Online Journalism News

Reed Elsevier to sell US magazine titles

Reed Elsevier, parent company of magazine publisher Reed Business Information, has said it will offload a number of its US controlled circulation magazine titles.

The group announced the divestment as part of its interim results for 2009, which reported a three per cent decline in operating profit for the US division over the last six months.

"In the US, with its greater dependency on controlled circulation print magazines, underlying revenues were 26 per cent lower, again driven by reduced advertising across the portfolio," the statement said.

"The downturn in macro-economic conditions over the last year has been severe and unprecedented. The biggest impact on our business is concentrated in advertising and promotion markets, including pharma promotion in our medical business, law firm directory listings in our legal business, and most particularly in business to business markets. The depth and length of the downturn is however having some effect on even our most resilient businesses," Ian Smith, Reed Elsevier CEO, in the report.

According to a Bloomberg report, Smith said Variety, New Scientist and Elsevier magazines would not be for sale, because of their loyal readerships.

The sale of the US titles forms part of Reed's plans to replace the group's debt, which reached a net total of $8.4 billion last year - a figure increased by borrowing to acquire Choicepoint.

Reed recently sold its travel publishing division, including titles Gazetteers.com, Travolution and Travel Weekly, to entrepreneur Clive Jacobs.

At the end of last year, RBI abandoned the sale of its magazines division, citing a 'recent deterioration in macro-economic outlook and poor credit market conditions'. [See the timeline below]

According to today's figures from Reed Elsevier, operating profit at the UK division of RBI fell by 12 per cent to £134 million in the six months to the end of June.

But the stats suggest a growth in user revenues, such as subscriptions and online data, which account for approximately half of RBI UK's revenues.

For RBI as a whole, online user revenues grew by seven per cent over the same period, but online advertising revenues dropped by 17 per cent for the division.

The full announcement and figures can be downloaded at this link.

Timeline of RBI divestment news

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magazines | rbi | reed elsevier | ian smith |

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