I Feel Good set to sell Hotdog to Paragon

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 21-Jan-02, 09:06

LONDON - Hotdog, the magazine founded by former Loaded and GQ editor James Brown, is close to being sold after it failed to hit targets.

The title, owned by Brown's I Feel Good publishing firm, was launched in May 2000 and is reportedly being sold to Paragon Publishing, a specialist computer game and PC title publisher.

The Financial Times reports that the deal will be structured as a profit share plus cash consideration over four years.

Brown, CEO and editor-in-chief of IFG, which also publishes Bizarre, Viz and Fortean Times, is now said to be focusing on the men's lifestyle market and is developing a new title codenamed Project Jack. He is often credited with inventing the whole lad's mag genre, with the launch of Loaded in 1994.

Hotdog is targeted at people who love movies. Although the film magazine sector grew by 3.9% when the last set of ABCs were published, Hotdog was beaten by rival titles such as Emap's Empire and Future Publishing's Total Film. Hotdog did not register an ABC when the last figures were published, but had previously recorded a circulation of 39,254 a month.

Paragon owns titles such as DVD Review, PC Home and P2 magazine. The deal is expected to be announced this week.

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