• by Sara Guaglione , April 6, 2018

Meredith Corp. is partnering with content licensing agency Wright’s Media to license editorial awards and “best of” accolades to the companies that own those products.

Wright's Media will work with Meredith to identify, develop and market sellable opportunities for Meredith’s lifestyle brands’ editorial awards and product roundups.

When a Meredith title awards a product in its editorial, Wright’s Media will contact that brand to offer an opportunity to license the award for their promotional use.

For example, if Better Homes & Gardens curates a list of the “10 Best Lawn Tools,” and one of those products was a fertilizer by Scotts, Wright’s Media’s sales team would contact Scotts on behalf of Meredith. Wright's would ask Scotts if it would like to license that accolade for use on websites, packaging or advertising, Kristan Prokopec, director of marketing at Wright’s Media, told Publishers Daily.

Meredith has control of creative approval of the licensing as well, through Wright’s Media.

Once Wright’s Media makes a sale, Meredith gets a cut, creating another revenue stream for the publisher.

"Publishers continue evolving the way their intellectual property is distributed, managed and presented to readers,” stated Larry Sommers, vice president at Meredith Content Licensing. “Partnering with Wright's Media will allow us to develop new licensing opportunities that will give our brands an additional revenue stream through utilizing current editorial content.”

Wright’s Media is currently working with Meredith’s Family Circle, Parents and Shape on licensing its awards and roundups.

The company works with other big publishers, such as Condé Nast and U.S. News & World Report.

Prokopec said another option for publishers working with Wright’s Media is to design and license a “badge” for winners of certain awards in Meredith’s publications, such as Allure’s Best of Beauty Awards seal that is often seen on the packaging of winning products.

“[Publishers] create the ranking and we will create a revenue stream for [them],” she said.