Time Out Cash Out?

By Marcus Gilmer in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 4, 2008 10:05PM

An investor who owns a portion of Time Out Chicago is searching to sell his share of a 50% holding in the magazine's parent company. According to Crain's:

Billionaire businessman William Louis-Dreyfus is part of a group of investors who own half of Time Out Chicago. He also owns one-third of Time Out New York, with the other shares held by the Clark family of Singer Sewing Co. fame and Tony Elliott, the founder of the Time Out brand, who has a piece of the Chicago publication.

Both Mr. Louis-Dreyfus and the Clark family want to cash out their Time Out holdings. Mr. Elliott is hanging on to his third of the New York publication but lacks the money to buy out his partners, according to a report Wednesday from London-based Times Online.

Remembering the cutbacks the mag dealt with back in January, we were curious as to what this meant for them. We contacted TOC Editor-in-Chief Frank Sennett for his thoughts on the matter. He told us:

The New York investors started building their stake more than a dozen years ago, so it's not a shocking development that they would seek to cash out at some point. Regardless of how this plays out, we have a strong operation here in Chicago. So to the extent that anything in this economy can be called "business as usual," that's where we're at--putting out the best possible publications and even looking at ways to expand.