What's going on?

The Meredith Corporation, a US-based publishing house and media conglomerate, announced on Sunday that it would be buying Time Inc., the famed publisher of iconic American magazines like Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, in a deal valued at almost $3 billion.

What does this mean?

Time�s traditional print business has lost ground as readers flocked to a whole new generation of online rivals (like Vice, Buzzfeed and Politico). Although Time has focused more on digital and video content in recent years (even buying MySpace), its major sources of income � print magazine circulation and advertising revenue � have continued to steadily decline.


Having failed in several previous attempts, the Midwest�s Meredith Corporation (which publishes magazines like Better Homes & Gardens) is now swooping in, with a little help from the Koch Brothers, to add Time�s well-known roster of titles to its portfolio. The merged company will have an audience of about 200 million across both print and digital � making it one of America�s largest digital media companies (tweet this).

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Print media continues to struggle as digital takes over the world of journalism and periodicals.

Time used to be part of media and cable giant Time Warner Inc., but was spun off into a separate company in 2014 as its owner looked to cut ties with the low-profit print business. With fewer advertisers willing to pay as much and fewer readers willing to pay at all, some companies are joining forces with competitors in order to expand their total digital footprint, giving them a better negotiating position against tech giants like Facebook over advertising dollars.

For markets: Time�s had a rough, er, time of it.

After its spinoff, Time had to deal with more than $1 billion in debt and never quite found its footing in a world that�s increasingly shunned print media. Its stock, priced at around $21 when it started to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, has declined in value by more than 50% since then, bottoming out at around $10 per share earlier this month. It�s being taken over at a comparatively robust $18.50 per share.