Meredith Corporation
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Founder | Edwin Thomas Meredith |
| Defunct | 2021 |
| Fate | Merged with Dotdash to form Dotdash Meredith |
| Headquarters | Des Moines, Iowa , United States |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Bruce Gersh (President, Four M Studios) |
| Products | Newspapers, magazines, television stations, digital platforms |
Number of employees | Up to 1,200 workforce reduction announced in 2018 (exact number not specified) |
| Parent | IAC Inc. (after merger with Dotdash) |
Meredith Corporation was a prominent American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, with ownership spanning newspapers, magazines, television stations, and digital platforms. Its publications reached an audience exceeding 120 million readers, supported by a paid circulation above 40 million. The company's websites attracted close to 135 million unique visitors each month, while its broadcast outlets served approximately 11% of U.S. households. In 2021, Meredith merged with Dotdash, a subsidiary of IAC Inc., resulting in the formation of Dotdash Meredith.
Founding and Development
Established in 1902 by visionary entrepreneur Edwin Thomas Meredith, the company debuted with the magazine Successful Farming. By 1922, it launched Fruit, Garden and Home, which was rebranded as Better Homes and Gardens in 1924 and became one of its most significant titles. The firm went public in 1946.
During the 1970s, Meredith broadened its scope into entertainment by acquiring Ralph Andrews Productions in 1970, later renamed MC Productions; however, it eventually withdrew from this sector following legal challenges. Additionally, in 1973, it collaborated with Avco Broadcasting to create prime-time specials targeted at younger audiences.
In 1987, Meredith enhanced its advertising capabilities through the $40 million acquisition of MMT Sales, securing national ad representation across 60 television stations. By 1994, the company had negotiated key network affiliations with CBS for several important stations, strengthening its presence in the broadcasting market.
Period from 2012 to 2021: Time Inc. Merger and Divestitures
In March 2012, Meredith purchased Allrecipes.com from Reader's Digest Association for $175 million. A year later, in February 2013, Meredith explored acquiring a stake in Time Inc. from Time Warner; however, Time Warner opted to spin off Time Inc. as an independent entity instead.
October 2014 saw Meredith obtain a decade-long licensing agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for rights to Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings magazines, and marthastewart.com. The following month, Meredith strengthened its wedding market position by acquiring mywedding.com.
In January 2015, Meredith acquired Selectable Media along with several magazines from American Media Inc., including Shape, Natural Health, and Fit Pregnancy. The company merged its Fitness magazine into Shape while keeping their websites distinct.
Media General announced plans to acquire Meredith for $2.4 billion in cash and stock in September 2015 with the aim of becoming the third-largest U.S. TV station owner; however, Nexstar Broadcasting Group surpassed this offer with a $4.6 billion bid.
By February 2017, Meredith partnered with investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. to pursue Time Inc.'s acquisition, culminating in a $2.8 billion agreement announced in November of that year. Koch Equity Development contributed $640 million in financing without obtaining board seats.
Meredith introduced a print edition of the digital brand Hungry Girl in January 2018 and finalized the Time Inc. acquisition on January 31, 2018. Shortly thereafter, Meredith announced workforce reductions affecting up to 1,200 employees and began evaluating divestitures of non-core brands such as Fortune, Money, Sports Illustrated, and Time, due to their misalignment with the company’s lifestyle-oriented portfolio.
Early in 2018, Howard Milstein purchased Golf Magazine; Time Inc.'s UK operations were sold to private equity firm Epiris; Time was acquired by Marc and Lynne Benioff for $190 million; Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon bought Fortune for $150 million; and after failing to secure a buyer for Money, Meredith ended its print edition in July 2019 while continuing investment in its digital presence.
In May 2019, Authentic Brands Group acquired Sports Illustrated for $110 million. Additionally, Time Inc. Productions was rebranded as Four M Studios under Bruce Gersh’s leadership.
