SpinMedia and its pop culture sites are reportedly up for sale, after losing an estimated $5 million a year.
Formerly known as Buzz Media, the company
rebranded and took on the name of its flagship music brand, Spin. According to the New York Post, Spin underwent a round of layoffs last week.
SpinMedia's music properties
include Vibe, Stereogum, Idolator, Buzznet, PureVolume and Death and Taxes.
The publisher also owns pop culture sites Celebuzz, The Superficial, Go Fug Yourself and The
Frisky.
According to the NYP, Univision, which bought Gawker this month for $130 million, is believed to have expressed interest in SpinMedia a few months ago, but did not
move forward.
SpinMedia’s number of unique visitors was down to 25 million in July, according to comScore.
SpinMedia LLC was acquired by SpinMedia Group in
2012. In 2014, about 14% of SpinMedia's staff was let go -- reducing its number of employees to about 200 -- as the company transitioned its music magazines to digital, Billboard reports.
"We're going to be 100% focused on digital," CEO Stephen Blackwell told Billboard at the time. "I'm working very hard to make sure SpinMedia operates more like a second-stage
startup than a monstrous organization.”
Private equity fund MC Partners is said to have invested more than $10 million into Spin over the past two years.