New Additions, Southern Style

By RICHARD ZOGLIN.

Since its birth in 1966, Southern Living magazine has carved a successful niche in one of the nation's fastest-growing regions. For its 2.3 million subscribers, most of them upper-middle-class homeowners, the hefty, colorful monthly (258 pages in the March issue) offers an array of service articles on home design and decoration, gardening, food and travel and entertainment, all with a Southern slant. Says Emory Cunningham, chairman and president of Southern Progress Corp., the magazine's parent company: "Our mission is to give people in the South a sense of pride in being Southern."

Last week Time Inc., one of the nation's largest communications companies, announced that it would buy Southern Progress. The privately held firm will be purchased in a deal valued at $480 million. Along with Southern Living, the acquisition will bring into Time Inc.'s fold two other monthly magazines, Progressive Farmer and Creative Ideas for Living, as well as a book-publishing subsidiary, Oxmoor House, which markets how-to books and other illustrated volumes. Its authors have included James Dickey, Walter Cronkite and James J. Kilpatrick.

The transaction was unusual for Time Inc., which has traditionally preferred to develop its own magazines rather than buy existing ones.

All seven of those it currently publishes (TIME, LIFE, FORTUNE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, MONEY, PEOPLE and DISCOVER) are homegrown.

Time Inc. has been shopping for magazine acquisitions for several years. Indeed, it began exploring the availability of Southern Progress as far back as 1970. "The possibility of obtaining a group of fine publications like the Southern Progress group comes along only once in a while," said Time Inc. President J. Richard Munro. "It was an opportunity we simply could not pass up."

Southern Progress, based in Birmingham, was founded in 1886, when L.L. Polk, a farmer and Confederate Civil War veteran, started Progressive Farmer as a crusading vehicle to improve Southern agriculture and the lot of growers. The magazine now reaches 573,000 subscribers in the South and Midwest and covers a wide range of topics, from farm production to the impact of foreign policy on agriculture. Southern Living was launched in 1966 as a response to growing urbanization in its area. It circulates primarily in 18 states from Florida to New Mexico and has become the largest regional home-service magazine in the country. The nationally distributed Creative Ideas for Living (circ. 735,000) features articles on food, decorating, sewing and other crafts. A fourth magazine, Southern Living Classics, aimed at affluent homeowners, will be launched next fall.

"We have grown like Topsy in the last 20 years," said Cunningham. "We decided that as a private company there are limits on how much bigger we can become without running into many of the problems family-owned businesses have had as they grew older." The company did not invite offers from any other potential buyers. Said Cunningham: "Time Inc. is the one we wanted to go with."

Most industry analysts gave their approval to the deal. "It's a good fit at a good, though not cheap, price," said Alan Kassan, an analyst with First Manhattan, a New York brokerage firm. Among the magazines' attractions for Time Inc.: their high proportion of female readers and their foothold in the prosperous Sunbelt. "We will not be competing with ourselves," said Kelso Sutton, executive vice president for Time Inc.'s magazine group. "We are moving into a new growth area."

No changes are planned for the magazines' formats or staff of 550, Time Inc. said, and Southern Progress will keep its headquarters in Birmingham. Said Munro: "The magazines have achieved success because their staffs are close to their readers, recognize their needs and serve them more effectively than the national magazines with which they compete."

Editor in Chief Henry Grunwald and other Time Inc. executives stressed that the acquisition does not alter the company's commitment to developing new magazines of its own. Its magazine-development group has been exploring several potential new ventures since the demise of TV-CABLE WEEK in 1983. A major market test of a new magazine will most probably be conducted this summer. "We are confident," said Munro and Grunwald, "that Time Inc. will continue to increase its reputation as one of the most successful innovators in the magazine business."

With reporting by Joseph N. Boyce/Atlanta and Adam Zagorin/New York