Highbury Offloads Real Homes To Hachette Filipacchi
Magazine publisher, Highbury House Communications, has sold its Real Homes magazine to rival publisher, Hachette Filipacchi UK for £500,000 as part of its ongoing restructuring scheme.
Just weeks after shutting Home magazine, Highbury has also closed another of its home-interest lifestyles magazines, Inspirations.
Meanwhile, Highbury has decided to keep Garden’s Monthly and Front in its portfolio as it believes these titles offer “interesting development opportunities in their respective sectors.”
Commenting on the plans, Mark Simpson, chief executive of Highbury said: “The restructuring of Highbury House continues apace. The board is working to create a financially solid publishing business with a core of profitable titles, which have good positions and prospects for growth.”
Kevin Hand, Chairman of Hachette Filipacchi UK, added: “We are delighted to have acquired Real Homes magazine, giving us the opportunity to strengthen our homes portfolio within the group which is an important part of our strategy to grow the business. Real Homes has huge potential and Hachette has the ability to build upon its current success and take the magazine to its next phase of development.”
Real Homes has been under performing under Highbury’s ownership, with the title losing 44.8% year on year, taking its circulation to just under 60,000, according to the latest ABC figures (see ABC Results Jul-Dec 2004: Natmags Tops Home Interest Sector).
Earlier this year, Highbury House relaunched all three of its home interest titles, with Real Homes, Inspirations and Home receiving a face lift in their April issues (see Highbury Revamps Home Interest Titles).
However, the relaunch did little to boost the publishers fortunes in the home interest sector and later in the year it announced plans to sell a number of its magazine titles to rival publisher, Future.
Highbury House Communications shareholders approved the sale of 38 magazine titles to Future for a cash consideration of £30.5 million (see Highbury Shareholders Approve Magazine Sale).
The titles purchased include, Fast Cars, Fast Bikes, DJ, DVD Review, the What Video group of magazines and Highbury’s puzzle offerings. The deal also includes Highbury’s US division, which publishes five magazines (see Future Acquires 38 Magazines From Highbury House).
In April, Future dropped its proposed bid for Highbury House following an announcement by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that the deal would be referred to the Competition Commission before being allowed to go ahead (see Highbury Confirms Future Takeover Bid).
Highbury House Communications: www.hhc.co.uk