Meredith Corporation


Meredith Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa. The company owns magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Meredith's publications have a readership of more than 120 million, paid circulation of more than 40 million, and its websites have nearly 135 million monthly unique visitors. Meredith's broadcast television stations reach 11% of U.S. households.

History

Early years

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. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1965.

Since 2012

In March 2012, Meredith acquired allrecipes.com from Reader's Digest Association for $175 million. 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.
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.
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 from American Media Inc. Fitness magazine was folded into Shape, while retaining its website.
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 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 studios 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.

Divisions

National media

Magazines

Meredith magazines include the following brands:
Defunct magazines include
The broadcasting division owns 15 television stations. Most of the company's stations are affiliated with CBS or Fox. 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.
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.
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, 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.
On May 2, 2019, reports were made suggesting that Meredith was planning to sell off its stations to focus on its core media properties, with Apollo Global Management suggested to be the main frontrunner.

Current Meredith-owned stations

City of license / MarketStationChannel
TV 		Owned sinceNetwork affiliation
MobileWALA-TV10 2014Fox
PhoenixKPHO-TV5 1952CBS
PhoenixKTVK3 2014Independent
Hartford - New HavenWFSB3 1997CBS
AtlantaWGCL-TV46 1999CBS
AtlantaWPCH-TV17 2017 1Independent
Springfield, MassachusettsWSHM-LD
'		3 2004CBS
Springfield, MassachusettsWGGB-TV40 2014ABC
Fox/MyNetworkTV
Bay City - Flint - Saginaw, MIWNEM-TV5 1969CBS
MyNetworkTV
Kansas City, MissouriKCTV5 1953CBS
Kansas City, MissouriKSMO-TV62 2005MyNetworkTV
St. LouisKMOV4 2014CBS
MyNetworkTV
Henderson - Las Vegas, NVKVVU-TV5 1985Fox
Portland, OR - Vancouver, WAKPTV12 2002Fox
Portland, OR - Vancouver, WAKPDX ‡‡49 1997MyNetworkTV
Bend, OregonKUBN-LD
'		43 2006MyNetworkTV
Greenville - Spartanburg - AshevilleWHNS ‡‡21 1997Fox
NashvilleWSMV-TV4 1995NBC

Note:
Notes:
City of License/MarketStation/FrequencyYears ownedCurrent ownership status
PhoenixKPHO 9101952–1972KGME, owned by iHeartMedia
Kansas City, MissouriKCMO 8101953–1983WHB, owned by Union Broadcasting
Kansas City, MissouriKCMO-FM 94.91953–1983owned by Cumulus Media
OmahaWOW 5901951–1983KXSP, owned by SummitMedia
OmahaWOW-FM 92.31951–1983KEZO-FM, owned by SummitMedia
Syracuse, New YorkWHEN 6201954–1976owned by iHeartMedia
Bridgeport, MichiganWNEM 12502004–2013WJMK, owned by Northern States Broadcasting

Four M Studios

Four M Studios, 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. 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. On October 30, 2017, the company announced that Paramount Network were partnering on two TV show 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