Beleaguered Men's Magazines Start to Battle It Out
By David Crow
http://www.thebusiness.co.uk/the-magazine/columns/202431/beleaguered-menand8217s-magazines-start-to-battle-it-out-online.thtml
Men's magazines is truly a sector in crisis: in the first six months of 2007 nearly all UK titles aimed at the coveted 18 to 34-year-old market posted dramatic falls in circulation. FHM - Emap's leading men's title - was hit the hardest; it sold an average 312,000 copies in the first half of the year compared to 421,000 in the same period in 2006, a massive drop of 26%. Maxim didn't fare much better, dropping 18.1% to 108,000 copies.
Cheaper weekly magazines like IPC's Nuts and Emap's Zoo - launched in 2004 to help save the sector from decline - have also performed badly. Zoo sold 187,000 copies in the first half of the year, an 18.1% decrease that pushed the magazine below the 200,000 barrier for the first time. Esquire, published by the magazine giant Hearst, is the only title which is holding its own, although with a circulation of just over 50,000 a month it sells far less than its competitors.
Although all traditional media - be they television, radio or print - have been hit by the popularity of online content, the men's mag sector has felt the squeeze more than most. Over 44% of British men say their buying habits have changed as a result of online growth, compared to 36% of women. It's easy to see why: the kind of product that FHM et al pioneered offered readers a previously unseen degree of control. Polls, competitions and the ability to submit amateur content - such as true stories and pictures - created an audience ripe for user-generated content. When Web 2.0 came of age, men's magazine readers were ready for the next step.
Luckily for the industry, advertisers are still desperate to target this market. Men aged 18-34 often have impressive spending power twinned with an appetite for luxury and high-end goods, making them an attractive proposition. But they are famously elusive, known in the industry as "message averse": they will spend money, but it is hard to influence them on how to do it.
Over 71% of males aged 18-34 say they now spend more time on the internet than they did a year ago. For men's magazine brands, this offers the perfect opportunity to develop new products, an opportunity which most have seized. FHM.com now boasts an audience of over 1.7m unique users a month, a figure the print title could only dream of, even in its heyday.
The site began its transformation seven years ago when it started offering more video content, with clips of glamour models during photo shoots especially popular. Since then, FHM.com has launched a community section where users can create personal profiles, submit content and make online friends; more than 70,000 users have signed up.
Dennis Publishing's internet products are also thriving. Monkey - the online magazine tipped for success in The Business last year - now boasts nearly 270,000 users, a figure which is growing by 20% a month. More importantly, the eZine - which is read online but looks and feels like a printed magazine - has offered advertisers innovative ways of targeting this problematic audience.
In the current issue, Carlsberg are advertising a "draughtmaster", a product which it claims pours the "perfect pint". Instead of buying static advertising space, Carlsberg has purchased a full page where readers can test a virtual version of the product; it's the kind of fun, user-involved promotion the magazine's readers will love.
Hearst, publisher of Esquire, has been slow to offer an online competitor in this area. Its recent acquisition of UGO.com - a network of sites aimed at the young men's market - is its first real attempt to target young men on the web. UGO has had a chequered past. It launched in 1997 as Unified Gamers Online, to provide an internet destination for video gamers.
It was sold a few months later to InterWorld who spun the company off and began seeking venture capital. Since then, more than $82m (£40m, E58m) has been spent trying to build the ultimate men's site, although its success was thwarted by the emergence of Web 2.0. At one point, things looked so shaky that the venture capitalists pushed through a scheme to guarantee them five times their investment if the site was sold.
Despite its history, UGO is not a bad purchase. The deal, reported to have been worth $100m, has given Hearst a platform that boasts over 28m unique users worldwide, 11m of whom live in the US. It is also profitable, bringing in $30m revenue and $6m profit. The marketing solutions offered by UGO have been the envy of much of the men's entertainment industry for years, offering advertising which goes "beyond the banner". Most of these promotions take the form of branded mini sites; Fox sponsors The World of Simpsons section while Apple has branded the iPhone launch centre, keen to target this audience of "early-adopters" of technology.
