NewBay Media Buys Reed Business Information Mags B&C, Multichannel
Trade mag publisher NewBay Media has acquired Reed Business Information’s U.S. b2b mags Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable and This Week In Consumer Electronics (TWICE). The terms of the sale were not disclosed. The titles will remain independent, at least for now, and become siblings to New Bay’s existing stable of mags, which include Television Broadcast and TV Technology. NewBay was formed by PE firm The Wicks Group in September 2006 from the $50 million purchase of CMP’s Entertainment Group assets.
The sale comes amid a great deal of upheaval in the trade magazine business. As Rafat has reported, Lachlan Murdoch has been working with a group of investors to purchase Nielsen Business Media’s b2b titles, including Billboard and Hollywood Reporter.
Earlier this month, Reed Elsevier’s CEO Ian Smith departed the company after only eight months in the job. In September, a memo from Reed Business Information CEO Keith Jones said the company was in need of “additional cost-cutting fast,” as pages and circulation continued to drag. The company has indicated it wanted to focus more on rolling out paid online products over the next year and had long been planning to sell the b2b mags.
As for the Wicks Group, which runs a number of broadcast stations across the country, the Reed Business Information titles are meant to build up the media trade verticals NewBay currently has. NewBay’s magazines are targeted to audiences for pro audio, broadcast and video, musical instruments, A/V-consumer electronics, and K-12 education. The company has more than 40 publications and show dailies, 50 websites, 30 daily and weekly e-newsletters, three Expos and more than 50 custom-publishing products.
The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. represented Reed Business Information in the deal.
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Posted In: Media & Publishing, Magazines, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions
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