Georgia Trend sold - again - business magazine - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June 1, 1994 by Allen Rabinowitz

The saga of Georgia Trend continues. Millard Grimes, who sold the business magazine for $300,000 in September 1992, repurchased the title in April for an undisclosed--but higher--sum.

Grimes says his biggest regret was selling Georgia Trend in the first place, and that reacquiring the monthly publication "became a mission." However, the Georgia Trend he now owns is not the same magazine he sold two years ago to Virgil Williams, an Atlanta entrepreneur who also serves as chief of staff for Georgia governor Zell Miller. Under Williams, Georgia Trend increased its circulation from 39,500 to 60,000, primarily by acquiring other Georgia business books, including Business Atlanta, its main rival. (See "Georgia Trend buys out competition," FOLIO:, February 1, 1994, page 15.)

Grimes, who also publishes a suburban daily and Georgia Journal, a small-circulation tourism and history magazine out of Athens, is serving as publisher, editor and writer for Georgia Trend, with offices in Athens and the Atlanta suburb of Norcross.

Originally launched by the St. Petersburg Times Co. in 1985, Georgia Trend has never been profitable. The Times Co. was ready to fold it after spending more than $10 million on the magazine before Grimes purchased it in June 1991. To his dismay, the recession caused deeper losses than anticipated for the title. "There were days when if somebody |had^ offered me a quarter for it, I would have let them have it," he says.

As part of the latest transaction, Williams will retain the Business Atlanta name and will continue to write a column for Georgia Trend. "Ownership of Georgia Trend was a great experience," he says, "but I feel at this time that there are significant opportunities for me in the communications field."

Atlanta media observers were surprised by the sale. "It's like trying to keep track of Elizabeth Taylor's marriages," quips Jeffrey Scott, who covers advertising and media for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. One of Georgia Trend's main problems, Scott says, is that it has never found a niche for itself, wavering between being a statewide business publication and one concentrating on the Atlanta area.

But Margaret Anthony, an advertising and media columnist for the weekly Atlanta Business Chronicle, describes Georgia Trend as a "survivor" and says there is a need for the publication: "The challenge is to make it a must-read for its audience."