Meredith

Increased political revenue couldn’t offset advertising losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, sending Local Media revenue to $99.7 million for the company’s fiscal third quarter.

Meredith Corp. is delaying the filing of its report for the quarter ended March 31. It told the SEC that the coronavirus pandemic resulted in “significant disruption of aspects of our business, including advertising cancellations and delays, reduced demand, loss or disruption of manufacturing and distribution capability, and quarantines and other government actions.” The quarterly report is now scheduled for this Thursday, May 14.

The media company, which originally thought it would avoid cuts, has changed its tune and is now implementing temporary salary cuts company-wide as well as a hiring freeze and employing less freelance employees.

The St. Louis CBS affiliate’s sales director is tapped by Meredith to succeed Mike Murphy who announced his retirement after a 30-year broadcasting career.

Las Vegas and Portland, Ore. will light up their NextGen TV markets in June from their initially-slated late April launch, but the broadcasters and coalition driving the new industry standard forward say major launches will still move ahead this year. The launches will coincide with the arrival in retail stores of the first 3.0-capable sets. Above, six LG sets will bear the NextGen TV logo, including the 55-, 65- and 77-inch class GX Gallery Series 4K Ultra HD models.

The new multi-year agreement covers all seven CBS affiliates owned by Meredith, which reach 7% of the U.S. audience serving more than 7.6 million television households.

Stations from Meredith, Nexstar, Sinclair and Tegna have applied for FCC approval to launch NextGen TV in Oregon.

NAB, legal counsel for Pearl TV and the general counsel of Meredith met last week with staff of the FCC Media Bureau to discuss the transition to NextGen TV and recommend a change in what broadcasters submit to the agency as part of their ATSC 3.0 license applications to allay concerns over possible contractual indemnification issues.

Moving to smaller physical footprints — or moving hardware completely from expensive urban environments to less expensive real estate — is a big driver in the transition to IP networking. But at the same time, some of the country’s biggest news operations still want to keep high-value content close by to ensure quick access for breaking news coverage — and that can mean sticking with on-premise storage. L-r: ABC’s Marcy Lefkovitz, Meredith’s Tom Casey, CBS’s Jeff Birch and Masstech’s Mike Palmer. (Photo: Wendy Moger-Bross)

Increases in core, digital and retrans money fail to offset lower political and greater reverse comp.

Meredith acquired equity in Viant Technology Holding as part of its January 2018 acquisition of Time Inc., which had acquired its stake from Viant Technology LLC in February 2016.

What’s left of 47-year-old Money magazine has been sold to a 3-year-old digital startup run by a former Google executive. After shutting down its print edition earlier this year when parent Meredith failed to find a buyer, Money has sold its surviving brand, Money.com, to Ad Practitioners LLC, based in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Terms were not disclosed, but sources say the brand went for just over $20 million.

Meredith’s television stations in 12 markets return to the satellite provider’s lineup immediately after almost two months.

The stations group has 16 stations pulled off the satellite service.

If Dish and Meredith fail to reach an agreement, 16 Meredith-owned stations’ programming will not be available on Dish systems as of 7 p.m. ET on July 15.

Meredith Corp. is preparing to explore a sale of its portfolio of TV stations as it looks to streamline its business, people familiar with the matter tell Reuters. Meredith is discussing its plans with financial advisers and has already received interest in its stations from private equity firm Apollo Global Management, the sources say.

There is no fighting sexism on television without fighting age discrimination along with it.

The station group’s new half-hour weeknight program will debut in fall 2020.

The local media group’s performance of $214 million is driven by $36.1 million of political money and a 17% rise in core advertising plus greater retrans revenue.

The long-time GM of the group’s KVVU Las Vegas will oversee advertising revenue growth and strategy across Meredith’s station group.

The sales director of KPHO-KTVK is tapped to succeed Ed Munson who retired last month.

Meredith top brass, who have laid off hundreds since snapping up Time Inc. for $2.8 billion in January, are rewarding themselves generously with compensation jumping over 30% this year. Executive Chairman Steve Lacy’s total compensation including base salary, stock awards, option awards and non-equity incentive plan compensation jumped 35% from $10,118,433 to $13,725,050, according to the proxy statement filed this week.

TownNews.com’s CMS will power Meredith Local Media Group’s web, mobile, OTT and live streaming initiatives.

The local media group’s performance of $199 million is driven by a 134% increase in political plus other revenue that more than offset an 8% drop in core advertising.

After 40 years in broadcast TV, he will step down as head of Meredith’s Phoenix duopoly on Sept. 7. A search is underway for his successor.