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PEOPLE & ARTS A31
AP Exclusive: ‘This Old House’ brand gets new owner
FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
“This Old House” is getting
new ownership.
The venerable home-im-
provement brand — whose
flagship TV series has been
on the air since 1979 — has
been acquired from Time
Inc. by former Time Inc.
exec Eric Thorkilsen in part- he says he never missed as
nership with private equity
firm TZP Group, the new
company announced Fri-
day.
This Old House Ventures LLC
will be anchored by “This
Old House” and its TV sib-
ling, “Ask This Old House,”
as well as This Old House
magazine, online content,
a line of books and other
branded products.
Thorkilsen was named CEO
of the new company. Su-
san Wyland, most recently
an editorial consultant run-
ning her own firm, joins This ing the brand beyond the
Old House magazine as its
new editor-in-chief.
As a fully integrated, mul-
timedia business, This Old
House Ventures LLC will
manage all of its own core
business functions, includ-
ing original television pro-
duction, digital content
and operations, advertising
sales, magazine editorial,
brand licensing and mar-
keting from new headquar-
ters in Stamford, Connecti-
cut, beginning this summer,
the company said.
Time Inc., which launched
the magazine in 1995 and
later bought the TV show
Western tale by a teenage Thurber published for first time
HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Before
becoming one of the great
wits of the 20th century,
James Thurber was a teen-
ager hooked on Westerns.
The Columbus, Ohio, na-
tive would remember
fondly such “nickel novels”
as “Jed, the Trapper” and
“The Liberty Boys of ‘76,”
and was so caught up in
the gun duel of Owen Wis-
ter’s “The Virginian,” he be- cent interview.
came physically ill. Inevita- Thurber was a prominent
bly, Thurber sketched out
a couple of tales himself,
including “How Law and
Order Came to Aramie,”
completed when he was
around 18 and unpublished
from Boston public TV sta-
tion WGBH, will continue to
provide back-office opera-
tions including magazine
production and subscrip-
tion services.
No financial terms for the
purchase were disclosed.
The deal returns Thorkilsen
to the helm of a TV show
a viewer, and a brand he
nurtured during his three
decades at Time Inc.
“Long before TiVos, as a
homeowner I used to plan
my weekends around
when ‘This Old House’ was
on the air,” he told The As-
sociated Press. “I had to
see the newest episode.
“Some years later, I had the
opportunity to get involved
professionally with this
brand that I loved so much.
We licensed the commer-
cial rights to start extend-
television program.” Under
his stewardship in 2002 Time
Inc. acquired the original
series and soon thereafter
created its spinoff.
The potential seemed ob-
vious to Thorkilsen, who at
Time Inc. had orchestrated
the Martha Stewart Liv-
ing media juggernaut. This
was then a new business
model — a multi-platform
paradigm for extending a
brand’s reach across print,
television, digital and li-
censing.
But long after leaving Time
Inc. in 2005, and most re-
cently while running Life-
for more than a century. It
appears in The Strand Mag-
azine’s new issue, which
came out Friday.
“You can definitely see this
is a young Thurber, who
is very talented, spoofing
those Westerns,” Strand
managing editor Andrew
Gulli, who has unearthed
writings by F. Scott Fitzger- leading to a confrontation
ald, John Steinbeck and
many others, told The As-
sociated Press during a re-
writer for The New Yorker,
known for his drawings and
for such stories as “The Se-
cret Life of Walter Mitty”
and “The Catbird Seat.” He
died in 1961 at age 66.
Saturday 2 April 2016
This image released by This Old House Ventures, LLC, shows House Ventures will be in-
“This Old House,” cast members, from left, Roger Cook, Norm vited to join the new com-
Abram, Kevin O’Connor, Richard Trethewey, and Tom Silva. “This pany.
Old House” is getting new ownership. The venerable home-im- That, of course, includes
provement brand - whose flagship TV series has been on the air the on-air stars.
since 1979 - has been acquired from Time Inc. by former Time Kevin O’Connor, since
Inc. exec Eric Thorkilsen in partnership with private equity firm 2003 host of “This Old
TZP Group, the new company announced Friday, April 1, 2016. House” and later “Ask This
Old House,” said, “Hav-
Associated Press ing Eric back in the family
again is, and pardon the
style Media Partners, a our private equity partners pun, like coming home for
brand-development com- we hope to build it into an me. When I first joined the
pany, he still saw untapped even stronger, bigger busi- series, Eric was steering the
opportunities for This Old ness,” said Thorkilsen, add- ship (and) I feel fortunate
House. Eventually a deal ing, “Our No. 1 goal is to that we will have the op-
was struck with Time Inc., not screw it up. We’re look- portunity to work together
which, under its chairman, ing to acquire this brand for to make ‘This Old House’
Joe Ripp, was busy rein- what it is, not for how we even stronger than it is to-
venting itself after being can change it. We think we day.”
spun off as a publicly trad- can add to it, but the core O’Connor will remain
ed company in 2014. of it is working very well.” along with master car-
“I thank the This Old House Scott Omelianuk, top editor penter Norm Abram, gen-
team for their hard work of This Old House magazine eral contractor Tom Silva,
and commitment to Time the past dozen years, has plumbing and heating ex-
Inc. over many years. decided not to make the pert Richard Trethewey,
They’ve got a great new transition and is pursuing a and landscape contrac-
home,” Ripp said. new opportunity in the TV tor Roger Cook. Both series
“As an independent en- realm. But the remainder of (which each landed 2016
tity with the backing of the current staff of This Old Daytime Emmy nomina-
tions) are currently in pro-
duction and will premiere
for a 37th season and 15th
season, respectively, on
PBS stations this fall. WGBH
Boston will continue to dis-
tribute the programs.
“I want to preserve the
team and the culture,”
said Thorkilsen, “and sur-
round them with the kind
of support and investment
that allows the company
to grow. But from the audi-
ence’s point of view, I think
this transition is going to be
totally seamless.”q
“Aramie,” its handwritten This Aug. 8, 1936 file photo shows artist James Thurber in New
manuscript found by Gulli in York
the archives of Ohio State
University, tells of a sheriff Associated Press
named “Big” John Oakes,
big not in physical stature includes such absurdist Thurber’s emerging gifts for
but “in the quality of his na- touches as a sleeping description and character-
ture.” Sheriff Oakes’ author- Sheriff Oakes “grotesquely ization.
ity has been challenged doubled up on the an- “For some minutes the little
by the gang of Bud Tevis, tique couch,” and shows sheriff was silent, the tense,
that ends with Tevis running
away, a heroic fantasy the
daydreaming Mitty might
have imagined for himself.
The story has the kind of
vernacular (“It seemed like
Bud would bust awaitin’ fer
that gun to blow”) Thurber
would use unforgettably
in his baseball yarn “You
Could Look it Up.” It also