October 2019 marked the sale of the Money brand and website to Ad Practitioners LLC for more than $20 million. In November of that year, Meredith divested its majority stake (60%) in Viant Technology Holding Inc., a digital advertising company owning Myspace, while launching a quarterly publication titled Reveal featuring HGTV personalities Drew and Jonathan Scott.
On May 3, 2021, Meredith agreed to sell its television division to Gray Television for $2.7 billion through a corporate spin-off distributing its magazine assets to shareholders. Later that year on October 6, Meredith announced the sale of its remaining magazine and non-broadcast properties to IAC’s Dotdash for $2.7 billion, creating Dotdash Meredith.
Both deals received regulatory clearance by November 15, 2021, and were finalized on December 1. In February 2022, six former Meredith print titles—including Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, and People en Español—shifted exclusively to digital formats as part of Dotdash Meredith’s strategy emphasizing digital expansion.
Magazines
Meredith's collection of magazines features prominent titles including:
- 25 Beautiful Homes
- Allrecipes Magazine
- American Baby
- Better Homes and Gardens
- Country Life
- Diabetic Living
- Eat This, Not That
- EatingWell
- Entertainment Weekly (obtained from Time Inc.)
- Every Day with Rachael Ray
- FamilyFun
- Fitness
- Food & Wine
- Health
- InStyle (acquired from Time Inc.)
- Midwest Living
- Parents (along with its Spanish-language edition, Ser Padres)
- People (from Time Inc.)
- Practical Boat Owner
- Real Simple (from Time Inc.)
- Shape
- Siempre Mujer
- Southern Living
- Successful Farming
- Travel + Leisure (acquired from Time Inc.)
- Wood
Titles that have been discontinued include:
- Family Circle
- Ladies' Home Journal
- Money (from Time Inc.)
- More
- Readymade
- Scrapbooks Etc.
- Traditional Home
Digital media
Meredith broadened its digital presence by acquiring platforms such as:
- Allrecipes.com
- mywedding.com
Local media
Meredith's broadcast segment operated 15 television stations, mostly linked with CBS or Fox networks. From 2007 until 2015, it produced the talk show Better, which originated as an extension of the Better Homes and Gardens brand. The program included celebrity interviews, musical acts, cooking demonstrations, and lifestyle content. Regional adaptations of this show remain on air via Meredith's stations.
On December 23, 2013, Meredith revealed its intention to purchase KMOV, the CBS affiliate in St. Louis, and KTVK, an independent station in Phoenix, for $407.5 million from Gannett and Sander Media to meet federal ownership rules. The KMOV deal was finalized on February 28, 2014, followed by KTVK on June 19, 2014.
Additionally, Meredith acquired WGGB, an ABC affiliate in Springfield, Massachusetts, for $53.8 million and Fox affiliate WALA in Mobile, Alabama for $86 million.
The Local Media Division was divested to Gray Television on December 1, 2021.
Former stations
- Stations are organized alphabetically by state and city of license.
- Stations constructed and launched by Meredith are marked with two bold asterisks (**).
