Koch brothers’ ‘passive’ role in Time Inc. takeover met with skepticism
Charles and David Koch have actively promoted conservative and libertarian policies for years by pumping tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns, advocacy organizations, think tanks and University groups.
Yet the billionaire industrialists’ $650 million investment supporting Meredith Corporation’s takeover of Time Inc, the magazine giant behind titles like Time, Fortune, People, and Sports Illustrated, was characterized by a Koch spokesman on Sunday night as a “passive” one. And Meredith said in a release that Koch Equity Development -- the Koch brothers’ private equity arm involved in the deal -- “will not have a seat” on its board and “will have no influence” on editorial or managerial operations.
Reports of the Koch brothers role, or lack thereof, have been met with skepticism from journalists, media watchers and Koch chroniclers.
“I think, for them, they’re always looking to exert influence in one way or another,” Daniel Schulman, Mother Jones’ deputy Washington bureau chief and Koch biographer, told POLITICO on Monday, “but I don’t think they would have done this deal unless they thought it made good business sense. I’m just curious how the return side is going to work out for them and what their long-term strategy is, and these guys are nothing if not strategic.”
Schulman suggested the Kochs could also be interested in the consumer data owned by Time Inc. and Meredith. Magazines are known for collecting information about their customers, which could be used to the benefit of the data analytics company controlled by the Koch network, i360.
Some Time veterans are also wary of the billionaires’ motivations being purely business related.
“The deal raises concerns if the Koch brothers intend to use Time as a vehicle for their ideological views from behind the scenes,” said Richard Stengel, a former top Time editor and undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs during the Obama administration. “It would be naive to think that just because the Koch brothers don’t have a seat on the board that they wouldn’t wield some kind of editorial influence.”
John Huey, a former Time Inc. editor in chief similarly told POLITICO that “it’s difficult to believe the Kochs would pay a premium to buy into the print media model without the hope that they can harness Time and Fortune to further their agenda.” Huey also said he agreed with former Wall Street Journal editor and Columbia professor Bill Grueskin, who comparedthe Kochs “no influence” assurance to his former paper creating an “editorial independence committee” to keep Rupert Murdoch in check after he bought the paper in 2007. The media mogul quickly got his way.
Meredith, a Des Moines-based publisher behind popular titles like Better Homes and Gardens and Shape, wasn’t interested in newsier Time Inc. titles like Time and Fortune when the it made a run at the publishing company a few years back. Some Time Inc. titles, like People, InStyle, Cooking Light and Southern Living, would seem the better fit for Meredith, given its portfolio is heavily focused around women’s and lifestyle publishing. Recode’s Peter Kafka suggested Sunday that whether or not Meredith ends up selling Time or Fortune could serve as a gauge for the Kochs’ level of interest.
The Koch brothers nearly became major media owners in 2013 when they considered buying The Tribune Company (now Tronc), which includes major newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Baltimore Sun. The Kochs’ desire to buy a media company came as the company faced criticism for its aggressive dealings with the press, which included running a site, KochFacts, to rebut unflattering articles. InsideClimateNews publisher David Sassoon said at time he felt “completely disrespected and attacked” when covering Koch Industries and accused the company of “media intimidation.”
“As the Koch Bros prepare to buy a hunk of Time Inc, I’m remembering that time they took out an attack ad on me for reporting on their company,” Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson tweeted Sunday night in reference to a 2014 article on the brothers’ “toxic empire.” The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer found herselfthe target of private investigators and the subject of a smear campaign after reporting on the Koch brothers.
Meanwhile, the Kochs have helped fund journalism coming from a conservative-leaning perspective, like the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity’s Watchdog.org.
Schulman said he doubted the Koch brothers would take any active role in trying to shape coverage at Time Inc. publications, but suggested their influence may be baked in with such a large-scale investment.
“Influence works in a lot of different ways. They could influence coverage without lifting a finger, basically. If the staff of these publications are aware that the Kochs are significant financial backers of Time Inc, they may not go out of their way to be critical of the brothers or the company,” Shulman said. “That would be the way I think it would work.”