Meredith

The $2.8 billion transaction puts Gray’s portfolio of stations in 113 markets covering approximately 35% of U.S. TV households.

Commission approval clears the way for Gray’s purchase of Meredith’s TV stations, with Meredith anticipating closing on Dec. 1.

Political spot was the culprit for the drop to $209 million, with non-political spot, digital and retrans all advancing from a year ago.

AC Dotdash is acquiring Meredith Corp. in an all-cash deal valued at $2.7 billion, the companies announced Wednesday. Dotdash is the publishing division of Barry Diller’s IAC holding company. Meredith’s wide-ranging portfolio includes publications like People, InStyle and Real Simple. The combined company will be called Dotdash Meredith.

Meredith said Mr. Antenna Las Vegas got it all wrong when it said the broadcaster refused to sell it ad time to advertise its over-the-air antennas and that the FCC should reject an informal objection lodged by the company.

Not surprisingly, due to the pending TV station group sale to Gray, questions from Wall Street analysts focused almost exclusively on the other business segments, but what little broadcasting news there was, was good. “We delivered 50% growth in non-political spot advertising revenues, driven by the professional services, automotive and gaming categories. We also benefited from continued growth in retransmission revenues,” Meredith President-CEO Tom Harty said.

Non-political spot advertising, retrans money and digital drove the station group total to $204 million.

The multiyear agreement Includes measurement for all Meredith local stations and includes Nielsen Scarborough.

The stations’ former station manager returns to oversee Meredith’s Fox-MNT duopoly in Portland, Ore.

Meredith Corp said today it has accepted a revised proposal from Gray Television to buy Meredith’s television stations for about $2.83 billion, up from the original deal’s $2.7 billion.

Gray CEO Hilton Howell said today’s $2.7 billion purchase of Meredith’s stations fits with Gray’s strategy of adding stations in key states for heavy political ad spending.

It’s getting 17 stations in 12 markets and will spin off its Flint, Mich., ABC affiliate WJRT since it’s acquiring CBS affil WNEM there. With a combined net revenue exceeding $3.1 billion on a blended 2019-20 basis, Gray said its acquisition of Meredith’s television stations will transform Gray into the nation’s second largest television broadcaster.

CEO Tom Harty: “Assuming no changes in trajectory from COVID or other macro factors,” in the current quarter, he expects “non-political spot advertising revenues to be up in the 40% range.”

Non-political spot advertising, retrans money and digital drove the station group total to $200.5 million.

Meredith Corp. is considering selling its television stations, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would focus the media conglomerate on its magazine division. Meredith is working with a financial adviser on the potential divestiture, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public.

Facebook overwhelmingly is the most important social media platform for TV stations, say executives for CBS stations, E.W. Scripps, Nexstar, NBCU stations, Fox stations and Meredith. Broadcasters’ relationship with the platform once widely viewed as a “frenemy” continues to evolve, though the opacity of its all-important algorithm still frustrates. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Meredith’s decision to create two marketing hubs to handle the day-to-day marketing of all its TV stations across the country is underway. “It’s a juggling act,” concedes Danielle Ray, who leads the Phoenix group.

For the Local Media Group (TV and related) fiscal 2Q revenues were up 53% to $328.4 million. Political spot and digital revenues shot up 96% from the previous election cycle two years ago. Political spot hit $117.7 million, while non-political TV spot advertising was down 16% to $75.3 million.

All of Quincy and four Meredith stations are being prepped for sale, with second-round bids due to the sellers in the week of Jan. 18. Quincy could command as much as $1 billion. Entire Meredith group may be in play.

Here are the complete videos and story links for TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum, featuring a keynote interview with veteran news producer David Bohrman and news and technology leaders from ABC News, Hearst, Tegna, NBCU Owned Television Stations, CBS Owned Stations, ABC Owned Stations, Gray Television, Graham Media, Sinclair, E.W. Scripps, Meredith, BBC, AJ+ and more.

TV stations are still hiring during the pandemic, but HR executives say they’ve had to get creative in their largely virtual environments, turning to social media and marketing tools to fill key positions, particularly account executives, producers and executive producers.

The company is awaiting still more political advertising revenue from at least one Senate runoff election in Georgia. It also predicts digital ad revenues will exceed print revenues for its National Media Group for the first time ever.

Political advertising and retrans money drove the total to $226 million. Non-political spot was down 26%.

After debuting in September in Meredith’s 12 markets, the daily half-hour newsmagazine is rolling out nationwide with distribution by Sony Pictures Television.

Meredith Broadcasting announced a new initiative called the Meredith Creative Group that will take over the marketing and creative services of its 17 TV stations across the country.

Meredith is laying off 130 people at its 17 stations as part of companywide “initiatives to address the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and position our business for continued growth.”

Meredith is proposing an amendment to its corporate charter that would allow the company to split its national media business and its local media business. In other words, it wants to split its magazine publishing business and its local TV business. Meredith owns 18 TV stations across 13 states. Splitting the two makes it easier to put the groups up for sale.

This fall, Meredith will launch People’s new syndicated TV show across all 12 of its markets. The program, People (the TV Show!), will be co-hosted by Kay Adams and Lawrence Jackson.

In the COVID-19 infected economy, every little bit helps for small business, and Meredith Corp. and its MNI Targeted Media division have launched an ad campaign pitching that a small investment in targeted advertising can yield pretty big results. The ad campaign uses the theme “I Believe.” Spots show a tire dealer who generated $12,000 in profit within a month of running a campaign with MNI.

In the company’s quarterly Q&A session with Wall Street analysts, Local Media Group President Patrick McCreery noted sequential month-over-month improvement throughout the pandemic. April TV ad revenues fell 49%, May was down 43% and June improved to a decline of 28%. Moving into the current quarter, July was down 25%.

Sequential improvement in digital and broadcast advertising couldn’t offset ad losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, sending Local Media revenue to $73.1 million for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a vice president and general manager at a Meredith’s CBS affiliate in Michigan’s Great Lakes region.

The veteran showrunner will oversee all aspects of the new syndicated half hour, which will launch in Meredith’s 12 local television markets this fall.

Meredith promotes him from station manager at its Atlanta duopoly. At the same time WHNS News Director Kelly Boan is move up to station manager.

Local Media Group President Patrick McCreery gave analysts some detail on category performance. “The most impacted … was automotive. Our largest category now — as has been for the last year — is professional services. And that seems to be suffering less than some of the other categories.”