Dennis expands US presence with takeover of family-owned financial publisher Kiplinger

Dennis Publishing has expanded its US presence with the acquisition of family-owned financial publisher Kiplinger, based in Washington DC.

Kiplinger Washington Editors is The Week publisher’s first purchase since it was taken over by UK private equity firm Exponent in October last year.

Dennis chairman Jack Griffin said the buyout marked the beginning of the company’s focus on “expansion through launch and acquisition in the US”.

Kiplinger has been run by three generations of the Kiplinger family since it was founded in 1920.

Dennis said Kiplinger publishes the “largest paid-subscription publications in several financial fields”:

business forecasting (the weekly Kiplinger Letter)
taxes (the biweekly Kiplinger Tax Letter)
retirement living (the monthly Kiplinger’s Retirement Report)
yield-oriented investing (the monthly Kiplinger’s Investing for Income).

It also publishes Kiplinger’s Personal Finance monthly magazine, first founded in 1947, which it claims has a circulation of 600,000, and Kiplinger.com, which it claims has 4m unique monthly visitors and more than 30m monthly page views.

Dennis has an existing portfolio of more than 30 brands, including PC Pro, Auto Express, and Coach. It claims to sell more than 2.5m magazines every month and reach some 50m unique monthly users.

The Week has more than 550,000 paid-for print subscribers and 5.8m monthly unique users online. It also publishes in the US.

James Tye, group chief executive at Dennis, said Kiplinger was a “great fit for Dennis” and expands its presence in financial publishing, which includes The Week and its sister title Money Week.

He said Kiplinger was a business with “strong, recurring, subscription revenues” and amounted to “everything we look for in a business – it is blessed with strong brands that have developed a high degree of trust with their readers, allied to a vibrant, growing digital business”.

Denise Elliott, senior vice president and chief operating officer at Kiplinger, will step up to run Kiplinger as chief executive from the company’s Washington DC headquarters.

Knight Kiplinger, 71, formerly Kiplinger’s chairman and editor-in-chief, will continue as chairman of Kiplinger’s former parent company Outlook, and will serve as an informal advisor to Kiplinger and Dennis on editorial content as editor emeritus.

Kiplinger said: “Dennis will be an excellent custodian of not just the Kiplinger business, but of our editorial integrity and focus on strong reader service.”

Dennis chairman Jack Griffin said: “Dennis has deep expertise in developing and growing well-loved media brands, both in print and online.

“We see a significant opportunity to continue to grow our business through expanding our reach and reputation globally.

“The Kiplinger acquisition marks the beginning of our focus on expansion through launch and acquisition in the US, one of the largest and most exciting media markets in the world.”

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