Look beyond what's on the block - acquisition of magazines not yet for sale - Folio: Plus - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct 15, 1993

Publishers on the acquisition trail typically pore over a "descriptive memorandum" (called a black, green, blue or maroon book, depending on which dealmaker represents the seller). Today, with more companies concentrating on portfolio management and weeding out magazines that don't fit their franchises, there may be opportunities to buy magazines not yet up for sale--and maybe not even identified by the owners as properties they should sell.

According to H. Mason Fackert III, a managing director at Acton, Massachusetts-based Concord Ventures, publishers interested in acquisitions should become more proactive. Instead of looking only at what's officially "on the block," they should identify larger companies that may be holding on to titles that no longer fit into their strategic mix and make offers for those publications. "In today's sluggish mergers-and-acquisitions market," Fackert says, "larger publishers are more willing to listen to unsolicited offers for properties in their portfolios that may not match their new strategic directions."