Some high-profile publications covering the mutual fund and asset management industry are again on the block. Among the titles being shopped are Financial Planning, On Wall Street and Employee Benefit News. Each of those magazines is owned by Thomson Media and is frequently used by mutual fund firms to reach intermediaries and institutional investors.

The sale comes even as the number of financial publications through which fund firms can reach individual investors and intermediaries has been sliced by the prolonged slump in the stock market and related cutback in ad buying.

This week, executives at Thomson Corp., confirmed that they are again shopping Thomson Media to potential buyers. The sale would cover all 54 publications owned by the division. Those publications account for some $170 million in annual revenues and also include a number of trade newsletters covering the money management industry (Annuity Market News, Investment Management Weekly and Money Management Executive).

Heather O'Leary, director of Corporate Marketing at Thomson Media confirmed to the MFWire that the sale covers all of the division's properties.

Thomson most recently shopped the division in early 2001 after it decided to focus on the electronic information business rather than the print publishing business. At that time, potential buyers should little interest in meeting Thomson's asking price in light of the uncertainties created by the then-still-fresh bear market. Thomson officials pulled the property off the market after the September 11 attacks, citing an unfavorable climate for a sale.

Potential buyers of the property could be London-based Euromoney, which owns Institutional Investor, or Primedia, the publisher of Registered Rep magazine.

Thomson has hired Morgan Stanley to act as the investment banker on the sale.

Last week, Thomson Media also announced that it has folded its Investment Management Group -- which includes Employee Benefit News, Financial Planning and On Wall Street -- into the newly created Professional Services Group. Frank Quigley, head of the Technology group before the reorganization, is in charge of the new group.

Quigley reports to Bruce Morris, president of the Publishing & Conference Group at Thomson Media.  

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