TV Guide has been sold, yet again
NTVB Media, which publishes other TV titles, buys the magazine
October 8, 2015
TV Guide magazine has been a puzzle no one could solve for the past decade or longer.
Now it has a new owner with the hopes of cracking it.
Today NTVB Media purchased TV Guide, becoming the title’s third owner in eight years.
NTVB publishes TV listings titles, such as TV Weekly and Channel Guide, that are included in local Sunday newspapers around the country, as well as titles distributed by cable and satellite companies to their subscribers, such as Hopper Magazine, which goes out to Dish subscribers.
NTVB bought the title from OpenGate Capital of Beverly Hills, a venture capital firm that picked up the magazine in 2008 for $1, hoping to turn it around and sell it for a lush profit.
Can NTVB succeed where OpenGate failed? Good question.
The concept behind TV Guide-TV listings and light features-is outdated for sure, now that TV listings are built right into most cable and satellite boxes and are available all over the internet.
And as a news-driven weekly, it’s faced huge challenges from the web, which is awash in dozens of sites that write stories, mostly adoring, about TV shows and stars.
But even so, TV Guide has always maintained potential.
For one, it still has a huge circulation. It’s still the No. 2 entertainment magazine behind People, with circulation of 1.8 million, according to the Alliance for Audited Media, ranking among the top 15 consumer magazines.
And its subject, television, remains hugely popular even as the format in which people get their TV shows has changed.
Simply put, TV Guide, after years of staring into a grave, is either primed to finally fall in or to find a formula that works and go onto a new life.
With experience in the TV landscape TV Guide has been a part of for 62 years, NTVB offers the sort of synergy with its existing business that previous owners of the title did not.
That appears to be the direction in which NTVB is headed.
The company says it will package TV Guide’s ad pages with those of its weekly listings and the custom magazines it publishes.
“I think that being purchased by NTVB Media is quote-‘better’ than a venture capital company in the sense that it has a vested interest in utilizing the existing content infrastructure of TV Guide-an entertainment-focused editorial staff,” Carol Pais Hammond, director of print buying at Fallon, tells Media Life.
“But even so, I can’t imagine the magazine can continue as is in the current media landscape. At the very least, I’d suspect further adjustments to circulation and distribution.”
OpenGate didn’t have the publishing background NTVB does and couldn’t or chose not to make those distribution adjustments.
It did try to make other changes to bring TV Guide into the digital age.
Earlier this year, OpenGate launched TVInsider.com, a new website focused on spoilers, exclusive sneak previews and other stuff TV fans devour online. TVInsider is included in NTVB’s purchase.
Tags: magazines, ntvb media, tv, TV Guide, tv guide owner, tv guide sold, tv listings
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