Penske Media Corporation is buying 104-year old Women’s Wear Daily and several other business-to-business brands from Condé Nast subsidiary Fairchild Fashion Media, reports said Tuesday.
Los Angeles-based Penske Media, which publishes such print and online titles as Variety and Deadline.com, is acquiring all of Fairchild’s U.S.-based B2B publishing assets, including WWD, Beauty Inc., Footwear News, Fairchild Summits and M magazine. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Penske Media is apparently paying roughly $100 million for the publishing portfolio, according to a report from The New York Times that cites anonymous sources.
Condé Nast paid almost $650 million to buy Fairchild from The Walt Disney Company in 1999, outbidding rivals such as Hearst Corporation in the process. But, that deal also included multiple consumer fashion titles, such as W and Jane, which were subsequently moved directly under the Condé Nast umbrella. Remaining Fairchild consumer brands Style.com and NowManifest will stay with Condé Nast, WWD reports.
The deal is expected to be completed next month, at which point employees at the affected Fairchild titles will move to Penske Media.
“WWD and the other Fairchild properties are brands the entire PMC organization deeply respects, with an editorial heritage I have revered throughout my career. We look forward to welcoming this exceptional editorial team and profoundly talented organization to PMC,” Penske Media CEO Jay Penske said in a statement, according to WWD.
