The magazines, some of the most celebrated titles in the industry, clash with the lifestyle publications favored by Meredith, which bought Time Inc. last year.
After buying Time Inc. for $2.8 billion, Meredith is the largest magazine company in the United States, but it’s not about to change its unassuming style.
Less than a week after taking over Time Inc., Meredith is planning to ax 700 people in its Tampa, Fla., Time Customer Service center.
Time Inc. announced on Sunday night that it had sold itself to the Meredith Corp., in a deal backed by Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers known for using their wealth and political connections to advance conservative causes. Under the terms of the deal, Meredith will pay $18.50 a share for Time — the publisher of once-premier glossy titles including Time, Sports Illustrated and People — in an all-cash transaction valued at nearly $3 billion. The boards of Time Inc. and Meredith finalized the deal on Sunday evening.
Charles and David Koch, the billionaire U.S. industrialist brothers, are backing publisher and broadcaster Meredith Corp.’s revived bid to purchase Time Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter. The Kochs have tentatively agreed to support Meredith’s offer with an equity injection of more than $500 million, the person said, confirming an earlier report. The person asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
Exclusives
As the Time Inc. drama played out for a second day, some media insiders were betting that Meredith Corp. will soon enter the fray and trigger a potential bidding war against the billionaire trio of Edgar Bronfman Jr., Len Blavatnik and Ynon Kreiz for the well-known publisher.
Time Inc., still the biggest magazine publisher in the U.S., launched the People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN) today, delivering free-to-view, ad-supported streaming of original series and documentaries. The well-backed channel launches with ample distribution in place via Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast and Comcast’s Xfinity TV, among other partnerships. The platform is also available via Roku, Apple iOS and Android.
Stations Wary Of Distributed Content
Allowing original content to live entirely on other platforms has spread through online publishing with locomotive force. Some broadcasters are experimenting with it, but many worry it will erode traffic to their own websites and apps after spending years cultivating it.
Viewers will be able to watch original video from Time Inc. on Web sites controlled by Hulu, Yahoo, and Zealot Networks, thanks to new distribution agreements between the publisher and these digital video platforms.
At 72, Norman Pearlstine, the chief content officer of Time Inc., is determined not to sit by and watch a public trust go down the drain. Pearlstine’s success will be measured in large part by whether he can grow digital revenue faster than print revenue is declining.
Time Inc. and Net2TV Corp. are bringing Time’s signature brands to television. The initial shows — People This Week, The Week In Time, Cooking Light, Inside Golf Magazine and Southern […]
Time Inc. Launches Standalone Video Portal
Time Inc. is launching a platform for digital video content from all its magazine brands, the company announced at Digital Content Newfronts on Thursday morning. Nicole Levy reports the portal, to be called The Daily Cut, will put all of Time Inc.’s video content in one place, noting Time Inc. has “joined the emerging trend of traditional magazine publishers building one-stop clearinghouses for their increased digital video output meant to attract more lucrative online ad dollars.”
Magazine publisher Time Inc. will launch a mobile-specific video brand by year’s end. “You’ll see something from over the next four to six weeks — a video-only offering in mobile,” says company video senior VP J.R. McCabe.
CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement Wednesday that the decision to split off the Time Inc. magazine company will give Time Warner “strategic clarity” and enable it to focus on its TV networks including TNT, HBO and CNN, and its Warner Bros. studio, which produces movies and TV shows.
Time Warner is in early discussions with the Meredith Corp. to put most of Time Inc.’s magazines — including People, InStyle and Real Simple — into a separate, publicly traded company that would also include Meredith titles like Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies’ Home Journal. Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune would remain with Time Warner.
Allowing original content to live entirely on other platforms has spread through online publishing with locomotive force. Some broadcasters are experimenting with it, but many worry it will erode traffic to their own websites and apps after spending years cultivating it.
