Boehly buys Vibe and Spin sites with editors
SPINMedia’s final bust-up is here. Todd Boehly’s Prometheus Global Media, which already owns Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, signed a deal on Thursday to buy Vibe and Spin and two other Web sites from SpinMedia.
The Web sites Stereogum and Deathandtaxes will also go to Prometheus in the deal, which is backed by Boehly’s investment firm, Eldridge Industries.
A deal by SpinMedia’s owner, M/C Partners, to sell off its few remaining celebrity sites, including Celebuzz, TheFrisky and TheSuperficial, could come as early as Friday, sources tell Media Ink.
SpinMedia CEO Steve Black- well is expected to move with Spin and Vibe and become Prometheus’ chief strategy officer, reporting to John Amato, who shares the co-president title with Janice Min.
There are no plans afoot to resurrect Vibe or Spin as print titles, insiders said. Both titles were moved to digital only under SpinMedia.
Vibe Editor-in-Chief Datwon Thomas and Spin Editor-in-Chief Puja Patel and overall Editorial Director Alex Moore are also expected to make the leap — but sources say there were also an undisclosed number of pink slips handed out at SpinMedia on Thursday.
“For M/C, it is a way to stop the bleeding,” said one industry executive. “For Boehly, he has to think there is still equity left in the brands.”
SpinMedia, originally known as Buzz Media, was one of the oldfashioned ad networks that scored more than $125 million in venture money over the years using a few of its owned and operated sites — while selling ads for a wide number of affiliated sites.
As the price of banner ads collapsed, it lost money and eventu- ally was forced into an assignment for the benefit of creditors, wiping out most of the early equity players.
M/C Group emerged as the principal owner in early 2014 and pumped in at least $16 million in two separate rounds of funding, sources told Media Ink. But the company was said to be bleeding money at the rate of $5 million a year.
Terms of the deal with Boehly were not disclosed.
Nardoza retires
Ed Nardoza is stepping down as editor-in-chief of Women’s Wear Daily at the end of next week, ending a 25-year run.
“It’s a good thing,” he told Media Ink. “It’s time after 25 years. I’ll hit the books, hit the gym, maybe do a little teaching and spend some time with my grandson.”
“I never had a boring day in 25 years,” he said.
The 63-year-old editor first joined Fairchild Publications 39 years ago.
“I had five different owners and each had different styles and agendas, but the Fairchild culture was so strong, you couldn’t kill it,” he said. Ownership over the years included Cap Cities, which merged with ABC, was acquired by Walt Disney and was eventually spun off to the Newhouse family’s Advance Publications.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Fairchild was sold to Jay Penske’s Penske Media, owner of Variety.
Nardoza managed to survive and thrive through all the changes.
Miles Socha, the European Editor, will succeed Nardoza.
Going native
Some sobering news from the native advertising front, which many legacy publishers are looking to as a digital life raft.
Native ad renewal rates for 2016 were only 33 percent, according to Todd Krizelman, CEO of the ad-tracking firm MediaRadar.
Fully a fifth of the 1,000 publishers he tracked had renewal rates of less than 20 percent.
Native ads are sponsored content fashioned to look like editorial content. It is not all bad news, though. Quality native ads did better, Krizelman said, noting that top native advertisers have renewal rates of 60 percent to 80 percent.
The report also found that ad blocking has become a “diluted threat.”
A pricey Us
Jann Wenner is said to be hoping for a $100 million payday for Us Weekly. Media Ink reported this week that Wenner Media was looking to sell all or a piece of the title. The company has retained the quiet but high-powered New York investment firm Methuselah Advisors, headed by John Chachas, to drum up interest. Industry observers think that a strategic buyer such as Time Inc., Bauer Publishing or American Media would be hard-pressed to produce the kind of money Wenner is seeking, and would most likely pass. The field is more likely to attract interest from digital players on the home front and overseas companies looking for a toehold in the US entertainment market.