One of the biggest and most familiar series of gun magazines commonly found on newsstands has been sold. 

Industry wires report that the Arena Group's Chair and CEO, Ross Levinsohn, notified employees last week that the company has signed an agreement to sell the firearm-related Athlon Outdoors business, noting that the line "did not easily fit in any of our other Arenas." The buyer was not named. 

Arena owns over 300 media and lifestyle brands including Sports Illustrated, TheStreet, Parade, and Men's Journal and 100 million monthly users. In the latest quarter, the company posted a $11.2 million net loss, citing a decline in both print and digital subscription revenue.

Meanwhile, its now-severed Athlon Outdoors subsidiary holds such well-known magazine titles as American Frontiersman, Ballistic, Combat Handguns, Guns of the Old West, Personal Defense World, Tactical Life, Skillset, and others including popular annuals such as the Gun Buyers Guide.

Most of Athlon's brands came via the defunct New York-based Harris Publications which went belly up in 2016 after 40 years on the market. At the time, Harris cited assorted reasons including "the rapid ascendance of digital media" as reasons to shut its doors. Parade Media acquired the brands and was subsequently picked up by Arena in 2022. 

In the past several years, Athlon has hosted a growing Outdoors Rendezvous with industry groups and content creators, a sort of a mini-SHOT Show, to help generate buzz on new guns, ammo lines, optics, and accessories. It is unclear if the event will endure the changeover to new management.