The company raised $300 million from Blackstone in May 2022 to fund acquisitions, but the financing became an albatross as the ad market deteriorated and the private equity firm gained effective veto power over new deals, as ADWEEK previously reported. Since then, Recurrent has shed Mel Magazine, Saveur, and Field & Stream, cycled through multiple chief executives, and laid off scores of staff.

According to a person familiar with the matter, Recurrent had sought a buyer for the home brands for years before the Ziff Davis deal closed.

CEO Andrew Perlman framed the divestiture as a strategic narrowing rather than a reluctant sale. 

The home titles and PopSci, he said, served different demographics and advertisers than Recurrent’s core military and auto holdings, and the company lacked the events and video infrastructure to fully support them. 

Recurrent’s retained portfolio includes the military brands Task & Purpose, We Are the Mighty, The War Zone, and Military Spouse, along with the Military Influencer Conference; the auto titles Donut, Real Mechanic, and The Drive; and Outdoor Life, Bob Vila, and Futurism.

The transaction leaves Recurrent with a tighter, more thematically coherent portfolio and Ziff Davis with a new front to expand on, in a part of the media business most of its peers have abandoned 

Whether Ziff Davis can build a lifestyle group of meaningful scale around the three home brands will depend on what comes next. According to the person familiar with the strategy, Johnston has been given a mandate to keep buying.