Washington Post’s Newsweek unit sells Budget Travel magazine to New York investment firm

Budget Travel magazine sold to investment firm,

NEW YORK — Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine is being sold by The Washington Post Co.’s Newsweek division to Fletcher Asset Management Inc., a New York investment firm.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Newsweek Inc. said Thursday that Fletcher has agreed to keep almost all of Budget Travel’s employees.

Like much of the magazine industry, Budget Travel has seen advertising revenues plummet this year. The magazine, which has a circulation of about 690,000, sold 28 percent fewer ad pages in the first nine months of 2009 than in the same period a year earlier, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

The print industry is suffering from both the economic downturn and the shift of advertisers and readers to the Web, where ad space is cheaper.

Washington Post Co. shares fell $1.69 to $438.81 in afternoon trading.