American Heritage bailout by millionaire

Edwin S. Grosvenor has purchased American Heritage from Forbes Inc. and will resume publication with the December issue. Grosvenor’s company, American Heritage Media, also plans to resume publishing Invention & Technology early next year. All subscriptions will be resumed where they left off, and Americanheritage.com will continue as usual. Further details about American Heritage Media’s plans will be announced soon.

HNN Editor: From the NYT: Edwin S. Grosvenor, the great-great-grandson of a founder of the National Geographic Society, has bought American Heritage magazine and its affiliated Web site (americanheritage.com) and book division from Forbes Inc. Forbes suspended publication of the bimonthly magazine after the April issue. Mr. Grosvenor, 56, who read about the magazine’s problems in The New York Times, will pay $500,000 in cash and assume about $11 million in subscription liabilities. Forbes will retain a 25 percent stake in the company. “As a publisher, I saw saving American Heritage the way a preservationist sees preventing Grand Central station from being turned into an office tower,” said Mr. Grosvenor, who published Portfolio, an art magazine, in the 1970s and ‘80s. He is putting together a group of investors to raise about $2.25 million to invest in the company. Mr. Grosvenor, who will be editor in chief, plans to publish his first issue in December. He has hired John F. Ross, a former senior editor at Smithsonian magazine, to be managing editor.