B&C, Multichannel sold to NewBay

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Reed Business Information has found a buyer for its US media trade titles. NewBay Media announced that it has acquired Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TWICE. The latter is a consumer electronics publication (This Week In Consumer Electronics).


Reed Elsevier tried and failed last year to find a buyer for the entire Reed Business Information (RBI) division, but put several titles, including B&C and Multichannel News, back on the auction block in July. RBI intends to keep Variety and no buyers have been announced for the other titles which were being shopped.

Terms of the sale to NewBay were not disclosed.

“We’re truly excited to have the opportunity to work with this talented team and to have these market-leading brands join the NewBay family. This acquisition further demonstrates NewBay’s commitment to our goal of delivering value to our advertisers, readers and partners in these critical markets” said NewBay CEO Steve Palm in a statement. “With this acquisition NewBay adds significant depth and breadth to its existing portfolio of broadcast properties, including TV Technology and Television Broadcast, and consumer electronic properties, including Residential Systems,” he added.

B&C and Multichannel News both have weekly print publications, daily email newsletters and websites covering the broadcast television and cable industries. TWICE serves retailers of consumer electronics with a bi-weekly print publication, daily and weekly email newsletters and a website.

NewBay moved quickly on Tuesday to incorporate links to the new acquisitions on its corporate website, even though the individual websites for B&C, Multichannel News and TWICE still identify them as RBI publications.

RBR-TVBR observation: Consolidation was inevitable, so now we will see how NewBay maximizes its resources to spread content production across even more outlets, while trying to maintain separate identities for the various titles. At first glance, this deal makes a lot more sense than the rumored deal in the works to have a bunch of financial players buy Nielsen’s trade pubs and try to make a go of them as a standalone company.