Global business and culture media brand Monocle announced this week that it has sold a minority stake to Nikkei Inc., the Tokyo-based financial news company.
Nikkei’s stake was not specified, but according to Monocle, the deal values the brand at more than $100 million.
Monocle chairman and editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé’s holding company Winkontent now owns about 80 percent of the company.
On the surface, London-based Monocle gets access to Nikkei’s editorial operation and Nikkei can tap into Monocle’s distribution for its English-language weekly, the Nikkei Asian Review. Likewise, Nikkei’s magazine group will help market Monocle in Japan.
Nikkei president and CEO Tsuneo Kita cited "global reach" as one perk of the deal, while Brûlé said, "Given Nikkei’s editorial reach, there are many areas where we can work with Nikkei correspondents to strengthen our coverage in various regions while also supporting the Nikkei Asian Review via Monocle’s established distribution networks."
Monocle, published 10 times per year and printed in the UK, claims a paid global circulation of just over 77,000 (the brand has a no-free-issues policy, says a spokesperson). About 18,000 of those are paid subscribers.
The magazine’s U.S. cover price is $12—the double issues are $14—and annual subscriptions run $130. However, in the last couple years, the brand has diversified into e-commerce and physical retail shops, cafes and video and broadcast audio products.
