A Meredith Corp. spokesperson said that in the wake of the sale of its Time magazine title, the media conglomerate is now "close to selling" other titles such as SI, according to Chozick & Gelles of the N.Y. TIMES. Meredith has "agreed to sell the flagship publication of the once-mighty Time Inc." to Salesforce.com Chair & CEO Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, for $190M (N.Y. TIMES, 9/17). RECODE's Peter Kafka wrote now that Benioff has "made his deal, it gets harder to imagine a billionaire/white knight scenario for any of the remaining properties," though Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert's name was "still being floated" as a SI buyer a few weeks ago. Financials for the last three years of SI show a steady decline for the magazine, with revenue dropping from $239M in '15 to $184.8M in '17, and operating income dropping from $24.7M to $13.4M in the same timeframe. Print ad revenue, "not surprisingly," has fallen from $100.1M in '15 to $57.4 in '17. Digital ad revenue is growing, from $39.4M to $49M, but the "digital ad business is getting harder, not easier." Earlier this summer, Meredith was "telling would-be buyers they would need to pay at least" $150M to land SI. Kafka cited sources as saying that suitors for SI believe the publication is "worth much less" than $150M (RECODE.net, 9/16).
