While announcing the sale of the Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and six other media brands to an investment group led by James Finkelstein, Nielsen said on Thursday that it will close two magazines not involved in the sale: the 76-year-old Kirkus Reviews, and the 108-year-old Editor & Publisher, aka “America’s Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry.”
The announcement came as a shocker to many – including Twitterville, as “Editor & Publisher” and "Kirkus Reviews" quickly became a trending topics on Twitter.
Some shocked staffers, however, remain hopeful E&P may somehow be revived. From its own story on the folding: "The expressions of surprise and outpouring of strong support for E&P that have followed across the Web … raise the notion that the publication might yet continue in some form."
E&P says staff members will stay on for the remainder of 2009.
"I’m shocked that a way was not found for the magazine to continue it some form," said Greg Mitchell, editor since 2002, "and remain hopeful that this may still occur."
Here’s the internal memo, via Poynter, from Nielsen Business Media president Greg Farrar:
Message from Greg Farrar
Dear Colleagues,
Today, we announced that Nielsen Business Media has reached an agreement with e5 Global Media Holdings, LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, for the sale of eight brands in the Media and Entertainment Group, including Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter. e5 Global Media Holdings has also agreed to acquire our Film Expo business, which includes the ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia trade shows.
In addition, we’ve made the decision to cease operations for Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews.
This move will allow us to strengthen investment in our core businesses – those parts of our portfolio that have the greatest potential for growth – and ensure our long-term success. We remain committed to building our trade show group and affiliated brands. These assets continue to be a key part of The Nielsen Company’s overall portfolio and we strongly believe they are positioned to grow as the economy recovers. In addition, we’ll continue to assess the strategic fit of our remaining portfolio of publications.
As a result of these decisions, many of our friends and colleagues within these businesses will be leaving the company or will begin to transition to the new ownership immediately. These venerable brands have long been an important part of our Business Media family, and we are pleased that e5 will continue to capitalize on the brands’ potential. The transition is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
Pluribus Capital was founded in 2009 by James Finkelstein, George Green and Matthew Doull to focus on acquiring and managing industry leading media properties with high growth potential, particularly those with strong brand recognition across multiple platforms including digital, print and events. Guggenheim Partners is a privately held, diversified financial services firm. Both Pluribus and Guggenheim have strong track records of successfully managing investments in a variety of companies.
I want to take this opportunity to offer heartfelt thanks to our colleagues who will be leaving the company for their dedication and commitment to Nielsen over the years. Please join me in wishing them well in their future endeavors.
Regards,
Greg Farrar
President
Nielsen Business Media
