Time Inc. to Buy Rest of Essence Maagazine

Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) publishing arm said on Tuesday it would buy the remaining stake in African American-focused magazine publisher Essence Communications Partners that it does not already own. Time Inc., the biggest U.S. magazine publisher, is buying 51 percent of Essence Communications, whose women's title Essence is the second-biggest selling African-American magazine in the United States with a circulation of more than 1 million. Essence, based in New York, also recently launched Suede, a younger women's fashion and beauty magazine. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Time Inc. previously bought a 49 percent stake in Essence Communications in 2000. In a statement, Time Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Ann Moore said there had been an understanding between the two publishers that "if they ever wanted to sell the remaining interest, we wanted to purchase it." "So, we're especially pleased with this development," she said. Essence and Suede magazines will join Time Inc.'s large stable of publications that includes People, Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune. Essence magazine launched in 1970 and it is the second biggest African-American magazine in the United States after Ebony, run by Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Co. Inc. [more]

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