• by Erik Sass , May 10, 2007

Primedia Enthusiast Media will likely be sold to Wasserstein & Co. sometime in the next week, according to unnamed sources cited in Wednesday's Folio Web posting. The final bids for the company, which publishes Motor Trend, Automobile, and Hot Rod, among other titles, are due Friday. The price tag is expected to top $500 million. Wasserstein is still competing with Elevation Partners, but is believed to have the advantage.

Ahead of the sale, Primedia's bigger titles have turned in a mixed performance in terms of ad pages. In the first three months of 2007, Automobile's ad pages were up 22.5%, compared to the same period last year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, though it's unclear if they're being sold at a discount. Motor Trend's are down 5.6%, while Hot Rod is down 4.9%.

In picking up the Primedia enthusiast titles, Wasserstein is adding to its earlier Primedia acquisitions, having bought New York magazine in 2004 and Primedia Business for $385 million in 2005.

The sale follows several big moves in the enthusiast space, including the January sale of Time4Media and the Time Inc. Parenting group to Bonnier, a Swedish publisher, for a rumored $200 million to $300 million--a figure lower than Time Inc. had hoped. Titles in the sale include Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Popular Science and Parenting. The Time4Media titles will be absorbed by Bonnier's U.S. partner, World Publications, which publishes special-interest magazines catering to affluent readers, like Saveur and Spa.

Recently, Hachette Filipacchi has been trimming its enthusiast empire as well. Entertainment title Premiere closed its print edition in April, moving to online-only publication.