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It’s become a familiar story for the media industry.  A legacy publication struggles because of declining print advertising revenue.  Digital advertising revenue fails to offset the losses.  A private investor emerges to try to save the business.

The latest example came with a twist Tuesday when Authentic Brands Group agreed to buy the intellectual property of Sports Illustrated from media conglomerate Meredith for $110 million. As part of the unique partnership agreement, Meredith will continue to operate SI’s editorial arm for at least the next two years under the same schedule, while maintaining editorial independence under the direction of publisher Danny Lee and editor-in-chief Chris Stone. The iconic sports publication’s future after that is unclear.

In the meantime, ABG will try to drive revenue by using SI’s brands, which include the company’s namesake, Sports Illustrated Kids, Sportsperson of the Year, SI TV and the company’s iconic swimsuit edition. The company also purchased the rights to more than 2 million images from SI’s photography archives, which it reportedly hopes to monetize.

“We are now perfectly positioned, with the support and resources of ABG, to thrive in many other spaces: events and conferences, licensing, gambling and gaming, IP development, especially in video and TV, to name a few, all while continuing to benefit from Meredith’s industry-leading track record in operating media companies,” Stone said in a press release.

Launched in 2010 with a $250 million investment from Leonard Green & Partners, Knight’s Bridge Capital and founder Jamie Salter, ABG specializes in managing retail, entertainment and sports brands. And its list of clientele is fairly diverse, with the brands of Shaquille O’Neal, Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe among its holdings.

But it remains to be seen if ABG can recharge SI, which has struggled along with the rest of the magazine industry to adapt to the digital landscape. Once heralded for employing a range of legendary sports writers such as Frank Deford and Rick Reilly, the company has seen its market share dwindle from a range of digital online competitors, including the The Ringer, Barstool Sports and The Athletic, which was valued at around $200 million in its latest funding round.

Meredith acquired SI in early 2018 as part of its roughly $1.8 billion deal for Time Inc., with Koch Equity Development contributing $650 million to the purchase. In the ensuing 18 months, the business has unloaded the company’s assets in pursuit of paying down $1 billion worth of debt. It sold Time magazine to Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and wife Lynne Benioff for around $190 million and Fortune magazine to Thai entrepreneur Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million. It’s also shopping FanSided, an SI-affiliated blog network that focuses on sports and pop culture, for a reported $30 million, along with ad platform business Viant.

On a broader scale, the shifting media landscape hasn’t kept investors from dabbling in the US publishing industry, though deal count dropped about 5% in 2018, per Pitchbook data. And 2019 is off to a fairly benign start, with just six completed PE-backed acquisitions to date.  The most notable came in January when Penske Media, a New York-based digital media company backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, bought the remaining 49% stake it didn’t already own in Rolling Stone magazine.

 

Read More – www.pitchbook.com

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