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Meredith Corporation

Final logo used from 2009 to 2021
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: MDP
Industry	Media
Founded	1902; 122 years ago (1902)
Founder	Edwin T. Meredith
Defunct	December 1, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-12-01)
Fate	Acquired by IAC and merged with Dotdash to form Dotdash Meredith Broadcast assets acquired by Gray Television
Successors	Dotdash Meredith Gray Television
Headquarters	Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.
Key people	Steve Lacy (Executive Chairman) Tom Harty (President and CEO)
Products	Newspapers magazines television stations educational services websites
Revenue	$810.5 million (FY December 2019)
Net income	$37.8 million (FY December 2019)
Total assets	$6.727 billion (FY 2018)
Total equity	$1.097 billion (FY 2018)
Number of employees	7,915 (2018)
Footnotes / references

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.

History

Early years

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. In 1924, the magazine was retitled Better Homes and Gardens, 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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

2012–2021: Merger with Time Inc.; Gray/Dotdash sale

In March 2012, Meredith acquired allrecipes.com from Reader's Digest Association for $175 million.

In February 2013, Meredith discussed buying an interest in Time Inc. from Time Warner. Instead, Time Warner sold Time Inc. as a separate company.

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.

In November 2014, Meredith acquired mywedding.com.

In January 2015, the company acquired Selectable Media. 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.

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%. However, the offer was countered by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, who made a successful, $4.6 billion bid to acquire Media General instead.

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. 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.

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

On January 31, 2018, the company completed the acquisition of Time Inc. 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. Howard Milstein had announced on February 7, 2018, that he would acquire Golf Magazine from Meredith, and Time Inc. UK was sold to the British private equity group Epiris (later rebranded to TI Media) in late February. In September 2018, Meredith announced the sale of Time to Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne for $190 million. In November 2018, Meredith announced the sale of Fortune to Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon, whose family owns Charoen Pokphand, for $150 million. 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. In May 2019, Meredith announced the sale of Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group, for $110 million.

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.

In October 2019, Meredith Corporation sold the Money brand and website to Ad Practitioners LLC, a media and advertising company based in Puerto Rico. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

On November 15, Meredith announced it has received regulatory approvals for both the Gray and IAC transactions. Both deals were completed on December 1. 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.

Divisions

National media

Magazines

Meredith magazines include the following brands:

• 25 Beautiful Homes
• Ageless Iron
• Allrecipes Magazine
• American Baby
• American Patchwork & Quilting
• Better Homes and Gardens
• Country Life
• Diabetic Living
• Do-It-Yourself
• Eat This, Not That
• EatingWell
• Entertainment Weekly (from Time Inc.)
• Every Day with Rachael Ray
• FamilyFun
• Fitness
• Food & Wine
• Health
• InStyle (from Time Inc.)
• Living the Country Life
• Midwest Living
• Parents (and Ser Padres)
• People (from Time Inc.)
• Practical Boat Owner
• Real Simple (from Time Inc.)
• Shape
• Siempre Mujer
• Southern Living
• Successful Farming
• Travel + Leisure (from Time Inc.)
• Wood

Defunct magazines include

• Family Circle
• Ladies' Home Journal
• Money (from Time Inc.)
• More
• Readymade
• Scrapbooks Etc.
• Traditional Home

Digital media

• Allrecipes.com
• mywedding.com

Local media

The broadcasting division owned 15 television stations. Most of the company's stations were affiliated with CBS or Fox. Meredith's broadcasting division also produced Better from 2007 until 2015, 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 were also cooking demonstrations and regular features on health, beauty, fitness and fashion. Local versions of the concept continue to air on Meredith stations.

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. The purchase of KMOV was completed on February 28, 2014, while the KTVK sale was completed on June 19.

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

The Local Media Division was sold to Gray Television on December 1, 2021.

