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Meredith Corporation

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: MDP S&P 400 Component
Industry	Media
Founded	1902; 117 years ago (1902)
Founder	Edwin T. Meredith
Headquarters	Des Moines, Iowa
Key people	Steve Lacy (Executive Chairman) Tom Harty (President and CEO)
Products	Newspapers Magazines Television Educational Services Websites
Revenue	US$1.6 billion (2016)[1]
Number of employees	3,600 (2016)[1]
Divisions	National Media Local Media
Website	meredith.com

Meredith Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The company has two divisions: National Media and Local Media. As of 2016, the company employed 12,600 people and had US$1.6 billion in revenues. As of 2018, they are the largest magazine company in the world (after its buyout of Time Inc.^[2]).

History

Former logo from 1960s to 2009

Edwin Thomas Meredith founded the company in 1902 when he began publishing Successful Farming magazine. In 1922, Meredith began publishing Fruit, Garden and Home magazine, a home and family service publication. Two years later, this magazine was retitled Better Homes and Gardens,^[3][4] and the first issue cost a dime on the newsstand. In 1930, they published the first edition of The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. By 1928, the company had combined circulations of 2.5 million.

The company went public in 1946 and was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965. Following its initial public offering, Meredith began acquiring television stations, a strategy it has continued over the decades.^[5]

Recently, Meredith has introduced numerous other female-oriented consumer brands and has expanded its reach, through acquisitions and strategic partnerships, to become the leading media and marketing company serving the adult female audience in the United States. The company has extended its media and marketing platform around the globe, through acquisitions and strategic licensing relationships. In March 2012, Meredith completed the acquisition of allrecipes.com from Reader's Digest Association for $175 million.^[6] In October 2014, Meredith announced a 10-year licensing agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to acquire the rights to Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings and marthastewart.com.^[7][8] In November 2014, a month after inking the licensing deal with Stewart Omnimedia, Meredith acquired mywedding.com.^[9] Selectable Media,^[10]

In January 2015 Shape, Natural Health and Fit Pregnancy from American Media Inc. Fitness magazine was folded into Shape, while retaining its website.^[11]

In February 2013, Meredith and Time Warner held discussions on a possible purchase of Time Inc.; Time Warner at the time elected to spin it out as a separate company instead.^[12][13]

On September 8, 2015, Media General announced its intent to acquire Meredith in a cash and stock deal valued at $2.4 billion. Pending regulatory and shareholder approval, the deal was expected to be consummated in June 2016. The combined company would have operated under the name Meredith Media General, and be the third-largest owner of television stations in the United States—serving an estimated 30% of households. To comply with FCC ownership limits, the company would have divested and/or swapped stations in six markets. Media General shareholders would have controlled 65% of the company, with Meredith shareholders holding 35%.^[14] However, the offer was countered by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, who made a successful, $4.6 billion bid to acquire Media General instead.^[15]

In February 2017, it was reported that Meredith and a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. were considering another possible purchase of Time Inc.^[16] On November 26, 2017, it was announced that Meredith Corporation would acquire Time Inc. in a $2.8 billion deal. $640 million in backing was provided by Koch Equity Development, but the Koch family would not have a board seat or otherwise influence the company's operations.^[17][18]

On January 9, 2018, it was announced that Meredith would launch a Hungry Girl magazine on January 16, expanding from the online brand.^[19]

The Time Inc. acquisition was completed on January 31, 2018.^[20][21][22] In March 2018, only six weeks after the closure of the deal, Meredith announced that it would lay off 200 employees, up to 1,000 more over the next 10 months, and explore the sale of Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated, and Time. Meredith felt that, despite their "strong consumer reach," these brands did not align with its core lifestyle properties.^[23]Howard Milstein had announced on February 7, 2018, that he would acquire Golf Magazine from Meredith,^[24] and Time Inc. UK was sold to the British private equity group Epiris (later rebranded to TI Media) in late February.^[25] In September 2018, Meredith announced the sale of Time to Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne for $190 million.^[26] In November 2018, Meredith announced to sell Fortune to Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon for $150 million.^[27][28]

Time Inc. Productions was renamed Four M Studios in May 2018. The studios is under Bruce Gersh, Meredith's president of People, Entertainment Weekly and People en Español and head of Four M Studios.^[29]

Divisions

National media

Magazines

Meredith magazines include the following brands:

Defunct magazines include:

• More


• Readymade


• Sail


• Scrapbooks Etc.

