NEW YORK — The Nielsen Co. is selling some of its most prominent trade journals — including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard — and shutting down Editor &Publisher, which has chronicled the newspaper business for more than 100 years.
Nielsen would not reveal details about the financial performance of Editor &Publisher or another publication it is closing, the book review title Kirkus Reviews. The two publications have 18 employees combined.
The E&P name was launched in 1901. But the magazine dates itself to 1884, the year that The Journalist, a rival with which it merged in 1907, was founded.
Today’s closure of E&P “was a shock,” said its editor, Greg Mitchell. “We knew that something big was happening but we didn’t think the aftermath was that we wouldn’t be sold and it would be folded.”
Mitchell said Editor &Publisher appeared to have turned things around after struggling at the beginning of the decade. The magazine switched to a monthly format from weekly in 2003 and heightened its focus on the Web.
Nielsen said both the print and online operation will shut down immediately. But Mitchell hopes Editor &Publisher will return in another form.
“I would hope because of our special history and our role as a watchdog in journalism that it would be more likely in this case that there will be someone that’s going to say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to let this die.”’
The changes come in a tumultuous year for the media industry, with some storied brands put on the auction block or shuttered altogether. Such titles as Gourmet magazine and the Rocky Mountain News have been closed.
Nielsen is selling eight titles to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed by private equity firm Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, a financial services company. James Finkelstein, one of Pluribus’ three founders, will serve as e5’s chairman. Guggenheim’s executive chairman is the former CEO of Bear Stearns Cos., Alan Schwartz.
The price of today’s deal was not disclosed, and Finkelstein did not return messages seeking comment.
At The Hollywood Reporter, which tracks news in the film and TV industries, editor Elizabeth Guider said the newsroom was generally upbeat after the new owners held a conference call to discuss the acquisition. While a buyout is always cause for “jitters,” Guider said, the new owners “put the accent on expansion and growing the brands.”
Guider said The Hollywood Reporter is still profitable, “just not as profitable as we’d like to be, or clearly that Nielsen wanted us to be.”
One question for its new owners will be whether to keep The Hollywood Reporter’s material available for free online. The publication’s main rival, Variety, began charging for access to its Web site today, ending a three-year experiment with free online content.
Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes said his privately held company is still reviewing its properties to make sure the company is focused on businesses with “the highest potential for growth.” Nielsen is keeping a handful of other media properties, including Contract Magazine and Progressive Grocer.
Nielsen, which is perhaps best known for its television ratings service, is owned by a group of investors that include AlpInvest Partners NV, The Blackstone Group LP, The Carlyle Group, Hellman &Friedman LLC, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts &Co. LP, and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP.
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