Investor takes stake in Rolling Stone

NEW YORK: Media investor Jay Penske on Wednesday announced a stake in Rolling Stone to revive the financial health of the iconic magazine of music and counterculture, with founder Jann Wenner preserving a role.

The investor’s Penske Media Corp did not reveal terms of the deal but several media outlets including Variety, one of his titles, said the media company was spending $100 million for a controlling stake.

BandLab Technologies, a Singaporean start-up headed by Kuok Meng Ru, the scion of one of Asia’s richest families, will keep its 49 per cent stake in Rolling Stone bought last year, Penske said.

Wenner launched Rolling Stone in 1967 through a family loan when he was a hippie student in Berkeley, California. Within years he turned the magazine into a bible of rock music coverage and a platform for left-wing politics and experimental journalism by writers such as gonzo reporter Hunter S. Thompson.

But even as Rolling Stone’s reviews remain among the most closely watched in the music industry, the publication has struggled in an era when independent magazines find it difficult to stay afloat. Rolling Stone suffered a major blow when it retracted a 2014 story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, with a review finding that the magazine ignored basic journalistic practices.

Penske said he hoped to ensure that Rolling Stone “continues to ascend for decades across multiple media platforms.” — AFP