NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Nielsen Media Business has reached a deal to sell eight business titles -- including Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter -- to e5 Global Media Holdings, a new joint venture between Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal for the trade publications has been in the works for weeks, following months of searching for a buyer. The collection of trades has, likely many print publications, struggled during the downturn and the rise of the web. Similar difficulties led Reed Business Media to sell Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and This Week in Consumer Electronics earlier this month.
Pluribus comprises News Communications CEO James Finkelstein, former Wired publisher Matthew Doul and former Hearst International publisher George Green. Guggenheim is led by former Bear Stearns CEO Alan Schwartz. Lachlan Murdoch, who had been seen scouting the deal, did not wind up participating.
Nielsen signaled today that the changes might not be over, saying it will "continue to assess the strategic fit" of its remaining portfolio of publications.
The shutdown of Editor & Publisher, for its part, is another dispiriting sign for the newspaper industry, which E&P; has covered as its trade bible since 1901.
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