ARTNEWS S.A. and Brant Publications merge art media properties

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ARTNEWS S.A., a Warsaw Stock Exchange-listed art media company with its primary operations in New York, and Brant Publications are to combine the two publishing companies’ art media assets, creating the world’s largest print and digital publisher of art-related news, information and art business intelligence.

Under terms of the deal, Brant Publication’s BMP Media Holdings will become the majority shareholder of ARTNEWS S.A. BMP Media Holding will transfer 100% ownership interest in Art in America, The Magazine Antiques, Modern Magazine and related archives and digital properties to ARTNEWS S.A. The transaction will give BMP Media Holdings LLC a controlling interest in ARTNEWS S.A. Interview magazine is not part of the transaction and will continue to be operated by Brant Publications, Inc.

Upon completing the merger of the two companies, ARTNEWS S.A. will maintain Art in America on its current publication schedule of 11 issues a year and will launch a new bundled print subscription offer under the Art in America brand with ARTnews focusing on special themed editions that have proven successful with the readers, such as the best-selling ARTnews issue “The World’s Top 200 Collectors.” The Magazine Antiques and Modern Magazine will continue as quarterly editions.

All the art media properties will be consolidated onto a single digital platform at www.artnews.com, featuring art-related news, extensive archives, images and editorials. Readers will have access to a wide range of information on art and art business intelligence and both digital and international expansion of the group will continue under the ARTnews brand.

Skate’s Art Market Research will continue its focus on research, art market data and art business intelligence.

The above transactions remain subject to certain conditions, including the approval of shareholders of ARTNEWS S.A.

“Under one umbrella, the combined company will have some of the most important cultural publications that together provide the complete content and history of decorative arts, classical arts and art-related news,” said Peter Brant, owner and chairman of Brant Pulications. “We plan to strengthen our focus on digital content and online news reporting across all platforms. The combination of Art in America’s digital resources coupled with those of artnews.com will ensure that the company is the leading online resource for the art and design industries. We also see Skate’s Art Market Research as an area that has a significant growth potential.”

The combined company will have a 52% market share in the U.S. print art magazines market, a digital audience in excess of two million unique users per month and will be based in New York. To improve on the liquidity of ARTNEWS S.A. shares, ARTNEWS S.A. management will seek to list them on the German Stock Exchange (Deutsche Boerse) in 2016.

“This merger gives the new ARTNEWS S.A. the necessary scale and market power to preserve and strengthen our leadership in the art media space going forward. We’ll continue to deliver the best in class audience to our advertisers and the most diverse high quality content to our readers – a streamlined print offering will be combined with a significant investment in digital expansion with the objective of establishing artnews.com as the number one digital destination for the art loving public in the North American and European markets,” said Izabela Depczyk, who will remain the CEO of ARTNEWS S.A.

Picture credit: Chris Isherwood/Creative Commons license.

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