We don’t much get into the economics of publishing here at CJR Daily World Headquarters — our job is to critique the scribes, not the business geniuses who employ them.
But we couldn’t help but be brought up short by this item from Mediaweek: Five prospective buyers are each offering between $40 million to $50 million to take the ailing magazines Fast Company and Inc. off of the hands of Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing.
Why do we care? Well, just five years ago — at the very apex of the dot-com bubble — G&J acquired Inc. from Bernard Goldhirsch for $200 million, and Fast Company from Mort Zuckerman for $350 million.
Yowza! Fast company, indeed.
–Steve Lovelady
Steve Lovelady was editor of CJR Daily.