On the Time4Media side—which includes the old Times Mirror magazines plus the TransWorld action sports magazines—revenue for 2006 will be about $175 million and will decline in “the mid-single digits from 2004,” according to a source. “It is a pretty steady trend,” the source added. The margin, not including Time Inc. overhead, is less than 15 percent, but more than 10 percent.
Ad revenue down
Publicly available data on advertising also indicates a decline. According to Publishers Information Bureau reports, 12 of the magazines being sold have declined in ad revenue through September. The decliners are led by Transworld Snowboarding, which declined by 21.8 percent.
One source described the initial question of a potential bidder: Why do they want to sell? And the natural response, the source said, is about the fit. Time Inc. is a producer of mass-consumer, often weekly, magazines. These groups are to some extent orphans.
“The question here is how much of this deterioration of the business is because of the secular change going on in magazine publishing, with the shift to e-media, and how much has to do with the nature and the culture of Time Inc.’s management of these assets,” a second source said. “The underlying value of what these businesses will command will revolve around an accurate answer to that question.”
Time4Media President Hopeful
Time4Media President Tom Beusse, hired in January of this year, has spent the past 10 months expanding his division’s digital offerings, but could be out of job once the sale goes through. Beusse told Folio: Alert that the amount of interest is encouraging. “It’s just incredible,” he said. “It’s like a freight train really. And there are a lot of great people that are interested in them. I just hope I can work for one of them.”
January to September 2006 PIB revenue (in millions) and percent increase/decrease over previous year
Time4Mediatitles:
Golf Magazine-$131, -2.2 Field and Stream-$50, -10.9 Outdoor Life-$19.8, -7.1 Popular Science-$50.6, -12.7 Ski-$17.7, +1.6 Ride BMX-$4.9, -4.8 Skiing-$9.4, -7.1 This Old House-$36.8, -14.8 Transworld Skateboarding-$22.8, -9.0 Transworld Snowboarding-$10.4, -21.8 Transworld Surf-$8.6, +11.2 Motorboating-$15.8, -16.0 Salt Water Sportsman-$21.5, -5.4 Transworld Motocross-$10, +84.1
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