A great many chileheads out there are subscribers to Chile Pepper magazine. We have been for many years, having issues that go back 10 years or more. In fact, we now have so many issues at home in our collection that we can’t reasonably stack them up anymore without them tipping to one side and nearly falling over. We’ve started sealing them up in those plastic magazine protector bags just to keep them from getting easily scuffed, torn, or otherwise damaged. Some people do this for their comic books, Playboy magazines, or whatever magazines that they collect…but I digress.

We have just found out that Chile Pepper magazine was sold. Again. It was sold by Avenue Communications L.L.C. in 2004 to Lifestyle Media, who also publishes 17 enthusiast magazines, including Pilates Style and flagship publication American Cheerleader. Apparently, it’s had a few owners since its inception in 1987. It’s this fact which is particularly curious. Is it not profitable enough? Is it too high-maintenance of a publication? What’s the deal?

Anyhow, Chile Pepper’s been sold again. Someone told me to whom but I’m blanking on the name of what company purchased it this time. Anybody out there know? This change of ownership probably doesn’t mean anything for the average reader…a change of editor, perhaps a graphics change or change in look, maybe something else. It does come at a bit of a dubious time, however. They just re-tooled their website for ZestFest 2006 and should be in the heat of making their preparation for their huge annual industry show out in Ft. Worth, TX. It seemed a little odd that for all the work they did making the site look different, that the content was not noticeably changed. A conspiracy theorist, I’m not…but this all seems a bit off-kilter to me.

I have no doubt that there are industry people out there who know something about this whole deal. If so, then fess up? Emails to Chile Pepper by us (mostly about ZestFest) have gone unanswered for 2-3 weeks now and the folks at Lifestyle Media can be notoriously difficult to reach by phone. We’d love to hear what anyone else has to say about all this. Thanks in advance!

By the way, the pictures are taken of our own magazines down in our humble “Hot Sauce Shrine” area of our basement.

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