Discovery has acquired Golf Digest from Condé Nast, the companies announced in a joint press release on Monday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the New York Post reported that the magazine went for $30 million, citing “sources close to the situation.”
The purchase will add the small but influential magazine to Discovery, Inc’s suite of golf-related offerings, including GOLFTV and its exclusive carriage rights to the PGA tour, the European Tour, the Ladies European Tour and the Masters Tournament.
The sale also helps the privately held Condé Nast unload another legacy print brand as it seeks to diversify from ad-based businesses.
Advance Publications, Condé Nast’s parent company, also recently unloaded the The New Orleans Times-Picayune amid declining sales and an increasingly tough market for local newspapers around the country. Many of Condé digital properties including Teen Vogue and Glamour have abandoned regular print editions in efforts to double down on digital only. The company is also moving to put all of its properties behind paywalls of one sort or another by the end of 2019.
“Golf Digest is a world-class brand that has become the ‘go-to’ authority for millions of golf enthusiasts, professional players and global advertisers,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a statement, noting the company’s recent partnership with Tiger Woods. “It’s a natural strategic fit with Discovery’s goal to be the leading golf media platform in the world.”
In a statement of his own, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde said the sale would be a boon for fans of the game.
“Discovery’s vision to create one global destination for everything a golf fan could want is perfectly aligned with what Golf Digest does every day,” he said. “As we look to the future, Discovery’s global scale and ability to light up content on all platforms and in every language, combined with the PGA Tour’s brand, will benefit golf and golfers worldwide.”