Philly Style magazine is sold

Philadelphia Style magazine, a glossy focusing on lifestyle and fashion, will get a new owner.

Shortly after 5 p.m. today, Dana Spain-Smith told staffers at her South Philadelphia office that she was selling the business because she wishes to devote her time and energy to her pet charity, Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society.

She will introduce Jason Binn to her staff tomorrow.

Binn, 39, is chief executive of Niche Media LLC, which publishes such oversize, pretty glossies as Aspen Peak, Gotham, Hamptons, Los Angeles Confidential, Boston Common and Capitol File.

Staffers, including publisher John M. Colabelli and editor Sarah Schaffer, were told that their jobs remain.

In an interview today, Binn declined to disclose what he paid for DLG Media Holdings LLC, which publishes Philly Style as well as online publications DC Style and ACConfidential.com.

Spain-Smith, 38, also declined to name the price.

Both parties said they had been talking for a few years. Rumor of an impending deal was first reported last week on the blog Philebrity.com.

The first Binn-published issue will be May.

Binn said Philly Style would maintain its circulation of 70,000 copies per issue and its seven-times-a-year publication schedule.

Style, already positioned toward upper-income readers, now will be targeted at the super-affluent - readers with household incomes of $250,000-plus and $1 million in liquid assets, as well as homes worth $1 million-plus, Binn said.

Niche Media frequently stages celebrity events, which it covers in its publications.

Style will be no different, he said.

Current publisher Colabelli, inspired by Binn's Ocean Drive magazine in Miami, founded Philly Style in 1997.

Spain-Smith, who became the magazine's CEO in 2001, bought out Colabelli in 2004. Spain-Smith hopes to expand PAWS beyond its shelter in Old City.

"We'll be very passionate in celebrating the people who make Philadelphia special," said Binn, whose wife, Haley, lived in Philadelphia.