Having just snapped up Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.8 billion, new owner Macrovision is, as expected, already looking for a buyer for TV Guide the magazine. [NYT] It was no big secret from the beginning that Macrovision was interested in Gemstar's technology, but not its print asset, or its television channels (the TV Guide Channel, and horse-racing station TVG). The new owner is, however, interested in keeping TVGuide.com, which in the digital era is viewed as a more substantial asset that the ink-and-paper brand, though hanging on to the magazine's domain name, we imagine, could be a sticking point for a sale.

Or not.

Very quickly, the magazine has done an about-face. This is interesting.

Once looked at – even by this website – as a downtrodden and stodgy print title that should face the same fate as Eight Belles, TV Guide has repositioned itself, at least in talking points so far, as a necessary newsstand commodity. "There’s more of a need for this magazine than ever, given the explosion in the number of TV channels," says new EIC Debra Birnbaum, the former Life & Style and Inside TV editor, who jumped up from the exec ed slot after Ian Birch was dismissed after the sale.

Though it'll never see the 20 million copies sold each week that it did during its boom, TV Guide has curbed a circulation drop off, with a stable 3.2 million circulation and 20 million readers.

J. Scott Crystal, meanwhile, is being credited by insiders as "really turn[ing] the ship around financially," Jossip is told.

Indeed: For the first time in 15 consecutive quarters, TV Guide has turned a profit. Subscriptions are up. They imagine themselves reaching profitability next year.

So while tabloids like Star and Us Weekly are seeing their circs drop, might this bastion of old school entertainment publishing be a single shining star? And if that question can even be asked, expect any new buyer to be paying a premium for its future potential.

[Photo: NYT]