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In May 2022, media company Recurrent Ventures announced that it had raised $300 million from private equity firm Blackstone to finance the expansion of its editorial portfolio. But in the nearly two years since, it has only shed properties, eliminated staff and churned through executive leadership.
The equity investment aimed to supercharge Recurrent Ventures’ commercial model, which relies on acquiring distressed publishers and modernizing their affiliate revenue operations. Instead, it has derailed the strategy, according to interviews with more than one-dozen former staff, executives and people familiar with the matter.
“On the editorial side, we were initially excited about the investment,” said one former staffer. “As time went on, it became clear that this was one private equity company being swallowed by another.”
Before the Blackstone financing, Recurrent Ventures scooped up more than 24 editorial properties in just over three years. Since the investment, it has made only one acquisition—Dwell, in September 2022.
In that same period, Recurrent Ventures offloaded three of its properties—Mel Magazine, Saveur and Field & Stream—while laying off almost 100 employees and cycling through three chief executives. The sale of Field & Stream, in December, has not been previously reported, and the publisher is set to relaunch this week under new ownership.
Recurrent Ventures has struggled because the $300 million investment was not structured as a lump sum, but as a line of credit that it could draw down to fund acquisitions, according to four people familiar with its finances.
But as the economy began to deteriorate that summer, interest rates increased and Recurrent Ventures’ business declined, according to four sources. The shift triggered a series of events, including the restructuring of the two parties’ financial agreement, leaving Recurrent Ventures without functional access to capital.
The abrupt reversal of fortune reflects the challenges media companies face when raising financing, particularly in the mercurial business of advertising.
It also offers an example of the less visible ways in which the economic downturn of the past two years has shaped the media landscape, as companies have found themselves burdened by commitments they made under markedly different market conditions.
