• by Michael Shields , January 5, 2005

Time Inc. agreed in principle on Tuesday to acquire the entirety of Essence Communications Partners, publisher of Essence magazine. Time Inc. had previously been a minority partner with Essence, believed to have held 49 percent of the company's values since 2000.

Financial terms of yesterday's transaction were not disclosed. According to both Essence and Time Inc., this transaction represents an extension of a successful partnership between the two companies, and will not involve any change in staff or editorial direction for Essence magazine.

"I think it's very positive," said Essence founder and CEO Ed Lewis. "It's part of an incredible relationship that developed. Time Inc. provides us with enormous resources. I really believe this is going to enable us to provide even more [for readers]."

As part of this move, however, Lewis will step down as CEO to take on a role as non-executive chairman and founder. Group Publisher Michelle Ebanks will become president of Essence Communications.

Time Inc. Executive Vice President Nora McAniff said that finances and efficiencies did play a key role in this decision, but that the expansion of Time Inc.'s resources was crucial. "Obviously, this makes really good financial sense for us, and also for them," she said.

But the biggest payoff may be in marketing synergies formed by the merger--useful when creating advertiser-driven events. "By owning [Essence} 100 percent, it allows us to do things on a grander or larger scale. We can do a lot more sharing than we are currently doing."

McAniff said that while there were no immediate plans for expansion, events like the annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans and last year's Women of Color in Power conference may hold even greater potential through leveraging Time Inc.'s infrastructure. "This allows us to make decisions quicker, and makes the scale of the projects larger," McAniff said.

Advertising will be an obvious area where both parties hope that the new relationship bears fruit. McAniff said that Essence's ethnic marketing expertise will help bring new ad categories into Time Inc.

She specifically mentioned packaging fashion-centric InStyle and recently launched Suede in an effort to increase the new title's ad page growth.

After the transaction is completed, Essence Communications, launched as a private company in 1969 until partnering with Time Inc. in 2000, will relocate to Sports Illustrated's offices in New York at 135 West 50th Street, which will be renamed the Essence Building.

Latina magazine, of which Lewis is a minority owner, will be unaffected by the Essence-Time Inc. partnership.