Hachette Seeks to Sell Men's Titles

NEW YORK Hachette Filipacchi Media, having recently made a sweeping reorganization of its women’s titles to drive new revenue streams, is now looking to unload some of its male-focused enthusiast magazines, according to sources familiar with the process.

Those five titles -- American Photo, Boating, Flying, Popular Photography and Sound & Vision -- have struggled amid the decline in ad spending and pressure from online competitors. This year through April, all have seen year-over-year ad page declines in the double-digits; and, in the case of Boating, almost 50 percent, per the Mediaweek Monitor. (Hachette is expected to keep Car and Driver, Road & Track and Cycle World.)
 
With credit still hard to come by and the advertising market still dismal, magazine sales have all but ground to a halt lately, suggesting that a strategic player rather than a private equity firm is a more likely buyer.
 
Some insiders see a potential acquirer in Bonnier Corp., which has been an active buyer recently, scooping up Working Mother Media and Scuba Diving; and which already owns magazines in the active outdoors and boating arenas. Others seen as possible bidders are Interweave Press, publisher of arts and crafts magazines like American Artist and Beadwork; and hobby publisher Kalmbach Publishing.
 
Media investment bank DeSilva & Phillips is handling the sale process.
 
While the timing for a sale may not be ideal, it’s not a shock that the titles are on the block; company observers have suspected for some time that Hachette’s new president and CEO Alain Lemarchand would seek to exit the U.S. enthusiast market to focus on its women-aimed books, which include Elle, Woman’s Day and Metropolitan Home.