Carswell acquires Canadian Lawyer and Law Times as part of Canada Law Book deal

[This post has been UPDATED]Although it has not been Now confirmed by Thomson Reuters, the sale of Canada Law Book to Carswell (see previous post) appears to includeincludes the four law-related magazine titles published by the CLB Media division of The Cartwright Group. This means that Canadian Lawyer, Canadian Lawyer InHouse, Canadian Lawyer 4Students and Law Times have all changed hands. (Carswell's only known consumer magazine is another legal title, Lexpert.)

Canadian Lawyer is a monthly national magazine for lawyers (Canadian Lawyer InHouse and Canadian Lawyer 4Students are line extensions). Law Times is a weekly newspaper for lawyers, published only in Ontario (its major competitor is Lawyers Weekly, a national paper for lawyers). 

The sale of the four titles leaves CLB Media with a portfolio of trade magazines serving the industrial/manufacturing, security and automotive sectors. Rumours have been circulating that those titles are also in play or about to be and that a likely acquirer of these titles would be Annex Publishing and Printing Inc. 

[UPDATE: According to a posting by Law Times, there is a "formal letter of intent" between The Cartwright Group and Annex for the sale of the remaining trade publications of CLB Media;  that should close by the end of August.

The sale of Dye and Durham to Office Central is expected to close at the same time.

The story says that the decision to sell was part of a consolidation of the personal assets of former judge Ian Cartwright who is now 75 and is planning his estate.]