American Media, Inc. Provides Strategic Guidance For Second Half Of Fiscal 2019

NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- American Media, Inc. (AMI), a leading publisher of celebrity journalism and health and fitness magazines, for the first time in five years, issued strategic guidance for the second half of its fiscal year.

In addition to the strong performance of recent acquisitions, AMI is focused on the following strategies for the remainder of its fiscal 2019:

• Continuing the strong financial momentum of recent acquisitions.
• Building upon the successful acquisitions and integration of the Bauer titles (Life & Style, In Touch, Closer, Teen Boss, J-14, Bake It Up, Girls World, Animal Tales, Coloring with Mommy, and Quiz Fest) coupled with full year integrated results of its Wenner Media Acquisitions (Us Weekly and Men's Journal), AMI is poised to post its best first half results in several years.  Revenues are estimated at $140 million for the period ending 9/30/18, up $7 million (+5%) over prior year and adjusted EBITDA estimated at $48 million which will be up $8 million (+20%) over prior year.  Please note the US consumer magazine sector for print advertising and newsstand are down double digits YTD. 

• The company's guidance for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2019 calls for total revenue estimated at approximately $310 million, up $32 million (+12%) over the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA of $120 million, up $24 million (+25%) over the prior year.  The full year results will only include nine months of operating results for the recently acquired Bauer titles.

• More development of multimedia projects and revenue streams.
• Podcasts - AMI has launched more than a dozen weekly series podcasts across its celebrity brands, as well as the 12-part audio documentary podcast, "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood," which quickly became the #2 program among all Apple podcasts worldwide with 4+ million downloads to date.

• TV/Video Broadcast - AMI is further establishing its production collaborations with ID (Investigation Discovery) producing 20 hours of programming as well as producing 4 non-scripted documentary shows for REELZ. AMI continues to pursue and develop additional broadcast opportunities with more than 30 concepts in various stages of development.

• Digital - AMI's network of websites continues to grow delivering 68 million unique visitors per month and 700+ million monthly page views.

• Newsstand - AMI's Celebrity Group sells 1 million copies at newsstand per week. The 10 weekly magazines deliver an average cover price of $5.

• Improving capital structure.
• As a result of AMI's strong performance and its recent acquisitions, management is continuing to work with its Board of Directors and financial advisors to explore strategic alternatives with respect to its capital structure in order to reduce its overall cost of capital. AMI is currently working with investment bankers to explore a number of options.

The company's guidance for the remainder of its fiscal year builds on the strong growth from the first half of fiscal 2019. Highlights include:

• During the quarter ended June 30, 2018, AMI celebrated 12 months since its acquisition of Us Weekly and is proud to announce that the brand's profitability doubled under AMI's ownership, primarily due to the elimination of duplicative costs and revenue enhancements.

• The current quarter, ending September 30, 2018, marks the first quarter of AMI's ownership of the Bauer titles including InTouch, Life & Style and Closer. In the past 90 days, AMI has fully integrated the operations of the Bauer titles AMI will be relaunching the Bauer websites for In Touch, Life & Style, Closer and J-14. We are expecting similar strong financial results as we experienced with the Us Weekly website and video stream relaunch into AMI's digital echo environment.

• The AMI brands have a magazine readership of 56+ million, monthly UV's of 68+ million and a social media following of 50+ million. Combined this produces a total audience of 174+ million. In terms of major magazine publishers, AMI ranks 4^th behind Meredith, Hearst and Conde Nast.

About American Media, Inc.

American Media, Inc. (AMI) owns and operates the leading print and digital celebrity and active lifestyle media brands in the United States. AMI's titles include Us Weekly, Star, OK!, In Touch, Life & Style, Closer, Men's Journal, Muscle & Fitness, Mr. Olympia Contest, National Enquirer and other celebrity and teen titles. AMI also manages eleven different digital sites including Usmagazine.com, OKmagazine.com, RadarOnline.com, Intouchweekly.com, Lifeandstylemag.com, Closerweekly.com, MensJournal.com, MuscleandFitness.com and other digital and social properties. 

SOURCE American Media, Inc.