Condé Nast Sells Brides Magazine to Barry Diller’s Dotdash (Published 2019)
- ️Wed May 15 2019
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- May 15, 2019
The courting of Brides magazine had none of the meet-cutes and grand gestures often described in its glossy pages.
Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue and The New Yorker, rather unceremoniously put the publication on the market last year as part of a cost-cutting campaign. The online brand Dotdash was among the early suitors, and on Wednesday, the two sides came to an agreement. Neither would disclose the terms of the sale.
“It wasn’t like there was crazy bidding at the end,” said Neil Vogel, the head of Dotdash, which is part of InterActiveCorp (IAC), the company behind Tinder, Match and OKCupid. “It’s clear to us that there wasn’t a ton of investment behind this in the last few years.”
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Dotdash plans to scrap the 85-year-old print magazine and redesign Brides.com. The majority of the editorial staff, including the executive director, Lisa Harman Gooder, will make the move from Condé Nast’s Lower Manhattan offices to Dotdash’s facilities in Midtown, the company said.
“We’re not buying this for print,” Mr. Vogel said. “We’re buying this for the editorial team and for digital.”