Most importantly, UGO is one of the few Web 1.0 brands to have survived the dotcom crash, putting it in the esteemed company of eBay, Amazon and Yahoo! This will allow Hearst to add real value to the site by building in user-generated content and rich multimedia features, a move that should see traffic increase; that UGO is not yet finished is one of its best attributes.
The men's magazine brands already working online should watch the site's development carefully: Hearst's entry into the arena may be late - but it could really shake the market up.
--------------------------------------------------------
Emap: Consumer magazines 'challenging'
27 September 2007
By Paul McNally
Emap has warned that the outlook for its consumer magazines remains "weak" and "challenging" - with advertising revenue down 11 per cent year on year.
But in an update to the City this morning ahead of its half-year results in November, the magazine and radio giant said overall conditions were "encouraging".
Emap's B2B division continues to be its most successful asset, with like-for-like revenue between April and September up an estimated five per cent year on year.
The company has reported "good growth" in B2B information products and events, while the performance of business magazines was "broadly flat".
Emap's consumer magazines, meanwhile, have seen an estimated four per cent fall in circulation revenue between April and September, but a number of "efficiency initiatives" had reaped "earlier-than-expected benefits".
"We anticipate that trading conditions in our consumer magazine markets will continue to be challenging for the rest of our 2008 financial year, although, based on current forward bookings, the second half should show some improvement," the company said this morning.
Radio revenues were up two per cent overall - with improved performances outside of London offsetting a slump in revenue in the capital.
The company said it "continues to be encouraged" with the progress of its strategic review, announced in May this year following the abrupt departure of chief executive Tom Moloney.
The search for a new chief executive continues in tandem with the review process, with an update expected from Emap when it announces its half-year results in November.
"The board remains focused on examining all options to maximise shareholder value, including a possible sale or demerger of some or all of the constituent parts of the group," Emap said this morning.
Emap has invested £14m in new product development since April - a large part of which has been directed at the relaunch of First magazine under new editor Jane Ennis.
The group expects to have invested a total of £25m in new product development by the end of the financial year, including digital initiatives in consumer and B2B magazines.
One of those initiatives will be the launch of a new women's web portal, pooling content from weekly titles such as Grazia, Heat, Closer and First.
The company will announce its half-year results on 13 November.
Showing posts with label maxim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maxim. Show all posts
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
"Dr. Evil" Moves To Maxim
"Dr. Evil" Moves To Maxim
Quadrangle Group's Kent Brownridge is chasing the same reader as Rolling Stone
By Jon Fine
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_39/b4051023.htm
The rap on Kent Brownridge, who's running Maxim for private equity player Quadrangle Group, is that he's unusually smart and unusually ferocious. And that the latter overshadowed the former during his long tenure as Jann Wenner's No. 2 at Wenner Media.
"If you get in his way, he will roll right over you," says a former Wenner executive, and this is one who claims to be a fan. In person, Brownridge can come off like The Simpsons' magnate Montgomery Burns or former Senator Robert Dole at his most saturnine. That he can do so with a certain deadpan glee earned him the joshing tag "Dr. Evil" from ex-employee and Ad Age columnist Simon Dumenco. Still, sometimes you sensed his subordinates' raw animal fear. Some years ago, I was interviewing him in his office, and he needed some scraps of data that he (atypically) did not know offhand. So he punched a button on his phone. "Tell [redacted] I need to see him," Brownridge snarled at an assistant via squawk box, "and tell him I am NOT HAPPY."
Approximately 18 seconds later, said executive stood in the doorway, wearing a wary and likely very familiar expression.
