The BBC is looking for a partner for its BBC Worldwide magazine division which is its commercial print arm.
Among the magazines in its portfolio are Radio Times, Top Gear, and Gardeners’ World magazines. Over the course of the 2008-2009 sales year it received an operating profit of £11.5 which is a 31% decrease over the year before although sales did increase up 2.4% totalling to £182.2m. On average the company sells 85m per month and is the fourth largest UK publisher within the market sector.
Analysts estimate that a 50% share in the publishing division is valued at about £80 to £90m and at the moment an unspecified sale of a portion of the business will likely be issued within the next few weeks.
Some analysts also believe that the BBC magazines hold the most publishing value but throughout the recession the advertising sales decreased and the internet has also claimed a portion of the sales.
Many magazines have an online counterpart, but the amount of money that comes from advertising online is much less than actual print advertisements with top search engines such as Google taking large portions of advertising revenue.
KPMG has been appointed by BBC Worldwide to find its new partner for the magazine division although details for the deal have not yet been released.
Critics of the company say that the BBC guaranteed licence fee saves Worldwide from the market ills, and is designed to decrease the licence fee by ploughing in the profits from selling formats, magazines, merchandise, and programmes.
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