Britain’s most iconic entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, is eyeing the newspaper business as his next potential gold mine according to a source obtained by Forbes magazine.
The chairman of Virgin is reportedly considering the scope of unveiling a free daily publication in New York City, in what would mark a nostalgic venture for the entrepreneur who launched a magazine in his early teens.
The anticipated free newspaper, described by the source as still in the preliminary stages, would focus on show business and entertainment.
It is expected to be sponsored by the Virgin empire’s entertainment division, which includes the company’s showpiece, Virgin Megastores.
Any news and entertainment offering from Virgin would join an established free newspaper market in New York, where ‘am New York’ and ‘Metro’ already flourish as general news titles.
Speaking to Forbes, Lori Levin, Branson’s US publicist, said she knew of no such publication in the works at Virgin, but any potential offering would rival ‘Daily Variety Gotham,’ the subscription-based entertainment bible for New Yorkers.
Variety is published by Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, and claims to have been ‘trendsetting and covering the world of showbiz since 1905.’
Its 100 years in business makes it a worthy potential competitor for Branson, who eventually folded his brainchild ’Student Magazine’ to create Virgin Records; valued last year at $8bn (£4.6bn).
Reflecting on his previous publishing success, back in 1967, Branson said:” I was a teenager at the time and we operated from a London basement. By the summer of ’67, the magazine started to take off and had a circulation of over 50,000 copies an issue.
“All of us working from on the project felt like we were students, living away from home in a rented basement with a constant flow of people in and out…it was a very exciting time.”
Jul 29, 2005
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