The company's origins go back to July 1896, and the first issue of
Cycle Trade Journal, edited by
James Artman who became the first president of the future Chilton Company. In 1899, the magazine changed its name to
Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal. A 1900 magazine masthead listed Musselman & Buzby as the exclusive advertising representatives for
Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal. In 1900,
George Buzby,
C. A. Musselman, and James Artman merged their companies to form the
Trade Advertising & Publishing Co. The new company expanded into automotive catalogs, booklets, circulars, and posters. The company selected the name
Chilton from the
Mayflower's passenger list. The earliest known use of the corporate name
Chilton Company was in 1904. It appears on a
corporate seal that reads "Chilton Company of Pennsylvania, incorporated March 31, 1904." In 1907, the three partners purchased a printing company that they renamed the
Chilton Printing Company, only publicly adopting the name
Chilton Company in 1910. In March 1911, Chilton published the first issue of
Commercial Car Journal. In February 1912, they renamed the original
Cycle & Automobile Trade Journal to
Automobile Trade Journal, and eventually merged it into
Motor Age magazine. In 1923, the partners sold Chilton to
United Publishers Corp of New York for $1,635,000, and Artman and Buzby retired. In the same year, Chilton opened a new printing plant at 56th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. This location became the Chilton Company corporate headquarters in the late 1940s. Shortly after the purchase, United Publishers merged their
Class Journal subsidiary and Chilton into what became known as the
Chilton Class Journal Co, with C. A. Musselman as its president. This merger brought several future flagship magazines (such as
Iron Age,
Motor Age,
Dry Goods Economist,
Jewelers Circular,
Hardware Age, and
Automotive Industries) into the Chilton stable of magazines. In 1934, the company underwent a complete reorganization.
J. Howard Pew provided an infusion of cash that saved the company from bankruptcy, in exchange for a majority of the stock. All subsidiaries merged into one company and incorporated in the state of
Delaware as
Chilton Company. While the cash infusion from J. Howard Pew saved the company, it became the single biggest inhibitor to its growth, as Pew did not permit Chilton to seek outside funding for acquisitions. As a result, Chilton Company's growth over the next thirty years lagged behind competitors like
McGraw Hill and
Penton. George Buzby's son
G. C. (Carroll) Buzby became president of Chilton in the early 1950s and remained the Chief Executive Officer until he retired in the late 1960s. George C. Buzby died of cancer in 1970. In 1972, Philadelphia native William A. Barbour was elected president of Chilton. In 1979, the
American Broadcasting Company purchased the Chilton Company and made it an operating unit of
ABC Publishing. ABC already owned
Farm Progress, owner of the collectibles publisher Wallace-Homestead. Wallace-Homestead later became a division of Chilton. In 1985,
Capital Cities purchased ABC, and in 1996, the
Walt Disney Company purchased Capital Cities/ABC. Over-extended financially by its acquisition of Capital Cities ABC, Disney had to sell assets to reduce its debt—and Chilton, despite its status and recognition as an excellent business-to-business magazine publisher, was not considered a core business. Disney therefore decided to split up and sell the Chilton Company profit centers to multiple buyers: •
Krause Publications purchased the Chilton non-automotive book titles •
Reed Elsevier purchased the Chilton building and the magazine, trade show, and research division for $444 million in 1997. The research division was sold on to
Taylor Nelson AGB in 1998. • The
Hearst Corporation purchased the Chilton professional automotive assets. In December 1999, a court injunction, effective for three years, divided those assets and rights between Hearst and Nichols Publishing. •
Nichols Publishing purchased the Chilton consumer automotive group assets and brand. In 2001, Nichols sold the do-it-yourself automotive print manuals to
Haynes Publishing Group (publishers of
Haynes Manuals), while retaining licensing rights to the Chilton do-it-yourself brand for print products for 10 years. In 2003, Nichols sold the remaining automotive assets to
Thomson Learning. In 2007, Thomson Learning became
Cengage Learning. In 2011, Cengage Learning became owner of the Chilton brand for do-it-yourself print manuals as well. Cengage continues to publish or license the professional and consumer automotive products and assets. == Offices ==