Nielsen Sells Journals, Closes Editor & Publisher

ANDREW VANACORE

NEW YORK (AP) — 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.

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 Thursday's deal was not disclosed. Finkelstein did not return messages seeking comment, and Schwartz declined to comment through a spokesman.

At The Hollywood Reporter, which tracks 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."