It’s back to the drawing board for Jann Wenner as he tries to find a new buyer for Us Weekly.
As Page Six reported, talks between Wenner Media and American Media Inc., whose stable of titles includes the National Enquirer, collapsed suddenly earlier this week.
One source said there is still at least one party in the hunt for Wenner’s celeb title. The party was described as a “non-magazine company.”
“There is other interest, but it has to be at a fair price,” said the source. “It’s profitable and it’s a brand, but it can’t be stupid money.”
Meanwhile, the buzz is that the personal antipathy between David Pecker — head of AMI — and Wenner as much as the price caused the deal to collapse.
AMI seemed to be circling in on the $90 million price, which seemed expensive but doable even if Wenner was looking for $100 million.
In the end, a source said the deal collapsed over a mere $5 million.
Pecker’s contention was that by consolidating with his company, he could cut a lot of cost.
The possible purchase, as I reported, created panic in the ranks of Us Weekly — not only because AMI was the possible buyer but also because 100 staffers might have lost their job in the move.
Another problem for Wenner is that he still owes $59.1 million on a loan dating back to the days when he converted Us into a weekly and temporarily brought in Walt Disney as a joint venture partner.
The antipathy between Wenner and Pecker goes back 13 years to when AMI owned Distribution Services Inc. and Wenner paid the company millions to handle distribution of his magazines.
Wenner was jolted when Pecker in 2003 raided his company to sign then red-hot Us Weekly editor Bonnie Fuller to be the editorial director of AMI and turn Star from a supermarket tabloid into a glossy competitor to Us.
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