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Bowing to pressure to improve immediately, Time Inc.'s underperforming Time Warner division announced it was planning to sell 18 magazines.
The titles on the block comprise most of the male-oriented and leisure monthly titles in the Time4 Media Group, including Field & Stream and Popular Science, as well as the Parenting Group, which includes Parenting, Baby Talk and parenting.com.
Golf Magazine Group, which is the most profitable in the bunch, will be reassigned to the Sports Illustrated group.
The sale is being handled by J.P. Morgan Chase, which is hoping to fetch between $300 million and $400 million for the magazines. The aim is to find a single buyer for the entire group.
Potential lookers are expected to include strategic buyers such as Condé Nast, Hearst, Rodale, Hachette Filipacchi and a slew of financial players.
One potential buyer that is sure to surface is the Carlyle Group, a deep-pocketed buyout firm that recently hired former Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Norman Pearlstine.
Efrem "Skip" Zimbalist III, who had overseen many of the magazines when they were still known as Times Mirror Magazines, is now running his own magazine group, the El Segundo, Calif.-based Active Interest Media.
Terry Snow, who recently sold a stake in World Publication to the European publishing giant Bonnier Group, is also expected to have a gander.
Many former Primedia executives who have now teamed up with potential buyers are also expected to kick the tires, including William Reilly, head of Aurelian Media and Charles McCurdy, CEO of Apprise Media who has backing from Spectrum Equity.
Other magazines being put on the block are Ski, Skiing, Yachting, MotorBoating, Saltwater Sportsman, Outdoor Life, TW Skateboarding, TW Snowboarding, TW Surf, TW Motorcross, Ride BMX, Quad, and Warren Miller Entertainment.
zachery.kouwe@nypost.com
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