Okay, so here's the deal.
About 10 days ago, PW's parent company, Reed Business Information, was put up for sale by its parent company, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Reed Elsevier. Almost immediately, the media coverage began: Reed said there was no buyer in place, but most news coverage speculated that there must have been at least some preliminary indication that the company could fetch something near a whopping $2.5 billion. The smart money [sic] is on the idea that our buyer will be a private equity firm, maybe European, and that Reed would prefer to find a buyer for the whole shebang (around 300 magazines worldwide) than to sell it off piecemeal.
Various companies—from Reed archrival Nielsen Business Media (formerly VNU) to equity firm Apax—have been mentioned as possibilities. No sooner had these stories been printed or posted than the calls began—most of them friendly, concerned and positive about PW and its future. If the occasional blog—one by a frequent PW contributor, no less!—was uncharitable, well, hey, when you've been the industry leader for more than 100 years, people are going to take shots at you.
Which is not to say that PW has always kept pace with the changes in the industry it covers, or that whatever transition might come with new owners is going to be easy. But I'm either extremely wise and mature or in deep, deep denial when I say I see this news as positive: a new owner means new energy and, I hope, new ideas. And as far as I know, everybody around here is up for that: we're champing at the bit, in fact, to show what we can do to continue to improve our relationships with and coverage of this business we all love.
I wish I could say I knew the who/what/when/where of this unfolding story—but I don't. And it's an irony not lost on me that our crackerjack staff has been able to turn up more detail and back story on other mergers/buyouts (Warner-Hachette; Houghton-Harcourt; Thomas Nelson) than we can on our own. But I do know “why” somebody or -bodies will be interested: because we're good. Sure, some of the bloggers and commentators are hurtful—one cynic laughed when I suggested anybody who bought us would do so because they wanted us; “Nobody buys companies because they care about them,” he said. But instead of being scared off by the coverage, even the nasty bits, I'm strangely buoyed by it. Has anybody else noticed how often itty-bitty, “irrelevant” PW turns up high on the list of jewels in the RBI crown?
What's more, the whole situation appeals to the reader in me: what a great narrative! A media entity that covers the comings and goings of other media entities is now, itself, coming and going. The reporters of change have now become the subject of it. But one thing's for sure: it's going to be a fascinating story, rich in detail and character and passion and intrigue. One publishing executive, who has himself been around a few blocks, and on them, has suggested there will be a happy ending to the story. “I know how unsettling it can be,” he wrote me in an e-mail. “[But] I'm sure it will go well.”
From his keyboard to a buyer's ear.
Agree? Disagree? Tell us at www.publishersweekly.com/saranelson
