Times Mirror to Sell Broadcasting Magazine to Cahners

Times Mirror Co. said Friday that it has agreed to sell Broadcasting magazine to Cahners Publishing Co. for $32 million in cash.

Considered the premier weekly trade magazine about the television and radio business, Broadcasting was acquired by Times Mirror in 1986 for $75 million. The Los Angeles-based company, which owns The Times and other media properties, will take an after-tax loss of $11.6 million, or 9 cents a share, on the sale.

In a letter to Broadcasting employees, Edward E. Johnson, group vice president at Times Mirror, said the company’s “intention was to build a major trade magazine group with Broadcasting as the centerpiece. However, since then, investment requirements and opportunities in other businesses have kept us from making a major commitment of acquisition dollars to this field.”

When Times Mirror bought Broadcasting 4 1/2 years ago, local TV stations, the magazine’s principal subscribers, were at their zenith in advertising revenues and profits. But since then, the industry has been hit by a recession, and values for all media properties have sharply declined.

“The broadcasting business has been under particular pressure because of the recession and secular changes in the industry,” said Eric Philo, a media analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co., a New York investment bank. “TV stations aren’t in the best shape, and that’s going to affect the overall environment for that magazine.”

Cahners, a subsidiary of London-based Reed International, is the largest publisher of trade magazines and producer of trade shows in the country.

Although traditionally known as a publisher of little-known but highly profitable titles such as Plastics World and Modern Materials Handling, in recent years it has made several high-profile acquisitions, including Variety, Publishers Weekly and Modern Bride.

Broadcasting, based in Washington with a staff of about 60, was founded in 1931. Often described as the Bible of the business, the magazine has long been influential in shaping U.S. telecommunications policy but has been criticized for its pro-industry stand.

In the late 1980s, Broadcasting began to face stiff competition from other trade magazines, including Electronic Media, owned by Crain Communications, which also publishes Advertising Age.

Electronic Media won praise for its splashy format and aggressive coverage. Soon the magazine began to siphon off ads from Broadcasting, which until then largely had the marketplace to itself.

Included in the sale are Broadcasting Abroad, a monthly publication, and Broadcasting Yearbook, an annual source directory for the industry. Broadcasting has about 32,000 subscribers, down from about 34,000 when Times Mirror acquired it.