Reptiles magazine and other pet titles sold by struggling Bow Tie

The business world is buzzing over the sale of Bow Tie, Inc., publishers of Reptiles and a number of other pet-related magazines and books. Bow Tie had recently closed several of its publications, and one, Thoroughbred Times, declared bankruptcy last fall. From Folio:

A newly formed joint venture between Mark Harris, co-founder and co-owner of National Publisher Services (NPS), and David Fry, chairman of NPI Ventures LLC and CTO of Fry Communications, called I-5 Publishing LLC has acquired the books, magazines and websites of special interest publisher BowTie Inc. Terms of the deal were not released, but Harris and Fry ballparked it at $10 million-plus. Included in the sale are Cat Fancy, Dog Fancy, Pet Product News International, Horse Illustrated, Urban Farm, AnimalNetwork.com, DogChannel.com and books like Dog Heroes of September 11th and The Original Dog Bible.

What does this mean for the future of Reptiles and other former Bow Tie properties?

In a media release quoted in Folio, Harris, who is serving as interim CEO of I-5, said: We seek to expand content and make it available on all platforms. We believe in further investing and bringing in more expertise to the company to help raise the bar for us.... We’ll be looking at growing topline revenue with brand extensions and the introduction of new products... We’re open minded to partnerships, which will be a big priority, as well as further developing the existing digital strategy. We think there is a very large opportunity there.

Read the story here.