The Kovels, renowned publishers in the antiques and collectibles space, have sold their business to the parent company of Antique Trader. Active Interest Media (AIM) pointed to the growth of the collectibles industry and said the addition of Kovels, Inc.’s assets rounds out the AIM Collectibles’ family of brands.
“AIM’s Antique Trader coupled with Kovels, positions the newly combined brand as one of the longest standing authorities in antiques and collectibles media,” a spokesperson for AIM told EcommerceBytes.
The Kovels website and membership offering will continue to operate. “The plan for the immediate future is to operate the Kovels business as is,” the spokesperson said. “Long term, we see value in integrating the Kovels suite of products alongside our Antique Trader brand. The Kovels name and its history will no doubt be an integral part of our branding and content for a long time to come.”
Ralph and Terry Kovel started their collectibles publishing empire 70 years ago, and Terry and their daughter Kim have carried on the tradition since Ralph’s passing in 2008. (EcommerceBytes wrote about the couple’s accomplishments and importance in the antique and collectibles world in a farewell to Ralph that year. And Antique Trader wrote a tribute to Terry, now in her 90s, in this article from 2021.)
AIM said the collaboration of Antique Trader and Kovels features an online price guide with over 1 million prices, a robust, full-color monthly newsletter, thousands of online articles, the latest auction news, industry reports, events listings, a dealer directory and more.
Active Interest Media (aimmedia.com)’s two groups, Marine and Home, are divided into five divisions – Collectibles, Home Arts, Home Building, Marine, and Writer’s Digest.
The Vice President and General Manager of AIM Collectibles Group Corinne Zielke said the move “brings the legacy of the Kovels brand and wealth of information amassed over their 70-year history together with our Antique Trader’s 65-years of serving the collectibles hobby and allows us to form an even more informative, authoritative, and entertaining source to continue to fuel the ever-growing collectibles hobby.”
“We wish the Kovel family the very best and look forward to honoring their legacy in the hobby for many years to come,” Zielke added.
A press release announcing the news quoted Terry Kovel: “After 70 years it was time to entrust the Kovels brand to a new home. We couldn’t think of a better place than with Antique Trader, a publication like ours that collectors trust and enjoy learning from.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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