NYT: Buyer Sought For Magazine

Buyer Sought For Magazine
Published: February 27, 1988


Psychology Today, the 21-year-old monthly magazine owned by the American Psychological Association, has been put up for sale, according to Dr. Gary R. Vandenbos, the association's executive director for publications and communications.

Among the parties reported to have expressed an interest are Family Media; Owen Lipstein and T. George Harris, who own American Health, and Michael Markowitz, a psychologist based in Chicago.

The magazine has been losing money since the association bought it in 1983 from the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company for a price rumored to be about $10 million. Last year it lost about $1.5 million.

In January the board voted to sell, in part because there had been expressions of interest from potential buyers.

One publishing executive said that the magazine's attractions included the loyalty of its readers, particularly on college campuses, and a certain cachet with young people.

''Everyone who takes a psychology or sociology course has read it,'' he said.