Pink slips to fly at Parade after sale of magazine
The sale of 73-year-old Parade magazine will lead to layoffs for most of the 85 staffers in its New York office, The Post has learned.
Athlon Media Group announced on Wednesday that it has purchased Parade and sister title Dash from the Newhouse family’s Advance Publications empire.
Editor-in-chief Maggie Murphy and CEO Jack Haire are among those who will lose their jobs when the New York-based publication pulls up roots and moves to Athlon’s headquarters in Nashville, Tenn.
Perhaps as few as 20 people will be offered jobs, sources said.
“I was honored to have had this job,” said Murphy. “I just want people to know I have an amazing staff here.”
News of the sale was first reported by NYPost.com on Tuesday.
A one-time cash cow, Parade has seen its profitability evaporate as newspapers have contracted over the past decade. But it remains the dominant Sunday magazine and appears in more than 700 daily papers, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Post and the Washington Post.
Parade is able to command sit-down interviews with President Obama, top Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg and A-lister George Clooney, alongside ordinary people with amazing stories.
The magazine reaches about 32 million households, compared to 23 million for the No. 2 title, Gannett-owned USA Weekend.
Athlon, best known for its sports titles, already owns the No. 3 Sunday magazine, American Profile, which reaches about 12 million households in mostly smaller markets. Athlon also produces monthly inserts Spry Living and Relish.
Financial terms for Parade Media Group were not disclosed.
At its peak around 2000, Parade was generating annual profit of over $50 million but is now believed to be in the red. It was especially hard-hit by a drop in pharmaceutical ads as more blockbuster drugs lost their patents.
Ad pages through the Sept. 14 issue were down 9.2 percent, at 273 pages, compared to the same period a year ago. Revenue is estimated to be around $100 million a year.
With the change in ownership, Parade is trading two billionaire owners — octogenarian brothers S.I. Newhouse Jr. and Donald Newhouse — for another, self-made businessman Spencer Hays.
Hays, 76, founded the Tom James custom suit empire and purchased the high-end Oxxford Clothing Co., among other holdings.
“Parade and Dash position the company to have the most effective and efficient advertising and retail activation reach of any media group across the US,” said Chuck Allen, president and CEO of Athlon.
The acquisition will give the company a combined circulation of more than 38 million across 1,600 newspapers.