Time Inc., has been purchased by Meredith Corporation, publisher of Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle.
The publishing industry has been in turmoil for quite some time now. The Internet and the ubiquity of video have eaten into the time Americans devote to print media. Despite the stable of powerhouse brand magazines that Time Inc. owns, such as Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik explains that it could be some of the smaller titles that spurred the purchase of Time by Meredith.
Here’s an excerpt of the transcript of an interview Folkenflik did with NPR host Robert Siegel:
SIEGEL: Since this is a pretty tough time for magazines, why would Meredith want Time and spend so much for it?
FOLKENFLIK: You know, I think it’s less to do with Time than some of its sister publications. Meredith owns Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Shape, parenting magazines. It publishes Martha Stewart Living under a production deal.
And in the Time Inc. stable, there are these other titles – Real Simple, Cooking Light, Southern Living, InStyle and then perhaps the most famous of the bunch for this, People magazine. And that appeals to the – call it 65, 70 percent of Meredith’s current readership that are female. And Meredith boasts of having a fairly affluent readership. And I think that would fit in neatly with that. The question of whether Time magazine, whether Fortune magazine, Sports Illustrated – whether these titles, although, you know, famous, world-renowned in some ways, would fit in as neatly I think is a very open question.
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