AFTER 31 YEARS, in early 2006, Brownridge left Wenner. He insists it was his idea; few observers agree. Through a spokesman, Jann Wenner says: "It was both retirement time"-Brownridge was 65-"and a mutual parting of the ways that I think we both recognized was due." (Precisely what happened remains opaque. But Wenner threw Brownridge a party at the Four Seasons-and Wenner Media is a company where pushed-out executives, as one insider puts it, end up at the bottom of an airshaft, not hearing toasts at a landmark restaurant.) Following a brief, unhappy retirement, Brownridge hooked on with Quadrangle. The just-completed purchase of Dennis Publishing's Maxim and music magazine sibling Blender, under the newly formed Alpha Media Group, leaves Brownridge chasing the same young male reader as Wenner flagship Rolling Stone. This has spurred talk of revenge. But the Dennis deal is one of four that Brownridge has bid on; another was regional high-end publisher Modern Luxury, which doesn't exactly target Bud-swilling twentysomethings. Then again, Brownridge has already poached James Kaminsky from Wenner title Men's Journal to edit Maxim. (Jann Wenner would not comment on competitive issues beyond saying he's "very happy to see Kent back in the game.")
In his new corner office-which sports portraits of Steve Jobs, P.T. Barnum, Lee Iacocca, and Sun Tzu-Brownridge says that Blender's circulation could easily rise from its current 825,000 to 1 million and promises to increase his company's head count by 20%. (At the existing mags, that is: Brownridge shuttered lagging lad title Stuff.) While he offered few specifics for reigniting Maxim's turbojets, which have cooled, a parsing of his comments strongly suggests that Maxim will feature a lusher look and design and a rethought business approach. "You can't run a magazine company on 'Hey, come to our Super Bowl party,'" he says, referring to a notorious annual Maxim rite. (Although cynics may cite the juice Vanity Fair squeezes from its annual Oscar-night bash and beg to differ.)
As for his rep, Brownridge professes no regrets. "I ran [Wenner Media] like it was my own. Any attack, I took personally. I hit back hard. I am not going to apologize for any of that." While he hasn't mellowed at 67, he insists he's refocusing. Given a chance to dump on his medium's peers, he demurs. "This is the new me. And I am not going to answer. The old me probably would have said something terrible....I haven't got time for anything except work." With that work, Brownridge (along with Mary Berner, the former Condé Naster who now runs Reader's Digest Assn. for Ripplewood Holdings) will demonstrate what private equity ownership of big and famous consumer magazines means. I remain glad I do not hear his voice crackle over an interoffice line, but I look forward to watching how Brownridge will fare. Preferably from a safe distance.
Quadrangle Group's Kent Brownridge is chasing the same reader as Rolling Stone
By Jon Fine
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_39/b4051023.htm
The rap on Kent Brownridge, who's running Maxim for private equity player Quadrangle Group, is that he's unusually smart and unusually ferocious. And that the latter overshadowed the former during his long tenure as Jann Wenner's No. 2 at Wenner Media.
"If you get in his way, he will roll right over you," says a former Wenner executive, and this is one who claims to be a fan. In person, Brownridge can come off like The Simpsons' magnate Montgomery Burns or former Senator Robert Dole at his most saturnine. That he can do so with a certain deadpan glee earned him the joshing tag "Dr. Evil" from ex-employee and Ad Age columnist Simon Dumenco. Still, sometimes you sensed his subordinates' raw animal fear. Some years ago, I was interviewing him in his office, and he needed some scraps of data that he (atypically) did not know offhand. So he punched a button on his phone. "Tell [redacted] I need to see him," Brownridge snarled at an assistant via squawk box, "and tell him I am NOT HAPPY."
Approximately 18 seconds later, said executive stood in the doorway, wearing a wary and likely very familiar expression.
AFTER 31 YEARS, in early 2006, Brownridge left Wenner. He insists it was his idea; few observers agree. Through a spokesman, Jann Wenner says: "It was both retirement time"-Brownridge was 65-"and a mutual parting of the ways that I think we both recognized was due." (Precisely what happened remains opaque. But Wenner threw Brownridge a party at the Four Seasons-and Wenner Media is a company where pushed-out executives, as one insider puts it, end up at the bottom of an airshaft, not hearing toasts at a landmark restaurant.) Following a brief, unhappy retirement, Brownridge hooked on with Quadrangle. The just-completed purchase of Dennis Publishing's Maxim and music magazine sibling Blender, under the newly formed Alpha Media Group, leaves Brownridge chasing the same young male reader as Wenner flagship Rolling Stone. This has spurred talk of revenge. But the Dennis deal is one of four that Brownridge has bid on; another was regional high-end publisher Modern Luxury, which doesn't exactly target Bud-swilling twentysomethings. Then again, Brownridge has already poached James Kaminsky from Wenner title Men's Journal to edit Maxim. (Jann Wenner would not comment on competitive issues beyond saying he's "very happy to see Kent back in the game.")
