Magazine Rolling Stone has new owner

UNITED STATES: The entertainment media company that owns Variety, TV Line, Deadline and other properties has reached a deal to acquire control of Rolling Stone magazine.

Penske Media will acquire an ownership interest in Rolling Stone’s majority owner, Wenner Media, shortly after the magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary.

The deal means Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner will relinquish ownership of the magazine he co-founded in 1967 in San Francisco with music journalist Ralph Gleason.

Wenner Media had announced in September it would ‘‘explore strategic options’’ for Rolling Stone’s future, setting it on a path toward a possible sale.

Penske Media and Wenner Media did not reveal a price, but Variety valued the magazine at more than US$100 million.

Over its five decades, Rolling Stone became a cultural touchstone, serving as a vehicle for writers such as Hunter S Thompson, whose gonzo journalism pieces included Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Tom Wolfe, whose early stories on Nasa’s space programme evolved into The Right Stuff. And famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shot more than 140 cover photos during more than 10 years at the magazine including one of John Lennon and Yoko One just hours before Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980.

Its image took a hit in recent years after a 2014 story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia fraternity was retracted. A jury last year awarded a university official $3 million after it found the magazine had defamed her in the story.

Although Wenner is selling his stake, he will stay on as editorial director of Rolling Stone .– TNS