Time Inc. in Talks to Buy American Express Magazines
Time Inc. is in talks to purchase the publishing subsidiary of American Express, which includes luxury publications like Food & Wine and Travel & Leisure, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations.
The deal would add American Express’s consumer magazines and magazines dedicated to its card holders, like Departures, to Time Inc.'s portfolio, which already includes magazines like People and InStyle, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
American Express and Time Inc. have had a working relationship since 1993, when they formed a management services agreement to partner on advertising deals and back-end operations, like lobbying jointly for postal reform. For example, the Time Inc. title Fortune Small Business had an agreement with American Express to send the magazine to select card members.
The talks are good news for Time Inc., which has undergone several years of internal management upheaval as well as external pressures from a rapidly changing media market.
Jack Griffin, who was hired as the first chief executive outside of Time Inc. in 2010, lasted just six months before Jeffrey L. Bewkes, chief executive of the parent company Time Warner, asked him to leave in early 2011. Mr. Bewkes publicly rebuked Mr. Griffin for his management style.
After nearly nine months without a chief executive, the role was filled by Laura Lang, who stepped into a tough magazine market that forced her to cut costs. In January, she reduced Time Inc.'s global work force by 6 percent. The following month, Time Warner was in talks to sell off most of Time Inc.'s magazines to Meredith Corporation.
In March, just hours after confirming that the deal with Meredith was off, Time Warner announced that it planned to spin off its struggling Time Inc. magazine division into a separate publicly traded company and that Ms. Lang would resign. People with knowledge of the deal say that the negotiations have been stretching on for months.
Joe Ripp, a former Time Warner executive, rejoined the company after Labor Day as Time Inc.'s new chief executive. He is focusing on taking the magazine division public and will work on the absorption of the American Express magazines as well.
