Darden Media Group, a new company controlled by Atlanta businessman and former UPS executive Calvin Darden Sr., will buy the Maxim men’s lifestyle magazine, according to published reports.
Darden, 63, plans to expand the Maxim brand’s content to cable TV and create a music label, and he said distribution agreements are already in the works, according to the reports.
Efforts to reach Darden for comment were unsuccessful Friday. Financial terms of the deal for Maxim were not disclosed.
Darden is acquiring the magazine from Alpha Media Group, a New York-based company controlled by Cerberus Capital Management LP.
Darden told The Wall Street Journal he has one distribution agreement with a pay-TV operator and plans to complete two more in the weeks ahead.
Alpha Media put the magazine up for sale in March. Darden said the magazine’s content still has a lot of potential despite recent business challenges. Circulation is down, and so are newsstand and ad sales. The magazine has trimmed the number of editions to 10 from 12 in 2011, according to Adweek. The magazine’s digital content, however, continues to attract new subscribers.
“Although the publishing industry has seen seismic shifts over the past several years, the opportunities to create powerful, transmedia brands that engage consumers and advertisers on multiple platforms is significantly on the rise,” Darden said in a news release.
Darden is chairman of the Darden Development Group LLC, a real estate company. He was senior vice president of U.S. operations at Sandy Springs-based UPS from 2000 until his retirement in 2005. He is a director for Coca-Cola Enterprises, Target Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. Darden is also a former Atlanta Beltline Inc. chairman.
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