Primedia and Brill Media Holdings form joint venture
The publisher of New York and Seventeen and the publisher of Brill's Content unveil a new subsidiary that brings together a number of their print and online products.
Steven Brill, who founded Brill Media Holdings and runs Brill's Content magazine and Contentville.com, has been named chairman and CEO of the new venture, which will be called Media Central.
Primedia said it will fuse its media industry-related magazines, Web sites, newsletters and other related content under Media Central. Some of the Media Central properties include Kagan World Media, Internet Media Investor, Folio Magazine and Motion Picture Investor.
Under the terms of the joint venture, Media Central will take a 49 percent stake in Brill Media Holdings, which in turn will gain a smaller minority stake in the new Primedia subsidiary.
Brill said that he will use the editorial staff at Media Central trade publications to provide additional expertise for stories covered in Brill's Content and vice versa.
"At a time when the media business is expanding and the old boundaries that separated these industries are rapidly disappearing, it makes sense to put all of these products under one roof," Primedia chairman and CEO Tom Rogers said in a statement.
Primedia is known for running a network of human-interest magazines, including Seventeen, New York and Modern Bride, as well as a school TV service, Channel One Network. It also has stakes in a variety of Web companies, such as MyPoints.com, CarsDirect.com and Utility.com.
In October, Primedia acquired Web directory About.com for $690 million in stock.