Opinions expressed in this piece are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

If you have been dreaming of being on the cover of Rolling Stone for the past half century — and who hasn’t? — maybe you still can, especially if you own it.

Founding publisher Jann Wenner announced Sept. 17 that his company Wenner Media will look to sell its controlling 51% of the iconic counter culture masthead to a buyer who will "best position the [Rolling Stone] brand for future growth." A year ago Wenner sold a 49% stake in Rolling Stone to Singapore-based music tech company Bandlab for a reported $40 million.

Even though Rolling Stone is considered an internationally recognized and celebrated publication, it has not been immune to the same headwinds challenging much of the print publishing industry — declining ad revenue, ad pages, newsstand sales and circulation.

When Bandlab bought its stake in Rolling Stone last year The Wall Street Journal reported that ad pages had declined 14% at the publication from January through August of 2016 versus the same period in 2015.

U.S. magazine ad revenue was down at a negative 5.5% CAGR to $8.24 billion in 2016 from $13.73 billion in 2007 and is projected by Kagan, a media research group within S&P global market Intelligence, to decline at a negative 4.5% CAGR to $5.22 billion in 2026.

Industry newsstand sales declined 12.5% in the U.S. to 325.4 million and 11.8% in Canada to 47.8 million in 2016, according to magazine marketing research company MagNet. That translated to a 7.1% drop in newsstand revenue to $1.79 billion in the U.S. and a 5.8% decrease in Canadian revenue to $311 million.

The average monthly circulation of the top 145 magazines slipped 1.9% in the first six months of this year following a 6.2% drop in the same period in 2016, according to data from The Association of Magazine Media.

Mobile circulation has been growing and now accounts for almost one-third of all circulation while print and digital circulation is hovering slightly above half of all circulation. Video circulation is still a minor share of overall circulation, but it seems to be on the rise.

Rolling Stone has been exploring multiple distribution channels with an overall reach of 60 million monthly, including a 50% increase in its digital traffic, a 100% rise in its social media presence and a 700% leap in video views, according to Wenner Media's Sept. 17 press release.

Wenner and his son Gus, who is COO of Wenner Media, were struggling against industry downturns last year when Wenner sold Us Weekly to American Media for a reported $100 million. This summer Wenner sold Men's Journal to American Media for an undisclosed price.

Who might be a suitor for Rolling Stone? Trade press speculation has been focusing on the big publishers such as American Media, which was acquired in 2014 by private-equity investors. But I suspect there could be a larger pool of bidders, including:

* Verizon Communications Inc., a lately aggressive ad content aggregator as per its recent acquisitions of Yahoo! and AOL.com.

* Walt Disney Co., which has been a strategic investor in digital media, including virtual network Vice Media.

* Tech media titans such as Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc.

* Music-minded Apple Inc.

* Private equity players, who might find the Rolling Stone platform suitable for all sorts of licensing deals and ventures. (When Bandlab bought into Rolling Stone last year, it was reported to be attracted to a dozen international licenses Rolling Stone owned.)

Granted, Rolling Stone's vaunted parade over the decades of great writers like Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe and Cameron Crowe; political journalists like Matt Taibbi; award-winning photographers like Annie Leibovitz; plus scores of music superstar interviews and covers should be a coveted attraction for would-be buyers.

But its left-leaning cultural tone could also be a barrier and bridge too far for many image-sensitive corporations in an already strained political climate. Plus, the publication is no stranger to political and legal adversity as witnessed by its 2013 cover of one of the Boston Bombers and its controversial 2015 story about an alleged rape at the University of Virginia.

Still, I lean more bullish than bearish despite the headwinds and believe that great content and street cred could widen the bidding funnel and strengthen the bids.

Maybe I have been swayed by listening to Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s comedy rock classic "Cover of Rolling Stone" while I crafted this post. It was written by author, cartoonist and humorist Shel Silverstein, who together with the band, did make the cover in 1973 with the caption "What’s-Their-Names Make the Cover."