It might be the beginning of the end of one of the country’s most prestigious magazine publishers.

Time Inc., which publishes titles like Time, People and Sports Illustrated, agreed on Sunday to sell itself to Meredith, a Midwestern publisher that had long courted the company. The deal is valued at nearly $3 billion — roughly the amount of revenue that Time Inc. brought in last year.

Like many of its competitors, Time Inc. failed to keep pace with the industrywide transformation from print to digital platforms. Management disagreements and cost cuts in the first decade of this century led to high-profile departures that bled the company of talent and left it without a clear succession plan.

Now the nearly 100-year-old company must turn to its new owner, a publisher known for magazines like Better Homes & Gardens, to chart a path for its future — a future that will perhaps not be built on the iconic photography, swimsuit models and ambitious journalism that helped Time Inc.’s titles become household names.