Highbury closes two home interest titles and sells Real Homes

LONDON - Troubled magazine publisher Highbury House has closed two home interest titles, Home and Inspirations, as well as selling a third, Real Homes, to Hachette Filipacchi for £500,000 in cash.

The developments are part of the restructuring, announced at the end of May, of Highbury to pare it back to its strongest assets. It is currently in negotiations about the sale of its South African division.

It has also said that it is retaining consumer titles Front and Gardens Monthly in the belief that they "offer interesting development opportunities".

The trade and consumer publisher has been forced to sell off assets following the collapse of a deal negotiated at the start of the year that would have seen the company bought by Future. After the Office of Fair Trading held up the deal citing competition concerns, Future pulled out of the takeover deal, although it eventually bought 38 Highbury titles in April.

Mark Simpson, chief executive officer at Highbury, said: "The restructuring of Highbury House continues apace. The board is working to create a financially solid publishing business with a core of profitable titles, which have good market positions and prospects for growth."

Hachette intends to develop a homes portfolio following the acquisition of Real Homes. In the UK, it only publishes Elle Decoration, but it has more homes titles in other territories.

Real Homes was launched in 1998 but was the worst performing magazine in its sector during 2004. Its latest circulation figures are 72,017 for the second half of 2004, down 45% year on year from 130,510.

Home's circulation fell 23% year on year to 47,341 and Inspiration's also fell 18% year on year to 32,856.

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