illustrated for Women, as well as cable's CNN/SI network and Web site.



The TMM books will also help Time Inc. strike a better balance between male and female readers. In recent years, the company's growth has primarily been on the women's side, including the launches of In Style and Real Simple. "This gives them the diversity of special-interest as well as mass reach," said Valerie Muller, senior vp/director of print services at MediaCom. "It's going to expand the clients that they can call on."



The fate of TMM staffers is unclear, but there will undoubtedly be some layoffs. In an internal memo, Logan noted that "by using Time Inc.'s resources and expertise in areas such as production, purchasing, fulfillment, promotion and research, we think we can enhance the magazines' performance." TMM's Klein is expected to stay on and report to Klingensmith.







Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.