Conde Nast buys Modern Bride for £36m

by Staff,, Brand Republic 15-Jan-02, 08:30

NEW YORK - Conde Nast has beaten off competition from rival publishers to buy Modern Bride magazine from Primedia for £36m.

The sale of Modern Bride is part of Primedia's strategy of offloading non-core assets and making savings of around £170m.

Last year, Primedia paid £365m for Emap's beleaguered Emap USA division, which added titles such as Guns & Ammo and Hot Rod to its consumer stable. It also publishes New York and Seventeen.

It is understood that Conde Nast beat off competition from publishers, including Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to win Modern Bride.

It is unclear what Conde Nast will do with the magazine as it already publishes the market leader Bride's magazine. Both titles publish six times a year.

It is thought that Conde Nast may merge the two magazines to improve the position of Bride's in the marketplace. Bride's has a circulation of 451,096, down by 5% in the first half of 2001, while Modern Bride had a circulation of 406,183 in the first half of 2001, down by less than 1% from the year before.

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