By 1980, Iron Age's revenue and status had declined due to the reduction in the size of the US metalworking manufacturing industry, and Jewelers' Circular-Keystone captured the position of Chilton's most profitable magazine.
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.
J. Howard Pew provided an infusion of cash that saved the company from bankruptcy, in exchange for a majority of the stock.
As a result, Chilton Company's growth over the next thirty years lagged behind competitors like McGraw Hill and Penton.
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: 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 1955, all former United Publishers magazines and their staffs relocated from New York City to the corporate headquarters at 56th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.
[6] Chilton published the celebrated science fiction novels Dune by Frank Herbert (1965),[7] and The Witches of Karres (1966) by James H. Schmitz.
Haynes is now the sole provider of widely distributed repair manuals in the USA, and it, too, openly plans to stop selling any new paperback or digital books after 2020.