Meredith Earnings Up 20%, But Below Historic Levels

Obituaries have breathed life into the Meredith Corp. station group this year. The company said Wednesday its service with death notices on-air contributed to a revenue increase in the January-March period.

Called "ONE Service" (On-Air Notification Entry Service), people can purchase rights to include a name of a deceased in an "Obit Michigan" listing that appears during some newscasts on a Meredith-owned station in Saginaw, Mich. It also appears online.

The company is set to expand the opportunity to all 12 of its stations by the end of the summer. And it licenses the system to two Gray-owned stations, one in South Bend, Indiana, and another in Michigan.

Meredith handles the billing, and the Gray stations sell the time. Meredith has plans to expand "ONE Service" into birth and wedding announcements.

The program, launched last fall, is designed to grab dollars from competing newspapers. Speaking on a call with analysts, Meredith Corp. CEO Stephen Lacy referred to it as part of "marketing initiatives we developed and launched during the economic downturn."

advertisement

advertisement

He did not provide any specifics on dollar amounts. Overall, revenues in the most recent quarter for Meredith's 12 stations were up 20% to $69 million, but that was below the $78 million the company posted in the same quarter in 2008.

Speaking about all Meredith businesses, which include national media (largely magazine-based) and local (TV stations), Lacy said: "We're still well below historic levels established prior to the recession ... the marketplace remains very volatile on both a month-to-month and client-by-client basis."

In magazines, Lacy cited figures showing the company had a 12.4% share of all industry ad dollars in the most recent quarter, up from 11.2% in the prior year. Publications include Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle. Revenues for the division with print made up more than 80% of total company dollars ($353 million) in the recent quarter.

Total company earnings in the January-March period were more than $33 million.

Meredith is one of five publishers to form Next Issue Media, designed to assist in launching electronic publishing initiatives on platforms such as the iPad and mobile devices. Next Issue is currently developing technology and business models.

Meredith, with a 20% share, anticipates investing $1.25 million for the current quarter, on top of $750,000 in the January-March period. By June 2011, it projects it will have made a total investment of $7 million.

While building equity, the company said, it posted a loss in the January-March quarter, while a larger one is expected in the current period ending at the end of June.

Will the e-devices peel readers away from Meredith's printed pages? Jack Griffin, who heads the magazine businesses, suggested there will be some "cannibalization," but at a slow rate. "It depends heavily on what your demographic is, and what your content focus is," he said. "And our belief is that with our stable of titles oriented to adult American women -- those are not the early-adopters."

At the TV stations, in the recent quarter, auto advertising was up 60%; the category is pacing to be above that for April to June. While the national spot business has improved, station top executive Paul Karpowicz said: "Dealers have a degree of confidence to come back into the market and begin spending again."

Next story loading loading..