Parenting Mag Case

Parenting Magazine Case

Memorandum to Wolander

Ms.Wolaner:

After reviewing the terms proposed by Time Magazine to you in its investment into Parenting Magazine as well as evaluating all components associated with your circumstances in your efforts to successfully launch Parenting Magazine, we recognize you are in a very difficult situation, given that you are faced with the challenge of balancing a number of conflicting factors at this time. Most notably, you clearly need to raise a substantial amount of capital (we agree that you are within range with your referenced total investment requirement of $5 million), and given that you have almost burned through the last of the small cash associated with the seed capital you raised in August of last year, you are facing a reality in which you will not be able to continue to make any sort of real progress towards launching Parenting Magazine. This would be particularly frustrating, and potentially even fatal to your efforts thus far if you are unable to build upon the momentum you have rolling in terms of the strong grasp you have on the market and even a refined, targeted market niche that clearly has seemingly high demand for the specialized magazine you are preparing to begin publishing. On the other hand as you know, your options right now are less than ideal, as the only reliable source of meaningful capital available in the very near term is Time, Inc.

While we believe that there are a number of components of the Time, Inc. proposal that are less than ideal, we particularly appreciate the extreme reluctance you have in agreeing to the terms that Time, Inc. has indicated would be absolutely required as part of an investment from them. With that said, we do not believe that your current alternatives are likely to be the optimal decision for you at this juncture; more specifically, we do not believe you can afford to be very patient in your efforts to launch the magazine. While one could potentially...