AMERICAN MEDIA, INC. ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF OK! MAGAZINE U.S. EDITION
AMERICAN MEDIA, INC. ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF
OK! MAGAZINE U.S. EDITION
OK! Joins AMI’s Celebrity & Entertainment Group Providing
Unique Demographic Reach and Access for Advertisers
New York, NY, JUNE 23, 2011— American Media, Inc. (AMI), the leading publisher of celebrity journalism and health and fitness magazines in the United States, announced today that it has purchased the U.S. edition of OK! Magazine from Northern & Shell. Terms were not disclosed. The announcement was made by David J. Pecker, AMI Chairman, President and CEO.
OK! Magazine, which will relocate to AMI’s new headquarters at 4 New York Plaza from its current location, was launched in the U.S. in 2005 and quickly established itself in the celebrity weekly category. OK!, which will remain “the magazine the stars trust,” has a weekly circulation of 800,000 copies and a readership of 6.6 million.
“OK magazine is a very important strategic acquisition for AMI, as it increases our market share in newsstand unit sales from 30% to 36%,” said Mr. Pecker. “It also allows us to offer our advertisers a wider range of celebrity coverage than any single publication or group of titles from any publisher.”
The acquisition provides significant benefits to AMI advertisers by providing increasingly diverse demographics of the readers of its roster of magazines; OK! has a median readership age of 29, the youngest readership in the celebrity category. OK!, combined with AMI’s Star magazine, delivers a circulation of 1.6 million, with a readership of almost 17 million (25% greater than Us Weekly).
The strength of the OK! brand also extends to the web. OKMagazine.com has been averaging 2.9 million unique visitors and 9.4 million page views per month. Combined with AMI owned RadarOnline.com, the fastest growing celebrity site, and StarMagazine.com, the three sites will reach close to 10 million unique visitors per month and over 50 million page views.
AMI’s other related brands include Star, National Enquirer, Country Weekly, TV Guide, Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly. Adding OK! to the mix creates the largest celebrity & entertainment news group in the industry, with a total audience of close to 40 million people.
About American Media, Inc.
American Media, Inc. owns and operates the leading print and digital celebrity and health and fitness media brands in the United States. AMI’s titles include Star, OK!, National Enquirer, Globe, Soap Opera Digest, Soap Opera Weekly, Pixie, Shape, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Muscle & Fitness Hers, Fit Pregnancy and Natural Health. AMI also manages 18 different digital sites including RadarOnline.com, OKmagazine.com, Shape.com, MensFitness.com, MuscleandFitness.com and FitPregnancy.com. AMI’s magazines have a combined total circulation of almost 7 million and reach more than 55 million men and women each month. AMI’s digital properties reach an average of 10 million unique visitors and 80 million page views monthly.
AMI also operates a Publishing Services business unit which includes Distribution Services, Inc. (DSI), the No. 1 in-store magazine sales and merchandising marketing company in the U.S. and Canada. DSI places and monitors AMI’s publications and third-party publications to ensure proper displays in major retail chains and national and regional supermarket chains. DSI also provides marketing, merchandising and information gathering services to third parties including non-magazine clients. Publishing Services also provides print and digital advertising sales and strategic management direction in the following areas: manufacturing, subscription circulation, logistics, event marketing and full back office financial functions. Playboy is one of many publishers who have taken advantage of these additional services.