Up for Grabs: Rolling Stone Magazine Goes on Sale

The controlling interest in the legendary Rolling Stone magazine has been put up for sale, reportedly to raise money to keep the publication afloat.

Rolling Stone’s publisher Wenner Media made a startling announcement on Monday regarding its intention to sell the controlling interest in the magazine.

"There's a level of ambition that we can't achieve alone… So we are being proactive and want to get ahead of the curve,” Gus Wenner, son of the Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner, told the New York Times.

In 2014 Rolling Stone became the subject of controversy after the magazine published a story called "A Rape on Campus" written by Sabrina Erdely and detailing an account of a purported group sexual assault at the University of Virginia. A subsequent investigation revealed however that the alleged rape victim interviewed by Erdely fabricated the story, forcing the magazine to eventually retract the article and issue multiple apologies for the incident.

This affair dealt a serious blow to the magazine’s reputation and finances, and may have influenced the publisher’s decision to sell Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone magazine was founded in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleeson and became famous for its musical coverage and for its political reporting by gonzo journalism founder Hunter S. Thompson.

Earlier this year the magazine’s publisher Wenner Media also sold its other titles — celebrity magazine US Weekly and lifestyle monthly Men's Journal – to American Media Inc.