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Meredith Corp Sold To Media General; CEO To Head Combined Company

Des Moines-based Meredith Corporation has been purchased for $2.4 billion from another media company. 

Meredith was bought by Virginia-based Media General which will form a new holding company. It will change its name to Meredith Media General and will maintain corporate and executive offices in both Des Moines and Richmond, Virginia. 

A news releasesays the company will be the third largest owner of major network affiliates reaching 30 percent of U-S TV households. The release also says the new company will reach more than 60 percent of U.S. Millennial women. Meredith CEO Steve Lacy says they’re excited about the opportunity to create a powerful new multi-platform and diversified media company with significant operations on local and national levels.

Earlier this year Meredith, the publisher of magazines like Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle, laid off about 100 employees. The magazine industry has faced difficult times as ad-buyers turn to digital content.  

A professor of management at Iowa State who studies mergers and acquisitions, David King, says he expects there to be more layoffs as the combined companies look for 80-million dollars in savings over the next two years.

“They are not going to need two accountants, they are not going to need two advertising directors, so there will be people who lose their job as part of this,” he says.

Meredith’s CEO Lacey will lead the new company.

King points out, however, eight of 12 board positions will come from Media General.

Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.