• by Melynda Fuller , May 15, 2019

In its third-quarter fiscal report of 2019, Meredith Corp. reported growth across advertising, its national and local media groups and total company revenues, which rose 14% to $743 million, compared to the same period last year.

Meredith Corporation President-CEO Tom Harty stated: "Our National Media Group generated significantly improved print advertising results, which on a comparable basis are now in-line with Meredith's historical trends.”

According to the report, it grew revenue across consumer related activities including subscription, newsstand, affinity marketing and ecommerce.

The National Media Group’s Q3 revenue rose to $556 million, a 15% increase compared to Q3 2018. Those results excluded discontinued operations including Sports Illustrated, Money and Viant.

The National Media Group recorded a 17% growth in advertising related revenues, putting it in line with the historical trends mentioned by Harty. 

Consumer-related resources including strong newsstand and affinity marketing performance in Meredith’s National Media Group grew by 28%. Part of that growth was also due to favorable renewal of TV retrans consent agreements in the company’s Local Media Group.

According to the report, Meredith met its advertising performance goal in Q3 for the Time Inc portfolio and anticipates further improvement going forward. 

To grow revenue across acquired Time Inc. digital properties, Meredith leveraged the increased scale of its combined digital portfolio to enhance sale initiatives. Platforms included native, video, shopper marketing, programmatic and social.

Consumer-related revenues accounted for nearly 50% of total National Media Group revenues and were achieved through cross-promoting brands to increase revenue and lower subscription acquisition costs.d

As Meredith works to synergize $550 million of annualized cost between it and its acquired Time Inc. properties, it has been aggressively paying down debt and eliminating redundancies across the companies.

The company reports it has realized around $320 million of that synergy as of March 31, 2019. It anticipates an incremental $60 million in its Q4 2019 report and an additional $170 million in fiscal 2020.

Harty stated: “We believe it will take longer than originally anticipated to achieve the remainder of the synergies due to investment spending to grow the business; retaining certain employees longer than anticipated to ensure business continuity; and operating the Assets Held for Sale longer than expected. 

"However, we remain confident we will achieve our $550 million cost synergy goal by the end of fiscal 2020.”