Georgia Trend buys out competition - Business Atlanta acquired - Brief Article

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

Georgia Trend claimed victory in December, when the monthly business magazine ended an often bitter competition by purchasing its rival, Business Atlanta, from Atlanta-based Argus Inc. for an undisclosed price.

The 40,000-circulation Business Atlanta will be folded into the 44,000-circulation Georgia Trend, according to Virgil Williams, president and CEO of Williams Communications, publisher of Georgia Trend. An Argus spokesman declined to reveal how many of the nine staffers affected would move over to Georgia Trend.

Although Georgia Trend had the larger circulation, Business Atlanta until last year led in advertising pages. Neither side would reveal 1993 ad-page figures, but in 1992, GT's ad pages had slipped to 375, from a peak of 780 in 1987. (See "Georgia Trend tries to get relevant again," FOLIO:, April 1, 1993, page 16.) From the time the St. Petersburg Times Co.launched Georgia Trend in 1985, the magazines fought for supremacy in the Peach State; at the time, it appeared Business Atlanta would be the survivor. After spending more than $10 million on the title, the Times Co. sold it to newspaper publisher Millard Grimes in 1991. Williams, who also serves as chief of staff to Georgia Governor Zell Miller, purchased the magazine from Grimes for $300,000 in December 1992. At that time, he also bought Augusta/Aiken Business, based in eastern Georgia, from Today Magazine Group, based in Ocala, Florida, and planned to create a statewide business publishing network.

Business Atlanta, published by Argus since 1980, reportedly had been on the block for several months. An Argus spokesman says the sale was made for strategic reasons: "This was the only |Argus property~ that was consumer oriented. We want to concentrate our energies on our trade publications."