Cottage Life Media now wholly owned by Blue Ant Media

Cottage Life Media, the publishers of Cottage Life, Cottage, Outdoor Canada, Canadian Home Workshop and their associated websites and consumer shows, has been purchased by Blue Ant Media.

The purchase is not wholly a surprise, since Blue Ant bought a minority stake in the 25-year-old Cottage Life Media (formerly Quarto Communications) and has been widely believed to be primarily focussed on the value of the Cottage Life brand as a specialty television property. Blue Ant, helmed by former Alliance Atlantis CEO Michael MacMillan, recently bought Bold TV from the CBC and is seeking to rebrand it as Cottage Life TV. Blue Ant is 25% owned by Torstar.

“The acquisition by Blue Ant will provide strategic extension and expansion of the Cottage Life brand, positioning it for continued success in the rapidly changing media environment,” said Al Zikovitz, CEO, and President, Cottage Life Media Inc. (Zikovitz will continue to lead the company.) "It will give our readers and our advertisers increased media options that feature coast-to-coast interests."

“We are excited to have the outstanding team at Cottage Life join Blue Ant Media and we look forward to continuing to build on the strong equity of this treasured brand,” said MacMillan, CEO, Blue Ant Media. “Our goal is to be leaders in content creation and distribution and this allows us to leverage broadcast, digital and publishing to engage a targeted audience across all platforms.”

Blue Ant Media owns specialty channels Travel+Escape, Bite TV and AUX TV along with four premium, commercial-free channels Oasis HD, HIFI, eqHD, radX and their companion websites. Blue Ant Media’s digital publishing division produces daily content for its web and mobile sites and recently launched AUX Magazine, a monthly music tablet magazine.

Related posts:

• Explore magazine sold to OP Publishing of Vancouver by Cottage Life Media
• Quarto Communications renames itself Cottage Life Media Inc.
• Torstar buys a piece of Blue Ant, which bought a pieces of Quarto, and so on...
• Publishers of Cottage Life sell a share to television and digital startup Blue Ant Media