Tara Lachapelle, Columnist

Time Wasn't on Its Side

Selling to Meredith is the right move, but good luck going toe-to-toe with Facebook and Google.

November 27, 2017 at 1:49 PM UTC

By Tara Lachapelle

Tara Lachapelle is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering entertainment, telecommunications and deals.

1511792315_pic — Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

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It's a bittersweet day for Old Media. Time Inc., publisher of the namesake iconic magazine, is selling out as its print-advertising revenue shrinks, with little offset by its ambitious digital efforts.

Meredith Corp. -- whose titles include Better Homes & Gardens and target mostly women -- is buying Time for $18.50 a share, or $2.8 billion including debt, in hopes of becoming a more formidable competitor to Facebook Inc. and Google in online advertising. The deal ends a years-long pursuit of Time by Meredith and other bidders and closes the books on one more offshoot of the Time Warner Inc. media empire (Time Warner Cable sold to Charter Communications Inc. in 2016, and Time Warner has agreed to be bought by AT&T Inc. should the government allow).