Time Inc., the owner of Travel + Leisure, Entertainment and Sports Illustrated, among others, announced earlier this week that they had sold their Mexican publications.
While details of the transaction were not released, Time Inc. did disclose that they sold Grupo Editorial Expansión, Mexico’s second-largest magazine publisher, to the Latin-American private equity firm Southern Cross Group.
Back in 2005 when Time Inc. bought Grupo for an estimated $60 million, then CEO Ann Moore called “international expansion a key element of our growth strategy.” She continued to say that the acquisition “represents an exceptional opportunity to establish Time Inc. as a major presence in the dynamic Mexican magazine market.”
The news came only days after Time Inc. began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month, when Time Warner spun off the underperforming publishing company. As both newsstand sales and ad sales have dwindled over the past few years, and the fact that Grupo represented 2% of Time Inc.’s combined revenue last year, the publication house decided to focus on their U.S. and U.K. brands.
“Time Inc.’s prime focus today is on growing core assets in the U.S. and U.K.,” wrote Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp in a statement to Advertising Age. “Therefore, we believe GEx will have better opportunity to maximize its value under ownership of Southern Cross.”
Founded over five decades ago in 1966, Grupo publishes 16 magazines and 10 websites in Mexico. The company will continue to license certain Time Inc. brands including, CNNMexico, InStyle and Travel + Leisure, according to Advertising Age.
This transition is just one of many for Time Inc. over the past year as the publishing house settles into it’s new role as a freestanding publication house. After a lengthy split from it’s namesake corporate parent company, Time Warner Inc., the U.S. print-media empire is shaking things up with the introduction of more visual journalism and a stronger focus on their domestic brands.
