If print media is a dying business, no one has told Discovery, Inc. The company announced a deal with Condé Nast today to purchase Golf Digest for $30 million.
According to Keith Kelly of the New York Post Discovery wasn’t alone in its desire to obtain the magazine and its online presence. Kelly reports that NBC Sports made a bid for the properties as well.
Discovery has been betting big on golf lately. The company acquired the international broadcast rights to the PGA Tour. Shortly after that, it launched GolfTV, a subscription based service that will deliver PGA Tour programming to viewers. GolfTV also signed an exclusive partnership with Tiger Woods that will see the sport’s biggest names provide exclusive interviews and European-based match play events to the platform.
Condé Nast may be the only one coming out feeling like it lost in the deal. The $30 million it gets from this sale is $400 million less than what the company paid to acquire Golf Digest as part of a 1990 deal with the New York Times.
Discovery now is a major player in golf. Domestically, the company owns and operates the Discovery Channel, Food Network, and HGTV. There doesn’t seem to be an ideal fit in their for PGA Tour television rights, but that could change by 2021 when the Tour’s current deal with Comcast expires.
