VIDEO: The Diversification of revenue at Time Inc.

Please give
us some examples of recent acquisitions (0:20)

Two great examples from an acquisition point of view is we bought the UKCE, which is a cycling events company
and another one is ICHF, which
again is a crafting company. Both are in their own right best of breed in the
UK for offering, in those two markets, crafts and road cycling.

And what are
the main factors you’re looking at? (0:41)

Our chief executive looks at it and he’ll say he’ll look at the revenue,
and our CFO will look at it and say he looks at the costs! So inevitably we’re
interested to know: has it got a path to profitability? But actually in the
longrun it will be about if we get hold of it can we really grow it and does
the synergy between Time Inc. and those businesses really bring us to a
different place in the marketplaces that we’re keen to really get involved in. 

Should the
major media brands have been making such acquisitions before now? (1:05)

Yeah I mean no question 20/20 hindsight and all, we would have
definitely benefited from making some better moves than we have done now. I
think that what I like about our business (and because we employ very smart
people that learn very quickly) is that there’s not many people that arrive at
Time Inc. who haven’t realised that that is exactly the truth of it. 

So yes, we might have been a company that were a bit behind like many,
but we’re catching up pretty quickly. So we’ll see how the next sort of two or three years goes, but it’s pretty exciting at the moment. And we’re certainly on
track for the right kind of crossover and we won’t be a business that’s in
decline, we’ll be a growth business and that’s what Time Inc. is all about and
at the moment it’s looking pretty positive. 

Finally,
where do you see the major organic growth in the next 12 to 24 months? (1:52)

In our core business we are going to see good growth in video, we’re
going to see good growth in native advertising no question. I think we are a
company of storytellers, we have a very good relationship with our customers,
and that’s what marketing directors want from us. So in both those areas I
think we’ll do extremely well. 

Elsewhere you’ll see good growth then in the new areas of the business
that we’re moving into. Whether that’s the exploitation of the data that we’re
building up in our business or the exploitation of the new ecommerce events
businesses that we’re building out. And who’s to know which other ones there
are because there’s a whole load of ideas coming through!

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