Digital media

• 
  Allrecipes.com ^[30]
  


• mywedding.com ^[31]
  

Local media

The broadcasting division owns 15 television stations. Meredith's broadcasting division also produces Better, which was originally conceived as a brand extension of BH&G. Since its inception in 2007 the show has placed an increasing emphasis on celebrity interviews and music performances. There are also cooking demonstrations and regular features on health, beauty, fitness and fashion. The program currently airs on 80 stations nationwide.^[32]

On December 23, 2013, Meredith announced plans to buy St. Louis CBS affiliate KMOV and Phoenix independent station KTVK for $407.5 million in cash from Gannett Company and Sander Media, LLC to satisfy a federal mandate that Gannett sell KMOV.^[33] The purchase of KMOV was completed on February 28, 2014,^[34] while the KTVK sale was completed on June 19.^[35]

Meredith has also struck deals to acquire ABC affiliate WGGB in Springfield, Massachusetts from Gormally Broadcasting for $53.8 million^[36] and Fox affiliate WALA in Mobile, Alabama from LIN Media for $86 million.^[37]

Following the 2018 announcement that Cox Media Group was looking to divest its 14 stations, Meredith was mentioned as a leading candidate to purchase the Cox stations. Such an acquisition would require minimal divestiture (only Atlanta do the two companies overlap), and would also mark a return to Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Orlando where Meredith previously owned stations, though none of the former Meredith stations in those markets are currently owned by Cox.^[38][39][40]

Current Meredith-owned stations

• (**) indicates a station that was built and signed on by Meredith.
  


• (‡‡) indicates a station that was owned by First Media prior to its acquisition of Meredith in 1997.
  

Note:

• 
  ¹ Between 2009 and 2017, Meredith operated WPCH through a local marketing agreement when the station was owned by Time Warner subsidiary Turner Broadcasting System.^[41] On February 23, 2017, Meredith announced its intention to purchase the station from Time Warner prior to the latter's merging with AT&T.^[42]
  

Former Meredith-owned stations

Notes:

• 
  ¹ Owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, Meredith operated KASW under a shared services agreement.


• 
  ² WCPX was acquired along with KPDX and WHNS when Meredith bought their parent company First Media,^[43] but the station was swapped to Post-Newsweek Stations (former name of Graham Media Group) for WFSB a day later. Meredith never held control of the station.


• 
  ³ Acquired solely to be traded to Tribune for WGCL.

Radio stations

Four M Studios

Four M Studios (Four M), formerly Time Inc. Productions, is Meredith's in-house production company and is under the oversight of Bruce Gersh, Meredith's president of People, Entertainment Weekly and People en Español.^[29]

After attempting a few TV shows in 2014 and 2015, the company formed Time Inc. Productions in 2016 as its in house production company.^[44] The company launched its free, ad-supported online video service PeopleTV in 2016 which got a pay TV deal by May 2018 with FuboTV. In November 2017, the company launched its first over-the-top subscription service, Sports Illustrated TV, available via Amazon Channels.^[29] On October 30, 2017, the company announced that Paramount Network were partnering on two TV show pilots.^[45]

Time Inc. Productions was renamed Four M Studios in May 2018. Four M would expand from the Time titles to all Meredith titles and to freestanding lifestyle shows and scripted shows. Four M also announced at that time a deal with Freeform TV channel to develop Meredith magazine stories, including People’s “Heroes Among Us” franchise, into to telefilms.^[29]

Production library

Time Inc. Productions

• 
  People Magazine Investigates (Investigation Discovery)^[23]
  


• 
  The Mars Generation (Netflix) ^[46]
  


• 
  The Making of SI Swimsuit 2017 (DirecTV Now)^[46]
  


• 
  Puppy Bowl: Where Are They Now (Animal Planet)^[46]
  


• 
  The Story of Diana (ABC) 2017 documentary miniseries, 2 nights 2 hours each^[46]
  


• 
  A Year in Space (PBS) Emmy-winning^[29]
  


• 
  Cultureshock (A&E) pop culture docuseries from Entertainment Weekly^[47]
  


• 
  89 Blocks (Fox) East St. Louis high school football team documentary from Sports Illustrated, which was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award^[47]
  

Time Inc. Productions/Four M Studios

• 
  Sports Illustrated: True Crime pilot working title (Paramount Network) Jerry Bruckheimer TV^[45]
  


• 
  Entertainment Weekly: The Bullseye pilot(Paramount Network) Conveyor Media^[45]
  

Four M Studios^[29]

• 
  Home (Apple) 10 one-hour episodes^[47]
  


• 
  People Magazine Investigates: Cults (Investigation Discovery)


• 
  People Magazine Investigates: Crimes of Fashion (Investigation Discovery)


• 
  The Story of the Royals (ABC) documentary miniseries

See also

• New Media Strategies


• List of United States magazines

References

Further reading

• 
  Brown, Kathi Ann (2002). Meredith: the first 100 years. ISBN 978-0-696-21668-8.
  


• 
  Pendergast, Sara (2006). "Meredith Corporation". International Directory of Company Histories. Retrieved 2018-05-13 – via Encyclopedia.com.
  

External links

• 
  Official website
  


• Agriculture.com portal by Successful Farming


• Better Homes and Gardens main website