Disney Sells 50% Stake in Us Weekly to Wenner
Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday it had sold its 50% stake in Us Weekly magazine back to magazine entrepreneur Jann Wenner’s company for $300 million, nearly eight times the price the media giant paid five years ago.
Wenner brought in Burbank-based Disney as a partner while revamping the magazine from a monthly to a weekly format. Many observers were skeptical at the time that the investment would pay off.
Us Weekly has since blossomed into a huge force in the gossip genre, doubling its circulation from 850,000 to 1.75 million and also doubling its ad pages.
Disney, which reported earnings Wednesday, bought the Us Weekly stake for $40 million in 2001.
“Disney has been a superb partner and we will miss them,” Wenner said Wednesday. “I am deeply grateful for their vote of confidence in Us at a time when not everyone thought we had much of a future or there was a future in celebrity magazines.”
Us Weekly was launched as a bimonthly magazine in 1977 and was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The publication converted to a weekly in March 2000.
In addition to Rolling Stone and Us Weekly, privately held Wenner Media also publishes Men’s Journal.
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