Meredith Buys and Absorbs Parenting and Babytalk From Bonnier: Meredith today announced it acquired the Parenting and Babytalk brands from Bonnier. The two magazines will effectively be absorbed into Meredith's existing Parents and American Baby brands. Following the deal, subscribers of Parenting and Babytalk will begin getting Parents and American Baby instead starting with the September issues. In the meantime, Meredith will port over popular editorial features and columns from the former Bonnier titles into Parents and American Baby. But starting this fall, Parenting and Babytalk will essentially cease to exist in print. Parenting.com, however, will continue to operate as part of the Parents network of sites. A sale price wasn't released, but Meredith says the acquisitions will not have a material effect on performance. According to PIB numbers, Babytalk was down about 37 percent in ad pages in the first quarter this year compared to the same period in 2012. The 2.2 million circ Parenting was down 29 percent in ad pages in that same period. The sale follows a succession of events out of Bonnier since Dave Freygang took over as CEO after Terry Snow's departure in January.
