Time Inc. to Sell 18 ‘Niche’ Magazines

Time Inc. plans to prune its huge magazine portfolio by seeking buyers for 18 of its smaller titles, allowing it to concentrate on larger properties including Time, People and Sports Illustrated.

The titles to be sold include Popular Science, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream and Yachting, the company said Tuesday. News of the planned sales was first reported by Advertising Age magazine.

In a memo to Time Inc. staff, Chief Executive Anne Moore said the “niche brands” being put up for sale “no longer fit with our strategy for Time Inc.’s future.”

Moore said the New York-based company intended to focus on its largest and most profitable brands -- in print and online -- such as Sports Illustrated, InStyle and People. “I am confident that the biggest brands in print, with our expertise and support, will develop into the biggest brands online,” Moore said in the memo.

Long a reliable profit center for parent company Time Warner Inc., a major media conglomerate that also owns Warner Bros., AOL, CNN and HBO, Time Inc. has struggled recently along with other magazine publishers, partly because more readers and advertising have been going to the Internet.

Last month Time Inc. posted a 2% decline in revenue and an 11% drop in profit for the second quarter.