In his new corner office-which sports portraits of Steve Jobs, P.T. Barnum, Lee Iacocca, and Sun Tzu-Brownridge says that Blender's circulation could easily rise from its current 825,000 to 1 million and promises to increase his company's head count by 20%. (At the existing mags, that is: Brownridge shuttered lagging lad title Stuff.) While he offered few specifics for reigniting Maxim's turbojets, which have cooled, a parsing of his comments strongly suggests that Maxim will feature a lusher look and design and a rethought business approach. "You can't run a magazine company on 'Hey, come to our Super Bowl party,'" he says, referring to a notorious annual Maxim rite. (Although cynics may cite the juice Vanity Fair squeezes from its annual Oscar-night bash and beg to differ.)
As for his rep, Brownridge professes no regrets. "I ran [Wenner Media] like it was my own. Any attack, I took personally. I hit back hard. I am not going to apologize for any of that." While he hasn't mellowed at 67, he insists he's refocusing. Given a chance to dump on his medium's peers, he demurs. "This is the new me. And I am not going to answer. The old me probably would have said something terrible....I haven't got time for anything except work." With that work, Brownridge (along with Mary Berner, the former Condé Naster who now runs Reader's Digest Assn. for Ripplewood Holdings) will demonstrate what private equity ownership of big and famous consumer magazines means. I remain glad I do not hear his voice crackle over an interoffice line, but I look forward to watching how Brownridge will fare. Preferably from a safe distance.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Silence surrounds Dennis's disposal of US magazines
"Do you know a magazine called the National Enquirer? In the current issue, somebody drew it to my attention, there's a picture of me, like a very young picture of me, and there's a picture of Eric Clapton now and a picture of me then, and it says this is how Eric Clapton has aged."
Jack Bruce
Silence surrounds Dennis's disposal of US magazines
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=37911&c=1
By Jeffrey Blyth
What happened to the sale of the American editions of Maxim, Blender and Stuff is something of a mystery. Closing bids for the Dennis Publishing magazines closed more than a week ago. An announcement was expected within days.
The word was that the magazines had gone to a company in the US called Quadrangle, headed by former lads' mag editor Kent Brownridge. It was even reported that the price was between $200 and $250 million.
All that remained, it was said, was to cross the t's and dot the i's on the contract. But since then, there has been only silence.
Are there complications? Did the deal fall through? No one is saying.
Maxim, one of the biggest selling men's mags in the US, with sales of over 2,500,000 is of course the biggest prize.
The lads' mag scene has somewhat cooled lately - and some are even saying the heyday for babes and booze magazines is over, largely because American supermarkets are reluctant these days to display the provocative mags
But there was still big interest in who would acquire the Dennis titles. The only magazine not included in the deal was The Week, the mini-version of Time and Newsweek, which Felix Dennis prizes over all the others.
Ironically, when Dennis first thought four years ago of putting his American magazines on the market, the amount he was offered was around $700 million - much more than he has reputedly been offered now.
Of course he still holds title to the magazines' names in connection with other franchises. In fact there is already talk of a chain of Maxim steakhouses, even a 2,300 room Maxim Hotel with strip club and casino in Las Vegas, although that, like the magazine deal, appears to have disappeared from the headlines for the moment.
Whatever happens, the influence of Dennis Publishing - particularly Maxim - is undisputed. As one editor of Esquire, David Granger, put it: "It brought millions of new men into the marketplace. All the men's magazines benefited."
