More cutbacks looming at SI parent

THERE could be more cost-cutting ahead at the Maven, the tech outfit that publishes The Street and Sports Illustrated.

The publicly traded company, which has already announced a series of pay cuts and layoffs, warned this week that further trimming could be required to offset advertising woes brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The extent of the impact on the company’s operational and financial performance will depend on the company’s willingness and ability to take further cost reduction measures,” the company warned in a May 18 regulatory filing.

But Chief Executive James Heckman said he expects advertising revenues to improve. “We’re forecasting profitability by the end of the fourth quarter,” he said. “Sports will lead the advertising comeback.”

Aside from its publishing ventures, Maven also serves as tech platform vendor for 300 outside businesses, including the History Channel, Yoga Journal, Maxim and independent bloggers.

“While ads are down, subscriptions are up,” Heckman said. “The Street is generating nearly $3 million in subscription revenue per month, and traffic to sites like the History Channel is booming,” he said.

Maven, which took over Sports Illustrated and acquired Jim Cramer’s The Street within the past year, also released its financial results for the nine months through Sept. 30, 2018. The company listed a net loss of $35.4 million for the period, and an “accumulated deficit” of $25.8 million.

Heckman said the delay in filing more recent reports has been complicated by the acquisitions. “Literally in the last year and a half we’ve bought five companies. It’s a mechanical exercise of auditing all five companies as part of a single company.”

The Securities and Exchange filing has said the company is a “going concern” with enough cash on hand to only carry it through April 2021.

Condé rebuked

Coronavirus-induced cutbacks at Condé Nast, which resulted in 100 US layoffs last week, appear to have stirred labor unrest at the glitzy, struggling publisher.

Wired’s editorial union has fired off a letter to Condé Nast boss Roger Lynch blasting the company for its coronavirus-severance packages after a majority of staffers last month indicated they want the NewsGuild of New York to be their bargaining agent.

“We were deeply disappointed to learn that many of our laid-off colleagues were offered meager or nonexistent severance packages, even though in your letter to the company … you stated that ‘supporting people in their transition was of utmost importance’,” said the letter, which drew support from three other unionized Condé brands, including The New Yorker.

The union also lambasted the company for its treatment of freelancers.

“Our freelancer and subcontractor colleagues, some of whom worked for WIRED full time for years in a shameful two-tier system were left with no severance pay or health coverage whatsoever in the middle of a pandemic that has caused the worst economic downturn in generations.”

After a first round of cuts unveiled in late April that resulted in pay reductions, the publisher followed up last week by axing nearly 100 employees in the US, where about half of its 6,000 worldwide employees work.

The 70-member Wired union said on April 22 the overwhelming majority of staffers turned in cards asking for NewsGuild representation. The mag giant, which had been union-free until last year, has yet to officially recognize the union.

The company, owned by the billionaire Newhouse family, has not responded to requests for comment.

Bad pot luck

Hightimes Holding, still laboring to complete a crowdsourced initial public offering, has quietly scrapped its deal to acquire a marijuana cultivator in California — the latest deal to hit the skids for the parent company of stoner magazine High Times.

In an SEC filing on May 15, the company said the deal for Humboldt Heritage, which was announced on March 27, had been terminated “by mutual agreement.”

It’s not the first time a deal has fallen through for Hightimes, owned by private equity owner Oreva Capital, whose founder, Adam Levin, is also executive chairman of Hightimes. In January 2019, Hightimes said it would be bringing its Cannabis Cup show to Europe by acquiring Barcelona-based Spannabis, but by February the deal was off. “There is no relationship or collaboration between Spannabis and Hightimes,” the Spanish company said. “We want to deny all this information.”

In December 2018, the company said it was acquiring The Big Show, a Las Vegas-based marijuana show, and that the deal would close in the first quarter of 2019. It did not.

Hightimes has for the past two years been trying to raise money through a Reg A+ crowdsourced IPO. The final deadline for the frequently delayed event is now June 30.