Dennis Publishing to expand Men’s Fitness magazine
Dennis Publishing has signed a new deal with American Media Inc. for the rights to expand Men’s Fitness.
The publishing company will be working with the New York based firm AMI to expand the consumer magazine internationally, targeting key areas where fitness and active persuits are fast growing sectors.
Dennis’ new agreement adds to its existing 300 international licenses.
The publishing group has also acquired the rights to publish Men’s Fitness in the UK and Ireland. It has published the men’s title in the UK and Ireland since 2001 under a commercial license from AMI but will now have the full rights over the magazine content and any Men’s Fitness brand activity.
Dennis’ acquisition of the magazine’s license is not expected to result in any change to the existing editorial and commercial teams at the publishing company.
James Tye, CEO of Dennis Publishing, said: “Men’s Fitness has smartly bucked the trend in UK publishing, adding both newsstand sales and advertising pages in the last year. The superb editorial mix of fitness advice and lifestyle features is absolutely right for this growing market and it is now time to take the brand to the next level. The alliance with AMI and the acquisition of the license is the first step in an aggressive programme of expansion for Men’s Fitness and for Dennis Publishing’s presence in this category.”
David Pecker, CEO and chairman of the board at American Media Inc, added: “Partnering with Dennis is a strategic move for AMI in helping to further one of our goals and aggressively develop Men’s Fitness as an International Power Brand the world over. Our strong relationship with Dennis Publishing over the last eight years has made the decision to form this alliance a very natural progression.
“Combining the assets and efforts of both companies, each experienced in global licensing, offers existing as well as upcoming Men’s Fitness editions much more; as it provides a very unique licensing package and creates tremendous advantage over the competition around the world.”
In the latest ABC release, Men’s Fitness enjoyed a year on year increase of 3.6%, taking its total circulation to almost 68,000 copies.