Jack Bruce
Silence surrounds Dennis's disposal of US magazines
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=37911&c=1
By Jeffrey Blyth
What happened to the sale of the American editions of Maxim, Blender and Stuff is something of a mystery. Closing bids for the Dennis Publishing magazines closed more than a week ago. An announcement was expected within days.
The word was that the magazines had gone to a company in the US called Quadrangle, headed by former lads' mag editor Kent Brownridge. It was even reported that the price was between $200 and $250 million.
All that remained, it was said, was to cross the t's and dot the i's on the contract. But since then, there has been only silence.
Are there complications? Did the deal fall through? No one is saying.
Maxim, one of the biggest selling men's mags in the US, with sales of over 2,500,000 is of course the biggest prize.
The lads' mag scene has somewhat cooled lately - and some are even saying the heyday for babes and booze magazines is over, largely because American supermarkets are reluctant these days to display the provocative mags
But there was still big interest in who would acquire the Dennis titles. The only magazine not included in the deal was The Week, the mini-version of Time and Newsweek, which Felix Dennis prizes over all the others.
Ironically, when Dennis first thought four years ago of putting his American magazines on the market, the amount he was offered was around $700 million - much more than he has reputedly been offered now.
Of course he still holds title to the magazines' names in connection with other franchises. In fact there is already talk of a chain of Maxim steakhouses, even a 2,300 room Maxim Hotel with strip club and casino in Las Vegas, although that, like the magazine deal, appears to have disappeared from the headlines for the moment.
Whatever happens, the influence of Dennis Publishing - particularly Maxim - is undisputed. As one editor of Esquire, David Granger, put it: "It brought millions of new men into the marketplace. All the men's magazines benefited."
Friday, June 01, 2007
Has Kent Brownridge Finally Nabbed Dennis?
"All maxims have their antagonist maxims; proverbs should be sold in pairs, a single one being but a half truth"
William Mathews
Has Kent Brownridge Finally Nabbed Dennis?
Grapevine Declares Quadrangle the Winner, but No Official Word Yet
By Nat Ives
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=117034
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Magazine pros inside and outside of Dennis Publishing hear that the auction for the company seems to be complete, with winner Quadrangle Group down to crossing t's and dotting i's on a deal.
Maxim will be the biggest prize for the Quadrangle-Brownridge team.
There is no official word, even for the Dennis insiders, but the smoke suggesting a Quadrangle win has thickened to the point that observers are convinced of fire. Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. is believed to have also bid on Dennis -- publisher of Maxim, Blender and Stuff -- in the final round last week. One narrative making the rounds has Dennis delaying any announcement about Quadrangle in the hopes that the Burkle team could be persuaded, even this late in the process, to top the Quadrangle bid.
Brownridge vs. Wenner?
If Quadrangle does close on Dennis -- and barring any last-minute change of heart from Dennis founder Felix Dennis -- it will return former Wenner Media No. 2 Kent Brownridge to the industry at last. It will, moreover, put him in competition with his old boss Jann Wenner. Blender and Rolling Stone compete in the music category while Maxim and Men's Journal have some overlap among men.
Maxim will be the biggest prize for the Quadrangle-Brownridge team. The lad craze may have cooled but it hasn't cratered; Maxim's paid and verified print circulation has found a plateau around 2.5 million. Ad pages are off 2.58% in the first half, per Media Industry Newsletter, but its digital and licensing operations are substantial -- with probably plenty more potential. Blender is still finding its way but has grown steadily since its introduction in 2001.
What to do with Stuff?
The biggest question for the new owner will be Stuff. The title's original role was defensive, complicating an effort by eMap to play the lad game in the U.S. with an edition of FHM here. But eMap killed the U.S. FHM last December, so Stuff's preventative role is essentially gone. That could free the brand for improvement and even redefinition, or give the new owners cover to close it and fill its subscriptions with Maxim. Its most recent paid and verified circulation report showed a 4.8% decline, while its 2007 ad pages through June are 5.68% lower than in the first half of last year, according to MIN.
