News Corp.’s Australian arm News Ltd. is buying FPC’s Aussie magazine group—25 titles including delicious, Australian Good Taste, Notebook and the Australian editions of Vogue and GQ. The web sites are part of the deal, safe to say there should be a lot of what execs like to upside there. In fact, I see that News Ltd. Chairman and CEO John Hartigan has said just that although not only about the online aspects: “This will be a major acquisition that will transform News into one of Australia’s largest magazine publishers with strong revenue and upside.” News Ltd. will add the FPC titles to its own magazine holdings, which include donna hay and Inside Out. 
No terms disclosed although The Australian is reporting between $170 million and $180 million Australian.  The deal is expected to close by the end of 2006 but the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission gets a say.