• Ad Age, Thursday, August 10, 2006 11:30 AM

Wenner Media will buy back a 50% stake in Us Weekly that it sold to Walt Disney Co. in 2001, Ad Age reports. The price tag: About $300 million for the same interest Disney bought for just $40 million. "The big question--why now?--doesn't have a clear answer," Ad Age says. .But Disney, which is trying to divest itself of "noncore" assets, made the approach. "The big payout makes the move a bit of a gamble for Wenner, but that's nothing new.." the story continues. After all, it was a big risk for Us to jump from a monthly schedule to a weekly one in March 2000, taking on Time Inc.'s People. And once Bonnie Fuller took the editor's chair, Us Weekly took and inspired so much imitation that the celebrity-weekly category has become one of the most competitive--and prosperous--in the magazine business. Ms. Fuller, Ad Age notes, is "a case in point"--as she eventually defected to rival American Media to work at Star.

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