Last month we noted that “Change Had Come” for Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek (after hearing it from Sharon Waxman). Now, the New York Times is making news of the rumors.
Abandoning some of the best known names in trade publishing, the Nielsen Company said Thursday that it would shut down Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews, and sell a stable of other publications, including Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, to a newly formed media company.
The new company, e5 Global Media, also bought Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Film Journal International and Backstage from Nielsen, with rights to the Clio Awards and Film Expo trade shows. The price was not disclosed, but published reports have put it at $70 million or more.
I can’t say if that’s a good price or not, but it’s well north of the $5 mil Bloomberg paid for BusinessWeek.
“We decided this was a great time to buy media assets,” said Jimmy Finkelstein, chairman e5 Global Media. “We’re going to create great businesses in print, online, on mobile, [and] in events, and we think it’s the right time to do it.”
Finkelstein said that in addition to adding significant editorial resources to each of the brands across print, Web and mobile platforms, the new company would add paid content portions to each brand’s Web site.
