American Media said it will acquire Men’s Journal from Wenner Media, marking the second magazine deal that the two companies have done in recent months.
“With the acquisition of Men’s Journal, AMI further establishes itself as a premium content producer by adding another respected media brand with a highly engaged audience,” said AMI CEO David Pecker said on Thursday. AMI already owns Men’s Fitness and Muscle & Fitness.
No terms of the Men’s Journal deal were disclosed but the magazine which was launched in 1992 is a perennial money loser with loss estimates of several million dollars last year.
In mid-March AMI said it was buying Us Weekly from Jann Wenner’s company. The deal, which was said to be for $100 million, didn’t close until late April after it cleared inspection by federal regulators.
A false story published in November 2015 in Wenner’s flagship Rolling Stone — and since retracted about a purported rape at a frat party at the University of Virginia, which resulted in three lawsuits. One the suits was tossed out by a judge and two others were settled.
In the Us Weekly, deal, only 80 of the 120 staffers were offered jobs — the rest were laid off by Wenner Media.
Pecker reportedly said he plans to keep all 25 staffers currently employed at Men’s Journal once the deal is finalized.
Wenner Media earlier sold a 49 percent stake in Rolling Stone to Singapore-based Bandland Technologies, run a Meng Ru Kuok, son of billionaire palm oil mogul Kuok Khoon Hong. Gus Wenner, 26-year-old son of Jann is playing a major roll in the shrinking Wenner Media.