As further evidence of private equity’s interest in the luxury good sector Modern Luxury Media, the largest publisher of city magazines in the United States and a portfolio company of Clarity Partners (Los Angeles, CA), announced yesterday the launch of a new luxury lifestyle magazine titled Manhattan. The first issue will be for September 2008.
Frequent readers of Private Equity Professional Digest will recall the many transactions we have reported on in the luxury sector (see yesterday’s article “Private Equity Acquires Another Luxury Brand”). KPMG Partner and UK head of consumer markets David McCorquodale, speaking at the World Luxury Congress last year stated, "Private equity is here, it is here to stay and it is going to buy up more luxury companies". Also, 2007 was the largest year in dollar volume for acquisitions in the luxury goods sector.
Manhattan will cater to the most affluent and influential residents of New York City and surrounding areas. Focusing on luxury living for the wealthiest Manhattanites, Manhattan will contain such departments as fall fashion, jewelry and watch, home design and fine dining.
"Modern Luxury's growth strategy of breaking into other important cities before New York gives us the credibility, the reputation and the reach to position our brand in a discriminating, high-standards environment. Manhattan addresses a demand. The local New York City landscape is surprisingly underserved and pockets of wealth don't have access to a product that supports their lifestyle and maintains that feeling of exclusivity they crave, " said Stephen Kong, vice chairman and group publisher of Modern Luxury Media and the Publisher of Manhattan.
Reflecting the lifestyle of New York's working affluent, each issue of Manhattan will showcase the best that luxury brands have to offer, a celebrity feature, fashion stories and a service-oriented feature specific to New York. Manhattan will launch with an initial circulation of 60,000, distributed directly to select residences in New York City, Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey. The publication will also be distributed to luxury hotels, boutiques, real estate offices and will be available for purchase at select newsstand locations and bookstore chains. Manhattan will be published on a bi-monthly basis through end of 2009.
Modern Luxury Media, LLC ("Modern Luxury") is the largest publisher of city-regional magazines in the United States, currently publishing 34 magazines across 13 major metro markets including: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Honolulu, San Diego, Orange County, CA and Napa/Sonoma, CA. Focused on "luxury lifestyle," including fashion, jewelry, dining, travel, design, automotive, art and architecture, Modern Luxury specifically targets the affluent reader. Modern Luxury magazines distribute more than 1 million copies nationally each month, reaching more than 5 million readers per month.
The company was founded by brothers Michael and Stephen Kong in 1993 in Chicago. From 2004 to 2007, they were backed by Shamrock Capital, the private equity fund of the Roy E. Disney family of Los Angeles. Today, they are backed by Clarity Partners, a media-focused private equity firm based in Los Angeles, CA.