Television stations

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

1. ^ Acquired from Belo Corporation.
2. Owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting and operated under a shared services agreement.
3. ^ Acquired from First Media.
4. Swapped to Post-Newsweek Stations for WFSB.
5. Owned by Time Warner subsidiary Turner Broadcasting System and operated by Meredith through a local marketing agreement (LMA) between 2011 and 2017. Meredith purchased the station in 2017 prior to Time Warner's merging into AT&T.
6. Operated under a local marketing agreement by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
7. Operated under a shared services agreement by New Age Media.
8. Acquired solely to be traded to Tribune Broadcasting for WGCL.

1. Semi-satellite of WOFL.
2. Semi-satellite of WFSB.
3. Semi-satellite of KPDX.

Radio stations

1. KCMO is now at 710 AM.

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.

After attempting a few TV shows in 2014 and 2015, the company formed Time Inc. Productions in 2016 as its in-house production company. It 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, it launched its first over-the-top subscription service, Sports Illustrated TV, available via Amazon Channels. On October 30, 2017, it announced that Paramount Network was partnering with it on two TV pilots.

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 telefilms.

Four M Studios partnered with Imagine Entertainment's Imagine Kids & Family division. Its first project from the partnership is LIFE for Kids, a children's TV show using LIFE Magazine's photo archive.

Production library

Time Inc. Productions

• People Magazine Investigates (Investigation Discovery)
• The Mars Generation (Netflix)
• The Making of SI Swimsuit 2017 (DirecTV Now)
• Puppy Bowl: Where Are They Now (Animal Planet)
• The Story of Diana (ABC) 2017 documentary miniseries, 2 nights 2 hours each
• A Year in Space (PBS) Emmy-winning
• Cultureshock (A&E) pop culture docuseries from Entertainment Weekly
• 89 Blocks (Fox) East St. Louis high school football team documentary from Sports Illustrated, which was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award

Time Inc. Productions/Four M Studios

• Sports Illustrated: True Crime pilot working title (Paramount Network) Jerry Bruckheimer TV
• Entertainment Weekly: The Bullseye pilot (Paramount Network) Conveyor Media

Four M Studios

• Home (Apple) 10 one-hour episodes
• 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

