Time Inc. buys Food & Wine, other Amex-owned titles
Media american express time inc.
Keith J. Kelly
Time Inc. is expected to unveil a deal to purchase all five titles from American Express Publishing Magazine Group, including Travel + Leisure and Food &...
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New York Post
Time Inc. is expected to unveil a deal to purchase all five titles from American Express Publishing Magazine Group, including Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine, The Post has learned.

Also being sold are magazines that go exclusively to AmEx card members — Departures, Black Inc. and Executive Travel.

Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but sources believe the sale price is less than $100 million.

The deal marks the first move since Joe Ripp took over as Time Inc. CEO last week, although the talks between AmEx and Time Warner have been underway for months, sources said.

Parent Time Warner is planning to spin off the Time Inc. publishing unit as a separately traded public company early next year.

The AmEx titles have contracted with Time Inc. for the past 20 years to perform a host of back-office operations such as circulation and marketing, while AmEx Publishing, under CEO Ed Kelly, oversaw the editorial and advertising portion.

Ripp was a one-time chief financial officer of Time Inc. earlier in his career, and it was during his tenure that the two companies hatched the service agreement in 1993.

Under that deal, Time was said to have right of first refusal if the magazines were ever put on the block. Time Inc. and AmEx declined to comment.