Today the Durham-based All About Beer magazine announced that it will acquire DRAFT Publishing, including DRAFT magazine and other assets. According to All About Beer LLC CEO Chris Rice, the combined audience will make his publication the “largest, best-selling, and most engaged of the beer magazines.”
As Rice points out, both are well-established brands in the industry, with All About Beer having existed since 1980, before there was anything resembling a craft beer movement, and DRAFT being around since 2006.
“The DRAFT team recognized that we had a shared vision for what has happened and what will happen in the industry,” Rice says. “So when we talk about that shared vision, when we bring those two groups together, that shared vision turns into more value.”
Both beer mags have had slightly different focuses, Rice says, with DRAFT aimed more at beer lifestyle and AAB writing about beer itself. So there’s not too much overlap, and Rice says no one on the DRAFT staff is being let go. Still, the print version of DRAFT will cease to exist; its subscribers will instead receive copies of AAB. Instead, Rice says, “the DRAFT brand will evolve around a digital-first strategy.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. All About Beer LLC puts on the annual World Beer Festival in Durham, which will take place on October 14 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
