Meredith Corp. has acquired
Parenting and Baby Talk from Bonnier Corp. and will fold the brands into two of its own titles, Parents and American Baby, thus ending their existence as
stand-alone publications. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Subscribers who previously received Parenting or Baby Talk will now receive
Parents or American Baby instead, according to Meredith, effective with their September issues. Parents and American Baby will include editorial features and
columns from the Bonnier titles. Parenting.com will join Meredith’s Parents digital media network.
Bonnier acquired Parenting and Baby Talk as part of its
purchase of Time Inc.’s special-interest publications back in January 2007, which brought Bonnier 18 titles for a sale price rumored to be between $200 million and $300 million. Other titles
acquired in the deal included Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and Popular Science.
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After acquiring Parenting, Bonnier split the brand into two titles more tightly
focused by the age of readers’ children: Parenting Early Years and Parenting School Years. It later closed Parenting Early Years and reestablished Parenting
as a general title, while keeping Parenting School Years as a stand-alone title.
Like the rest of the consumer magazine business, Parenting and Baby Talk
have struggled with declining print advertising demand amid the shift to digital media platforms. Ad pages at Parenting fell 42% from 1,225 in 2006 to 711 in 2012, while Baby Talk
declined 28.5% from 519 ad pages to 371 over the same period. Their counterparts also took their hits. From 2006-2012, ad pages at Parents fell 16.8% from 1,461 to 1,215, and American
Baby fell 40.7% from 671 to 398.
The parenting category overall has thinned out in recent years. Meredith closed Child in 2007, which also brought the demise of Nick
Jr. Family Magazine and Disney Adventures. Disney’s Wondertime closed in 2009. Meredith acquired Family Fun from Disney in 2012.