| Media market | State | Station | Acquisition Year | Sale Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile | Alabama | WALA-TV | 2014 | 2021 | |
| Phoenix | Arizona | KASW | 2014 | 2014 | |
| KPHO | 1952 | 1972 | |||
| KPHO-TV | 1952 | 2021 | |||
| KTVK | 2014 | 2021 | |||
| Fresno | California | KSEE | 1984 | 1993 | |
| Hartford–New Haven | Connecticut | WFSB | 1997 | 2021 | |
| Orlando | Florida | WCPX-TV | 1997 | 1997 | Acquired from First Media; later exchanged to Post-Newsweek Stations for WFSB. |
| WOFL | 1983 | 2002 | |||
| Ocala–Gainesville | WOGX | 1996 | 2002 | Operated as a semi-satellite of WOFL. | |
| Atlanta | Georgia | WGCL-TV | 1999 | 2021 | Formerly known as WGNX before 2000. |
| WPCH-TV | 2017 | 2021 | Owned by Turner Broadcasting; managed by Meredith from 2011 until sale in 2017. | ||
| Springfield | Massachusetts | WGGB-TV | 2014 | 2021 | |
| WSHM-LD | 2004 | 2021 | Semi-satellite station of WFSB. | ||
| Bay City–Flint–Saginaw | Michigan | WNEM | 2004 | 2013 | |
| WNEM-TV | 1969 | 2021 | |||
| Kansas City | Missouri | KCMO | 1953 | 1983 | |
| KCMO-FM | 1953 | 1983 | |||
| KCTV | 1953 | 2021 | Known as KCMO-TV from its inception until 1983. | ||
| KSMO-TV | 2005 | 2021 | |||
| St. Louis | KMOV | 2014 | 2021 | ||
| Omaha | Nebraska | WOW | 1951 | 1983 | |
| WOW-FM | 1951 | 1983 | |||
| WOW-TV | 1951 | 1975 | |||
| Las Vegas | Nevada | KVVU-TV | 1985 | 2021 | |
| Syracuse | New York | WHEN | "1976"| | ||
| WTVH ** | "1993"| Known as WHEN-TV until the year of sale in ’76. | ||||
| KPDX | "2021"| | ||||
| KPTV | "2021"| | ||||
| KFXO-CD\ KFXO-LD | "2007"| | ||||
| KUBN-LD | "2021"| Operated as a semi-satellite of KPDX. | ||||
| Pennsylvania | WPGH-TV | "1986"| | |||
| South Carolina | WHNS | "2021"| | |||
| rowspan= "2"|Tennessee | WFLI-TV | "2008"| | |||
| WSMV-TV | "2021"| | ||||
| Washington (state) | KCPQ | "1999"| Purchased solely to facilitate trade for WGNX. |
Four M Studios
Four M Studios (formerly known as Time Inc. Productions) serves as Meredith's internal content creation division, managed by Bruce Gersh, who is also president of People, Entertainment Weekly, and People en Español.
Following initial ventures into television during 2014-2015, Meredith launched Time Inc. Productions in 2016 to enhance its content development capabilities. That same year, it introduced PeopleTV, an ad-supported online video platform, which by 2018 had secured a distribution agreement with FuboTV. In November 2017, the company debuted Sports Illustrated TV, an over-the-top subscription offering available through Amazon Channels. Additionally, on October 30, 2017, it collaborated with Paramount Network to produce two television pilot projects.
In May 2018, the entity was rebranded as Four M Studios, expanding its focus beyond the Time portfolio to encompass all Meredith properties, including lifestyle programming and scripted series. Furthermore, it established a partnership with Freeform (TV channel) to adapt stories from Meredith’s magazines into television films, such as People's "Heroes Among Us" series.
Four M Studios also entered into a strategic alliance with Imagine Entertainment’s Imagine Kids & Family division. Their inaugural joint production is LIFE for Kids, a children’s program drawing on the photographic archives of LIFE Magazine.
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
- A Year in Space (PBS) – Emmy Award-winning
- Cultureshock (A&E) – pop culture documentary series from Entertainment Weekly
- 89 Blocks (Fox) – documentary focused on East St. Louis high school football; nominated for a Sports Emmy
- Time Inc. Productions/Four M Studios
- Sports Illustrated: True Crime pilot (Paramount Network) produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television
- Entertainment Weekly: The Bullseye pilot (Paramount Network) produced by Conveyor Media
- Four M Studios
- Home (Apple) – a ten-episode series with one-hour installments
- People Magazine Investigates: Cults (Investigation Discovery)
- People Magazine Investigates: Crimes of Fashion (Investigation Discovery)
- The Story of the Royals (ABC) – documentary miniseries
See also
Further reading
External links
- Agriculture.com – portal operated by Successful Farming
- Better Homes and Gardens official website