Mr. Dennis hired Allen & Co. to explore a sale of his titles in early 2006, although company executives and their spokesman declined to comment on "rumors" to that effect until February 2007, when they finally confirmed the poorly kept secret.
Observers said the Dennis portfolio may go for somewhere in the range of $220 million to $250 million. If a deal gets done, Mr. Dennis will retain ownership of The Week, his growing current-events weekly.
William Mathews
Has Kent Brownridge Finally Nabbed Dennis?
Grapevine Declares Quadrangle the Winner, but No Official Word Yet
By Nat Ives
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=117034
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Magazine pros inside and outside of Dennis Publishing hear that the auction for the company seems to be complete, with winner Quadrangle Group down to crossing t's and dotting i's on a deal.
Maxim will be the biggest prize for the Quadrangle-Brownridge team.
There is no official word, even for the Dennis insiders, but the smoke suggesting a Quadrangle win has thickened to the point that observers are convinced of fire. Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. is believed to have also bid on Dennis -- publisher of Maxim, Blender and Stuff -- in the final round last week. One narrative making the rounds has Dennis delaying any announcement about Quadrangle in the hopes that the Burkle team could be persuaded, even this late in the process, to top the Quadrangle bid.
Brownridge vs. Wenner?
If Quadrangle does close on Dennis -- and barring any last-minute change of heart from Dennis founder Felix Dennis -- it will return former Wenner Media No. 2 Kent Brownridge to the industry at last. It will, moreover, put him in competition with his old boss Jann Wenner. Blender and Rolling Stone compete in the music category while Maxim and Men's Journal have some overlap among men.
Maxim will be the biggest prize for the Quadrangle-Brownridge team. The lad craze may have cooled but it hasn't cratered; Maxim's paid and verified print circulation has found a plateau around 2.5 million. Ad pages are off 2.58% in the first half, per Media Industry Newsletter, but its digital and licensing operations are substantial -- with probably plenty more potential. Blender is still finding its way but has grown steadily since its introduction in 2001.
What to do with Stuff?
The biggest question for the new owner will be Stuff. The title's original role was defensive, complicating an effort by eMap to play the lad game in the U.S. with an edition of FHM here. But eMap killed the U.S. FHM last December, so Stuff's preventative role is essentially gone. That could free the brand for improvement and even redefinition, or give the new owners cover to close it and fill its subscriptions with Maxim. Its most recent paid and verified circulation report showed a 4.8% decline, while its 2007 ad pages through June are 5.68% lower than in the first half of last year, according to MIN.
Mr. Dennis hired Allen & Co. to explore a sale of his titles in early 2006, although company executives and their spokesman declined to comment on "rumors" to that effect until February 2007, when they finally confirmed the poorly kept secret.
Observers said the Dennis portfolio may go for somewhere in the range of $220 million to $250 million. If a deal gets done, Mr. Dennis will retain ownership of The Week, his growing current-events weekly.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Auction for Dennis Titles Coming Down to Brownridge Against Burkle
"I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it."
W. C. Fields (American Comic and Actor, 1880-1946)
Auction for Dennis Titles Coming Down to Brownridge Against Burkle
Former Wenner Media Vet Brownridge Lost Out on Time4Media Properties By Nat Ives
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article? article_id=116753
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The auction for Dennis Publishing's Maxim, Blender and Stuff is shaping up as a showdown between two oversize personalities, ex-Wenner Media veteran Kent Brownridge and supermarket king turned media magnate Ron Burkle. Maxim is the strongest asset in the auction. The magazine's paid circulation has found a plateau of 2.5 million and its ad pages grew 20.2% in the first quarter, according to PIB.
Final round next week
The third and final round of bids are due May 23, and the pool of contenders has shrunk along the way. There are rumors and dark horses, of course. Nautic Partners, the private-equity firm with $1.8 billion under management, is said to have taken a look late in the process, but it isn't clear whether Nautic will bid next week. American Media is even being mentioned a possible contender, on the notion that the company's outrageous $1 billion in debt will be alleviated by its planned sale of five magazines, freeing up some cash to buy some better properties.
