Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned newspapers, magazines, television stations, and websites. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more than 40 million, and its websites had nearly 135 million monthly unique visitors. Its broadcast television stations reached 11% of U.S. households.[1]
Company type
NYSE: MDP
1902
December 1, 2021
- Acquired by IAC and merged with Dotdash to form Dotdash Meredith
- Broadcast assets acquired by Gray Television
Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.
- Steve Lacy
- (Executive Chairman)
- Tom Harty
- (President and CEO)
- Newspapers
- magazines
- television stations
- educational services
- websites
$810.5 million (FY December 2019)
$37.8 million (FY December 2019)
$6.727 billion (FY 2018)
$1.097 billion (FY 2018)
7,915 (2018)
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
Edwin Thomas Meredith founded the company in 1902 when he began publishing Successful Farming magazine.[2]
In 1922, Meredith began publishing Fruit, Garden and Home magazine, a home and family service publication.[2] In 1924, the magazine was retitled Better Homes and Gardens,[1][2] and the first issue cost a dime on the newsstand. In 1930, the company published the first edition of The Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. In 1946, the company became a public company.
In 1970, the company attempted to enter the entertainment industry by purchasing game show and film producer Ralph Andrews Productions.[3] Two years later, it became MC Productions, and Ralph Andrews bought back rights to the game shows later that year, which resulted in a subsequent lawsuit in the late 1970s.[4] In 1973, Meredith teamed up Avco Broadcasting to produce a series of nine prime-time television specials, which Avco Program Sales is syndicating, aimed for youth children.[5]
In 1987, Meredith Corporation made a deal that they would purchase MMT Sales for $40 million, and would represent national advertising spot time on 60 stations across the entire US country.[6]
In 1994, Meredith and CBS struck an agreement to renew its Kansas City station and affiliate two of the Bay City and Phoenix stations with the network.[7]
2012–2021: Merger with Time Inc.; Gray/Dotdash sale[edit]
In March 2012, Meredith acquired allrecipes.com from Reader's Digest Association for $175 million.[8][9]
In February 2013, Meredith discussed buying an interest in Time Inc. from Time Warner.[10] Instead, Time Warner sold Time Inc. as a separate company.[11]
In October 2014, Meredith announced a 10-year licensing agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia of the rights to Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings magazines and to the marthastewart.com website.[12][13]
In November 2014, Meredith acquired mywedding.com.[14][15]
In January 2015, the company acquired Selectable Media.[16] Also in January 2015, Meredith acquired Shape, Natural Health, and Fit Pregnancy magazines from American Media Inc. Meredith's Fitness magazine was folded into Shape, while both magazines' websites continued to operate separately.[17]
On September 8, 2015, Media General announced its intent to acquire Meredith in a cash and stock deal valued at $2.4 billion.[18] Pending regulatory and shareholder approval, the deal was expected to be consummated in June 2016.[18] 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.[18] To comply with FCC ownership limits, the company would have divested and/or swapped stations in six markets.[18] Media General shareholders would have controlled 65% of the company, with Meredith shareholders holding 35%.[19] However, the offer was countered by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, who made a successful, $4.6 billion bid to acquire Media General instead.[20]
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.[21] On November 26, 2017, it was announced that Meredith Corporation would acquire Time Inc. in a $2.8 billion deal.[22] $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.[23][24]
On January 9, 2018, it was announced that Meredith would launch a Hungry Girl magazine on January 16, expanding from the online brand.[25]
On January 31, 2018, the company completed the acquisition of Time Inc.[26][27][28] 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.[29] Howard Milstein had announced on February 7, 2018, that he would acquire Golf Magazine from Meredith,[30] and Time Inc. UK was sold to the British private equity group Epiris (later rebranded to TI Media) in late February.[31] In September 2018, Meredith announced the sale of Time to Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne for $190 million.[32] In November 2018, Meredith announced the sale of Fortune to Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon, whose family owns Charoen Pokphand, for $150 million.[33][34] After failing to find a buyer for Money, Meredith in April 2019 announced that it would cease the magazine's print publication as of July 2019, but would invest in the brand's digital component Money.com.[35] In May 2019, Meredith announced the sale of Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group, for $110 million.[36]
Time Inc. Productions was renamed Four M Studios in May 2018. The studio is under Bruce Gersh, Meredith's president of People, Entertainment Weekly, and People en Español and head of Four M Studios.[37]
In October 2019, Meredith Corporation sold the Money brand and website to Ad Practitioners LLC, a media and advertising company based in Puerto Rico.[38] Terms were not disclosed, but sources said the brand went for just over $20 million, that was more than the $10 million Meredith was seeking in early 2019.[39]
In November 2019 the company unloaded one more asset acquired in the Time Inc. acquisition, its 60% equity ownership of digital advertising company Viant Technology Holding Inc. that, among other assets, owns social networking site Myspace.[40] Also in November 2019, the company announced the launch of a new quarterly magazine, called Reveal, in January 2020 in collaboration with Drew and Jonathan Scott from HGTV's Property Brothers.[41][42]
On May 3, 2021, Meredith announced an agreement with Gray Television for the latter to acquire Meredith's television division. The transaction will be structured as a spin-off of a new (short-lived) Meredith Corporation, containing the magazines division, to existing shareholders, to be immediately followed by the old Meredith (by then consisting solely of its TV stations group) being acquired by Gray for $2.7 billion in cash.[43]
Later that year, on October 6, Meredith announced an agreement whereby the company's remaining magazine and other non-broadcast assets would be acquired by IAC's Dotdash for $2.7 billion, forming a new entity called Dotdash Meredith.[44]
On November 15, Meredith announced it has received regulatory approvals for both the Gray and IAC transactions.[45] Both deals were completed on December 1.[46][47] On February 9, 2022, it was revealed that six former Meredith Corporation magazines (Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents and People en Espanol) will cease having print circulation and switch to a digital-only format.[48]