Time Inc. ‘bankers’ up and juices stock 8%

THE Time Inc. takeover saga got a little more interesting on Thursday with news that the company had officially hired Morgan Stanley and Bank of America to field offers.

The banker news goosed Time shares nearly 8 percent, to $17.75 — just a tad under their 52-week high of $17.95.

When it spun out of Time Warner in June 2014, it carried a $23-a-share price.

Time’s stock has come back to life since nypost.com revealed that a trio of billionaires — Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music Chairman Len

Blavatnik and investor Ynon Kreiz — had approached Time Inc.’s board in early November with an offer of $1.8 billion, or $18 a share.

Meredith Corp., which twice tried to hammer out some kind of deal to merge with Time in 2013, has often been speculated to be the trio’s natural partner.

“We are continually exploring opportunities to add attractive magazine media, broadcast and digitalvideo brands to our multichannel media portfolio,” Meredith Chief Executive Steve Lacy told Media Ink, speaking generally and not of any specific Time Inc. plans.

This week, it also emerged that Hearst is sizing up some of Time’s titles in case they go into play.

Hearst Magazines President David Carey said, “There have been no discussions and no meetings [with Time Inc.]” but added, “We always look at anything that is available.”

The hiring of the two bankers was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources with knowledge of the situation.

A Time spokeswoman said only, “As a matter of policy, Time Inc. does not comment on speculation about such matters.”

A print death . . .

Complex Media, now a wholly owned joint venture between Hearst and Verizon, is the latest to drop its print magazine.

The December/January issue of Complex Magazine now out will be its last, ending a 14-year run that launched the company founded by CEO Rich Antoniello and fashion designer Marc Ecko to cater to male-skewing skateboard and hiphop lovers ages 18 to 34.

At the time of the Hearst-Verizon buyout this summer, the company reportedly had a valuation of $250 million to $300 million and had grown far beyond its roots, with sponsored videos and digital programming aimed at the hard-toreach male audience.

Antoniello, speaking to Media Ink shortly before the Complex board met with executives from Hearst and Verizon, said the magazine’s budget will instead be used for video production and special mega-events.

“The net of this whole thing is an expansion and an investment,” he said. “Unfortunately, some people will not transform with us.”

The company that runs the Complex Media Network, which handles ad sales for outside outfits as well as its own, has been transitioning for years and there were few dedicated to only print, he said.

“The minute we began doing video, we did it with one team,” Antoniello said. And unlike SpinMedia, which ran out of gas as the price of digital banner ads collapsed and ad networks became less viable, Complex avoided banner ads and invested in more costly videos, Antoniello said.

In 2017, Complex will “put out 40 shows a week, eight new shows each weekday,” he said.

Complex Media “has been profitable since 2010,” said Antoniello, who added that the company now employs about 400 people. “We’re a brand and a business.”

. . . And a rebirth

Paste, a music and pop culture magazine that years ago would distribute a free CD with every issue — before stopping the print version in 2010 — is returning to print early next year.

This time, it will be a throwback, with a vinyl record affixed to the magazine as a premium attraction.

The quarterly will debut in March. And soon, for readers without a record player, co-founder and Editorin-Chief Josh Jackson said he will feature a special one-time offer to buy a personal record player.

“Vinyl records are making a comeback,” according to Jackson.

Subscriptions will sell for $70 a year — or will cost $20 per issue via direct mail, with the record, he said.

There will be 15,000 distributed of each issue.

“We expect to sell them all,” Jackson said, adding that he’s finalizing plans and prices for the record player.

In the six years since it stopped printing the mag, the Atlanta company has been a digital site covering music, movies, TV, food and travel.

. . . Plus another

Hearst said it is teaming up with Scripps Network Interactive once again to test a new magazine, The Pioneer Woman, with Food Network star Ree Drummond. It will be distributed exclusively in Walmart stores. The first issue will hit in June, with a second planned for the fall. Maile Carpenter, the editor of Food Network Magazine, and Hearst consultant Ellen Levine, the company’s former editorial director, were en route to Drummond’s ranch in Pawhuska, Okla., on Thursday.