Time Inc. to sell some assets

Company makes a push to move beyond magazines

Bloomberg News

Time Inc. is planning to sell some magazines or other properties as the struggling publisher tries to push ahead with a digital strategy and move past months of talks with potential acquirers.

The owner of 'Sports Illustrated” and 'People” will look to offload 'relatively smaller” titles in its portfolio and other 'noncore” assets, CEO Rich Battista said Wednesday on a conference call. He didn't name the assets.

Battista added that Time is open to joint ventures with other companies and interested in an outside investor who could provide capital 'for a particular opportunity.”

Last month, Time announced that it was sticking with its online strategy rather than sell itself after months of negotiations with potential suitors, including Des Moines-based Meredith Corp. and a group including Pamplona Capital Management and Jahm Najafi.

The New York-based magazine publisher reported first-quarter revenue of $636 million, missing the $642 million average of analysts' estimates.

As with other magazine publishers, Time is struggling to transform itself as print advertising dries up and the lion's share of digital advertising dollars goes to Facebook and Google.

The magazine owner has spent months restructuring its business and replacing senior management, hoping to persuade advertisers to pour money into its magazine titles. This fall, Time plans to introduce a 'Sports Illustrated” online video service with documentaries and insights from the magazine's reporters, part of its growing push into video. Some of Time's smaller titles include 'Sunset” magazine and 'What's On TV,” which is based in the U.K.