Hearst Corp. finally acknowledged on Wednesday it is the winning bidder for Rodale, owner of Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Prevention and Bicycling.
The purchase price was not disclosed, but one source said it was roughly $225 million.
The big question now is how many of Rodale’s 450 employees will be retained.
The deal is expected to close in “early 2018.”
At the moment, it appears that all the existing Rodale brands — even the digital Rodale’s Organic Life — are going to be retained.
Rodale also has a consumer book division that counts the bestselling “South Beach Diet” series and Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” on the publisher’s backlist.
There will be obvious downsizing of back-shop functions, but the belief is that Hearst will keep a presence in Emmaus, Pa., where Rodale has been based for three generations of family ownership.
The Post reported on Oct. 5 that Hearst had a tentative deal to buy Rodale.
Rodale has struggled with declining profits in recent years, which forced it to sell off real estate and to go through several rounds of jarring staff reductions — before the sale of the entire company.