IPC Media has completed the sale of four magazines, including lad’s mag Loaded, to Vitality Publishing.
The deal pushes the number of titles IPC has sold it the last month to 14 as it moves forward with its plan to offload a number of its smaller titles.
Vitality, which already publishes gay lifestyle magazine Attitude and Women’s Fitness, will take with Superbike, Prediction and Hair magazines in addition to Loaded.
The deal – terms of which were not disclosed – sees Vitality acquire the brand with immediate effect.
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IPC said staff would transfer to the new owner straight away and there would be no interruption to the publishing schedule of the title.
Peter Hatch, Vitality Publishing, said: ‘We are delighted to have been successful in acquiring these iconic brands and anticipate an interesting and rewarding future ahead as we work together with the professional teams on each of the brands, in both maintaining the high reputations of their brands and developing them to meet the demands of the fast changing and exciting world of magazine publishing.”
This latest sale follows confirmation earlier in the month from IPC that it had offloaded ten titles as it looked to streamline its business.
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The publishing giant confirmed on 11 October, that it had sold its Caravan title to Warners Group Publications.
Before that Aeroplane, MiniWorld, Ships Monthly and Park and Holiday Caravan were bought by Kent and Cambridge-based Kelsey Publishing – which had previously acquired another IPC title: Cage and Aviary Bird – while Dennis Publishing bought IPC’s Web User magazine.
In addition to these changes, IPC confirmed the sale of Model Collector and Stamp Magazine to MyHobbyStore for an undisclosed fee in the first days of October.
In late September, IPC sold its Guitar and Bass magazine to Anthem Publishing.
The numerous sales follow a strategic review of IPC which concluded that it was necessary for the publisher to sell a number of its smaller titles.
The magazine giant is still engaged in talks with other independent magazine publishers over likely magazine sales.
It is believed to be poised to sell its World Soccer magazine, Racecar Engineering and Classic Boat to The Chelsea Magazine Company.
Three weeks ago, IPC reported a 37 per cent fall in profits for 2009. The UK’s largest magazine publisher reported 2009 pre-tax profits of £49.7m on revenues which had fallen 11 per cent to £351m.
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