1. ^ "Meredith Corporation FY 2018 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
2. ^ "Timeline: Meredith Corp. history". The Des Moines Register. September 8, 2015.
3. "Meredith buys TV production firm" (PDF). Broadcasting. March 9, 1970. p. 52. Retrieved October 8, 2023.
4. California. Court of Appeal (2nd Appellate District). Records and Briefs. February 17, 2016.
5. "Joint ventures" (PDF). Broadcasting. January 8, 1973. p. 31. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
6. "Meredith Agrees To Buy MMT Sales For $40,000,000". Variety. July 15, 1987. p. 37.
7. "Meredith Shifts Stations to CBS". The New York Times, June 30, 1994; p6.
8. "Meredith Completes Acquisition of Allrecipes.com From Reader's Digest" (Press release). PR Newswire. March 1, 2012.
9. Rubin, Ben Fox (January 24, 2012). "Meredith to Buy AllRecipes.com". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660.
10. Lauria, Peter (February 13, 2013). "Time Warner in talks with Meredith on magazines: source". Reuters. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
11. Steigrad, Alexandra (February 5, 2014). "Time Inc. Lays Out Restructuring". WWD. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
12. Haughney, Christine (October 15, 2014). "Martha Stewart's Magazines to Outsource Business Side to Meredith". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
13. Trachtenberg, Jeffrey A. (October 15, 2014). "Martha Stewart Magazines to Be Licensed to Meredith Corp". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660.
14. "Meredith Adds To Growing Presence In Wedding Marketplace With Acquisition Of Rapidly Growing Mywedding.com Brand" (Press release). PR Newswire. November 17, 2014.
15. O'Shea, Chris (November 17, 2014). "Meredith Buys Mywedding.com". AdWeek.
16. "Meredith Expands Digital Capabilities With Acquisition Of Selectable Media" (Press release). PR Newswire. January 6, 2015.
17. Mickey, Bill (January 28, 2015). "Meredith Buys Shape from AMI for $60 Million". Folio. Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
18. ^ "Media General to Acquire Meredith Corp. in $2.4B Deal to Create TV Station Giant". The Hollywood Reporter. September 8, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
19. "Media General to Buy Meredith Corp. for $2.4 Billion". The Wall Street Journal. September 8, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2015.
20. Lieberman, David (January 11, 2017). "FCC Approves Nexstar's $4.6B Acquisition Of Media General". Deadline. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
21. A. Trachtenberg, Jeffrey (February 7, 2017). "Meredith, Bronfman Move Forward in Effort to Acquire Time Inc". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
22. Danner, Chas (November 26, 2017). "Meredith, Backed by Koch Brothers, Acquires Time Inc. for $2.8 Billion". Intelligencer. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
23. Nyren, Erin; Littleton, Cynthia (November 26, 2017). "Meredith Corp. Acquires Time Inc. in $2.8 Billion Koch Brothers-Backed Deal". Variety. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
24. Ember, Sydney; Ross, Andrew (November 26, 2017). "Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers". The New York Times. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
25. Hardy, Kevin (January 9, 2018). "Meredith launches new Hungry Girl magazine". Des Moines Register. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
26. "Meredith Corporation Announces Completion Of Time Inc. Acquisition And Reports Fiscal 2018 Second Quarter And First Half Results" (Press release). PR Newswire. January 31, 2018.
27. Hays, Kali (February 1, 2018). "Time Inc., Now Meredith and More Changes to Come". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
28. Gold, Howard R. (February 1, 2018). "Who killed Time Inc.?". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
29. ^ Spangler, Todd (March 21, 2018). "Meredith Laying Off 1,200, Will Explore Sale of Time, SI, Fortune and Money Brands". Variety. Archived from the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
30. "Banker shells out big bucks to buy Golf Magazine". New York Post. February 8, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
31. Sweney, Mark (February 26, 2018). "Marie Claire publisher Time Inc UK sold to private equity group". The Guardian. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
32. "Marc and Lynne Benioff will buy Times magazine from Meredith for $190M". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
33. NUSCA, ANDREW (November 9, 2018). "FORTUNE Sells to Thai Businessman for $150 Million". Fortune.
34. Hauser, Christine; Lee, Edmund (November 9, 2018). "Fortune Magazine Sold to Thai Businessman for $150 Million". The New York Times.
35. "Money Magazine Is No Longer for Sale, and It's Going Digital Only". www.adweek.com. April 17, 2019. Retrieved April 26, 2019.
36. "Meredith Corporation Announces Sale of Sports Illustrated to ABG for $110 million". May 27, 2019.
37. ^ Otterson, Joe (May 15, 2018). "Time Inc. Productions Rebrands as Four M Studios (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
38. "Meredith Sells Money Magazine Brand, Nearly Two Years After Time Inc. Merger". Folio. October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
39. "Meredith sells Money.com to former Google exec's startup". New York Post. October 22, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
40. Jett, Tyler. "Meredith Corporation sells stake in MySpace owner". Des Moines Register. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
41. Corporation, Meredith. "Meredith Corporation And Drew And Jonathan Scott Of HGTV's Property Brothers Name New Magazine, Reveal". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved November 22, 2019.
42. "'Property Brothers' Stars Drew and Jonathan Scott Name New Meredith Magazine 'Reveal'". TheWrap. November 20, 2019. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
43. Cynthia Littleton (May 3, 2021). "Gray Television to Acquire Meredith TV Stations for $2.7 Billion". Variety.
44. "IAC's Dotdash to Acquire Meredith Corporation's National Media Group". Meredith Corporation MediaRoom. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
45. "Pending Meredith Acquisitions By Gray And IAC's Dotdash Receive Regulatory Approvals", prnewswire.com, November 15, 2021, Retrieved November 17, 2021.
46. "Gray Television Closes On Acquisition of Meredith Corporation's Local Media Group", Gray Television, December 1, 2021, Retrieved December 1, 2021.
47. "IAC's Dotdash Announces Close of Meredith Transaction", IAC, December 1, 2021, Retrieved December 1, 2021.
48. Bruell, Alexandra (February 9, 2022). "Barry Diller's Media Group Ends Print Versions of InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, Others". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
49. Dale, Martin (September 28, 2014). "Emilio Alcalde, Krishna Mahon, A+E Networks Latin America, on Brazil's Pay TV Market". Variety. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
50. Porter, Sierra. "Meredith Corp. sells Money website to Puerto Rico media and advertising company". Des Moines Register. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
51. Patane, Matthew. "Meredith ceasing More magazine publication". Des Moines Register. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
52. "Meredith Completes Acquisition of Allrecipes.com From Reader's Digest". March 1, 2012. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
53. "Meredith Adds To Growing Presence In Wedding Marketplace With Acquisition Of Rapidly Growing Mywedding.com Brand". November 17, 2014. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2015.
54. Pursell, Chris (January 2008). "Meredith Speeds Up 'Better' Rollout". TV Week. Archived from the original on July 15, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2011.
55. "Meredith to Expand TV Portfolio with Deal to Add Stations in Phoenix, St. Louis" (Press release). PR Newswire. December 23, 2013.
56. Brown, Lisa (February 28, 2014). "Meredith Corp. closes on $177 million purchase of KMOV". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
57. Gannett-Sander Complete Phoenix Sale, TVNewsCheck, Retrieved June 19, 2014.
58. Malone, Michael (June 19, 2014). "Meredith to Acquire WGGB Springfield, Mass". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
59. "Media General, LIN Sell Stations In 5 Markets". August 20, 2014.
60. "Gray Television Closes on Acquisition of Meredith Corporation's Local Media Group" (Press release). Gray Television. Globe Newswire. December 1, 2021.
61. "Meredith To Purchase Channel 6". January 25, 1997.
62. Swartz, Kristi E. (January 18, 2011). "Parent of CBS Atlanta to take over operations of Peachtree TV". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
63. Rodney Ho (February 23, 2017). "Meredith purchases Peachtree TV from Time Warner/Turner Broadcasting System". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
64. Applefeld Olson, Cathy (January 11, 2018). "At Time Inc. Productions, It's All About the Brands – Cynopsis Media". Cynopsis Media. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
65. ^ "Paramount Network, Time Inc. Productions Announce Collaboration". TVWeek. October 30, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
66. Sippell, Margeaux (January 16, 2019). "TV Roundup: Syfy Drops First Trailer for Season 2 of 'Happy!'". Variety. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
67. ^ Stanhope, Kate (February 13, 2017). "Princess Diana Documentary in the Works at ABC". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
68. ^ Alcinii, Daniele (August 9, 2018). "Bruce Gersh on Four M Studios' unscripted strategy". Realscreen. Retrieved November 10, 2018.

