E&P Will Live!

Great news!  The following is posted on the E&P website:

“Editor & Publisher, the only independent news organization reporting on all aspects of the transforming newspaper business, has resumed publication in print and online following its sale Thursday to Duncan McIntosh Company, the Irvine, CA-based magazine and newspaper publisher.

The announcement came exactly two weeks after the closing of E&P, which can trace its roots back 126 years.

Duncan McIntosh said he knew immediately when Nielsen announced in December the closing of E&P that he wanted to keep the magazine and its digital newsgathering properties going.

“Such a critical information source for a newspaper industry so desperately in need of help should not go away,” McIntosh said.  ‘I’ve been a reader of E&P over the course of 30 years and know its incredible value to readers and advertisers.’

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Charles “Chas” McKeown, who will continue as publisher of E&P, hailed the sale and the speed and professionalism with which McIntosh and Nielsen completed the transaction.  “Everyone knew what was at stake here,” McKeown said.  “Newspapers, which are transforming beyond the printed page to all forms of digital media, simply could not lose the one place where the industry could have a conversation with itself and exchange ideas and best practices for navigating the uncertain waters ahead, exemplified by our Interactive Media Conference which includes cable, TV, radio and other media.”

Duncan McIntosh Company is the publisher of several boating magazines and newspapers, including Boating World magazine; Sea Magazine, America’s Western Boating Magazine; The Log Newspaper; and FishRap.  The company also produces the Newport Boat Show in the spring and the Lido Yacht Expo in the fall.  Both shows are held in California.

Mark Fitzgerald, a 26-year veteran, was named as E&P’s new editor.  He had most recently served as E&P’s editor-at-large.

‘I’m of course grateful to Duncan for stepping up to keep E&P alive, and I’ve been extremely impressed by the passion and energy he is bringing to this enterprise,’ Fitzgerald said.  ‘I’m humbled to be leading a news organization that I’ve always believed produces one of the best news reports of any industry sector.’

E&P’s new owners announced plans to publish a February print issue and continue the magazine’s monthly print publication schedule.  Online reporting on its website, editorandpublisher.com, began immediately upon the close of the transaction Thursday.

E&P staff”

Travel Magazine Sold to Investment Company

BUDGET TRAVEL, the financially ailing travel magazine, has been sold by owner The Washington Post Company to Fletcher Asset Management, a New York based investment firm.  Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Budget Travel has lost over 28% of revenue during 2009 and The Washington Post Company needed to part with the travel magazine to focus more on its also monetarily challenged NEWSWEEK title.  Tom Ascheim, CEO of Newsweek, released a statement saying that the new owner had agreed to keep all of Budget Travel’s management in place and “essentially all” of the editorial staff.  Fletcher also plans to keep the 10 issue-a-year schedule and keep the online edition live.

Budget Travel, founded by travel icon Arthur Frommer, has been part of the Washington Post Company since 1991 and boasts a circulation of nearly 700,000.