But Mr. Brownridge and equity backer Quadrangle Group, which made an unsuccessful play together for the 18 magazines Time Inc. recently auctioned off, are clearly determined to get some new magazine assets. And Mr. Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. looks equally interested in bulking up in publishing -- particularly after Yucaipa's Source Interlink Cos. agreed to pay $1.2 billion for Primedia's enthusiast titles on Monday.
Mr. Brownridge, Yucaipa and the investment bank handling the auction, Allen & Co., did not respond to messages left seeking comment.
Maxim the top asset
Maxim is the strongest asset in the auction. The magazine's paid circulation has found a plateau of 2.5 million and its ad pages grew 20.2% in the first quarter, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. But it also has struck a bevy of licensing deals and extended its content to digital platforms quite effectively. Five-year-old Blender reported average paid and verified circulation of 744,263 for the second half of last year, up 7.4% over the period a year prior, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and its ad pages rose 35.6% in the first quarter. Stuff's paid and verified circulation fell 4.8% to 1.25 million but its first-quarter ad pages are up 11%.
If Mr. Brownridge and Quadrangle take the spoils, by the way, Mr. Brownridge will find himself in competition with his old boss, Jann Wenner. Blender and Rolling Stone compete in the music category while Maxim and Men's Journal have some overlap among men.
Observers said the Dennis portfolio may go for somewhere in the range of $220 million to $250 million. If a deal gets done, Dennis founder Felix Dennis will retain ownership of The Week, his growing current-events weekly.
W. C. Fields (American Comic and Actor, 1880-1946)
Auction for Dennis Titles Coming Down to Brownridge Against Burkle
Former Wenner Media Vet Brownridge Lost Out on Time4Media Properties By Nat Ives
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article? article_id=116753
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The auction for Dennis Publishing's Maxim, Blender and Stuff is shaping up as a showdown between two oversize personalities, ex-Wenner Media veteran Kent Brownridge and supermarket king turned media magnate Ron Burkle. Maxim is the strongest asset in the auction. The magazine's paid circulation has found a plateau of 2.5 million and its ad pages grew 20.2% in the first quarter, according to PIB.
Final round next week
The third and final round of bids are due May 23, and the pool of contenders has shrunk along the way. There are rumors and dark horses, of course. Nautic Partners, the private-equity firm with $1.8 billion under management, is said to have taken a look late in the process, but it isn't clear whether Nautic will bid next week. American Media is even being mentioned a possible contender, on the notion that the company's outrageous $1 billion in debt will be alleviated by its planned sale of five magazines, freeing up some cash to buy some better properties.
But Mr. Brownridge and equity backer Quadrangle Group, which made an unsuccessful play together for the 18 magazines Time Inc. recently auctioned off, are clearly determined to get some new magazine assets. And Mr. Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. looks equally interested in bulking up in publishing -- particularly after Yucaipa's Source Interlink Cos. agreed to pay $1.2 billion for Primedia's enthusiast titles on Monday.
Mr. Brownridge, Yucaipa and the investment bank handling the auction, Allen & Co., did not respond to messages left seeking comment.
Maxim the top asset
Maxim is the strongest asset in the auction. The magazine's paid circulation has found a plateau of 2.5 million and its ad pages grew 20.2% in the first quarter, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. But it also has struck a bevy of licensing deals and extended its content to digital platforms quite effectively. Five-year-old Blender reported average paid and verified circulation of 744,263 for the second half of last year, up 7.4% over the period a year prior, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and its ad pages rose 35.6% in the first quarter. Stuff's paid and verified circulation fell 4.8% to 1.25 million but its first-quarter ad pages are up 11%.
If Mr. Brownridge and Quadrangle take the spoils, by the way, Mr. Brownridge will find himself in competition with his old boss, Jann Wenner. Blender and Rolling Stone compete in the music category while Maxim and Men's Journal have some overlap among men.
Observers said the Dennis portfolio may go for somewhere in the range of $220 million to $250 million. If a deal gets done, Dennis founder Felix Dennis will retain ownership of The Week, his growing current-events weekly.
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