Further reading

• Brown, Kathi Ann (2002). Meredith: the first 100 years. Meredith Books. ISBN 978-0-696-21668-8.
• Pendergast, Sara (2006). "Meredith Corporation". International Directory of Company Histories. Retrieved May 13, 2018 – via Encyclopedia.com.

External links

• Agriculture.com portal by Successful Farming
• Better Homes and Gardens main website

v t e IAC
Angi Inc.	Angi Handy HomeAdvisor HomeStars
Ask Media Group	Ask.com Ask Applications Excite Reference.com Sidewalk.com
Dotdash Meredith	Allrecipes The Balance Better Homes and Gardens Brides Cooking Light Entertainment Weekly Food & Wine Health HelloGiggles InStyle Investopedia Life Lifewire Martha Stewart Living Midwest Living Parents People People en Español Real Simple Serious Eats Shape Simply Recipes Southern Living Travel + Leisure TreeHugger Verywell Wood
Other properties	Care.com The Daily Beast DailyBurn
Acquisitions	Meredith National Media Time Inc.

• Meredith Corporation
• Gray Television
• IAC (company)
• Defunct publishing companies of the United States
• Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States
• Defunct mass media companies of the United States
• Companies based in Des Moines, Iowa
• Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
• Defunct companies based in Iowa
• Mass media in Des Moines, Iowa
• American companies established in 1902
• Publishing companies established in 1902
• Mass media companies disestablished in 2021
• 1902 establishments in Iowa
• 2021 disestablishments in Iowa
• 2021 mergers and acquisitions