• by Erik Sass , January 31, 2011

After several months of negotiations, Hearst Corp. has made a binding offer to acquire Lagardère SCA's international magazine business, including Hachette Filipacchi, which publishes the American edition of Elle, Car and Driver and Woman's Day, among other titles. Altogether, the €651 million deal -- worth about $891 million at current exchange rates -- covers 102 titles and their associated digital properties in 15 countries around the world, including 14 non-U.S. editions of Elle and nine non-U.S. editions of Elle Décor. The French edition of Elle will remain under the control of Paris-based Lagardère's domestic publishing division.

  Hachette's fashion, women's lifestyle, shelter and auto brands are a natural fit for Hearst Corp., which publishes Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping and Esquire, among others. Hearst said it expects to achieve "significant synergies with its existing magazine business." The combination of Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Marie Claire in particular could become a fashion advertising juggernaut to rival Conde Nast's industry-leading fashion division, which includes Vogue, Glamour, Allure, and Lucky.

While the fashion titles are clearly the centerpiece of the deal, Hachette's automotive division, including Car and Driver, Road & Track, the Jumpstart online automotive ad network, could also produce advertising synergies with Popular Mechanics, which slants heavily toward auto consumer news. There's also the potential for synergy between Hachette's Elle Décor and Hearst's Country Living, House Beautiful, Town and Country, and Veranda.

  The fact remains that both magazine publishers -- like their peers -- have taken a beating from the recession and secular media trends over the last couple of years. Although most of the following titles started to rebound in 2009-2010, according to the Publishers Information Bureau total ad pages at Hearst Corp., titles are still down compared to a few years ago -- having slipped 28.5% from 19,784 in 2006 to 14,165 in 2010.

Total ad pages at Hachette's print titles declined from 8,478 in 2006 to 7,164 in 2010, for a 15.5% drop.