With the Koch brothers’ interest in Time Inc come more questions about billionaire-influenced media

The speculation is over: Time Inc. has officially found a buyer. Meredith, the publisher of magazines including Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle, shelled out $2.8 billion for Time in a deal announced Sunday night.

But with the end of that speculation comes some new questions about the potential involvement of Charles and David Koch, who contributed $650 million into the merged company. The general concern among observers is that the two billionaires, who have founded and funded organizations like the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, will use the newly owned Time Inc. properties to help push their conservative agenda. But the Koch brothers said they no intention of meddling with the merged company, whose board they won’t take a seat on. “[Koch Equity Development’s] non-controlling, preferred equity investment underscores a strong belief in Meredith’s strength as a business operator, its strategies, and its ability to unlock significant value from the Time Inc. acquisition,” they said in a press release.

Important details from @JeffreyT1: Meredith says the Koch investment in the deal is passive, and that the Koch brothers won't have a board seat or any influence on editorial. https://t.co/2B3oc1o8My

— Sarah Rabil (@srabil) November 27, 2017

Ex-Time Inc EIC @johnwhuey: “It’s difficult to believe the Kochs would pay a premium to buy into the print media model without the hope that they can harness Time and Fortune to further their agenda.”

—Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) November 27, 2017

While it’s possible that the Koch brothers saw the Time Inc. deal as just another good investment, it’s hard to believe that they would chip in for a fifth of the company and not expect some degree of editorial control over the operation. (It’s also worth pointing out, as many have, that Rupert Murdoch also promised not to meddle in the editorial matters of the Wall Street Journal when he bought the newspaper in 2007.)

Overall, billionaires have had a mixed track record when it comes to their involvement in media companies over the past few years. On one hand you have Jeff Bezos, whose active role in strategy at The Washington Post has changed the newspaper for the better. On the other hand, there’s Joe Ricketts, whose personal animosity towards unions pushed him to shut down Gothamist and DNAinfo last month. Where the Koch brothers fit on that continuum is still TBD.

I remember when Rupert Murdoch was definitely not going to influence the Wall Street Journal https://t.co/TjwWtz2RUz

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) November 27, 2017

This item about Koch having “no influence” over TIME should give you as much assurance as WSJ’s “editorial independence committee,” which caved to Murdoch just 4 months after the acquisition https://t.co/JUlSLktdih

— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) November 27, 2017