Investor Group Acquires Cracked Magazine

Posted on April 8, 2005

A consortium of investors today announced that it had acquired Cracked Magazine, one of America's oldest humor magazines, for an undisclosed sum. The new company will be called Cracked Entertainment, Inc. and will be based in New York. The acquisition marks a new chapter in Cracked's history and a return of the magazine's operations to New York. Monty Sarhan, an entrepreneur and attorney, will join as Publisher and CEO of the new company.

Continuously published since 1958, Cracked is one of the oldest humor magazines and the only surviving competitor of Time Warner's MAD Magazine. Cracked was known for its irreverent entertainment media parodies and celebrity readership (including the likes of Stephen King and Jerry Seinfeld). However, in recent years, due to several changes in ownership and a switch to a bi-monthly schedule, sales of the magazine dropped.

The new owners plan to revive Cracked through a complete redesign, a new editorial focus and an eventual return to publishing the magazine on a monthly basis. The company would not reveal details of Cracked's new look, stating only that it will break with Cracked's pure illustrated format and move to become a full-color glossy featuring a mix of material. Long-term, management plans to explore opportunities to expand the Cracked brand through other media, including the development of animated and live-action content for television, film and the Internet.

"Cracked is more than a magazine. It is a successful 47-year-old brand in the comedy space. Few brands have had that kind of longevity, and we will seek not only to build on Cracked's past accomplishments, but also to reposition and re-imagine the brand and to achieve even greater success," said Sarhan. Sarhan feels that there is still a strong demand for humor on the newsstand and uses the success of The Onion as one example that print comedy is alive and well.