Meredith Making The Most Of Mobile

Mobile has become a big source of traffic for Meredith Corp.’s digital products, Stephen Lacy, the company’s CEO, said during a Tuesday session at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.

“Approximately 30% of the traffic we generate is coming from mobile and tablet devices,” he said. The company has looked to take advantage of that audience by introducing a series of mobile-specific site apps, which Lacy said have generated more than 20 million downloads.

“Today, about 1.5% of our customers are reading tablet-specific editions of our brand,” he said. “We have a goal to move that to about 10% of our circulation by our fiscal 2015.”

Meredith is also eager to put recent acquisition Allrecipes.com to work for it. Lacy thinks of the site as a “social engine” and sees potential on every platform and in e-commerce.

Ad spending in the food category has grown faster than the average over the last decade, Lacy said, adding that the company’s magazines account for nearly 20% of all advertising in the category. “We are deliberately growing our scale in the food category.”

With Allrecipes, Lacy said Meredith is well-positioned to capitalize on the digital side of the food category as well. “We believe we can create even more social media connections and intent to leverage that community in new ways including e-commerce.”

“We’re now working aggressively to extend the Allrecipes brand to complementary media platforms, to grow consumer connection and drive revenue,” Lacy said, noting that the company is adding video to the site, as well as taking it mobile on smartphones and tablets.

Joe Ceryanec, Meredith’s chief financial officer, said the company has renewed its affiliation contracts with CBS and Fox, extending them through fiscal 2016 and 2017. He added that the company is now sharing retransmission revenue with the network.

Ceryanec said that with Meredith’s MSO and satellite contracts coming up for renewal, the company is raising its retrans rates and expects to generate $48 million, compared with $28 million in fiscal 2012.

He also reported that political revenue for the company this year hit an all-time high at $38 million for the first two quarters.