Business News
Meredith Corporation Records Fiscal 2013 Second Quarter Special Charge
Monday 21. January 2013 - Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP) said today it recorded a net special charge of $7 million ($4 million after-tax, or $0.10 per share) in its fiscal 2013 second quarter.
The charge was related to business realignments and selected workforce reductions designed to realize the full value of recent acquisitions, and as part of an ongoing process to optimize performance and achieve further cost efficiencies.
Meredith has aggressively scaled its capabilities to deliver content over multiple platforms to meet increased consumer demand and growing client requests for multiplatform advertising and marketing programs in the past year. As a result, Meredith has added or created approximately 300 jobs to support key strategic growth initiatives including the:
— Acquisition of Allrecipes.com, doubling Meredith’s digital presence. The
addition made Meredith the No. 1 digital food media company, and moved
it to No. 3 in the digital women’s lifestyle category.
— Addition of the EveryDay with Rachael Ray and FamilyFun brands. These
moves increased Meredith’s share of the U.S. magazine industry
advertising revenues to its current level of nearly 12 percent.
— Purchase of ShopNation and launch of a growing e-commerce platform.
— Execution of digital, mobile, video and social expansion strategies,
including creating tablet editions; developing new mobile apps; and
expanding video content creation capabilities.
— Expansion and monetization of Local Media Group video content through an
increase in local news programming, along with more national video
content creation.
“The media and marketing landscape continues to evolve, and we continue to align our businesses – which we’ve substantially augmented through a series of recent strategic acquisitions and initiatives – to best serve our consumers and customers on whatever platform they choose,” said Meredith Chairman and CEO Stephen M. Lacy. “We’ve led the way among media companies at creating a true multiplatform business, and we fully intend to realize the maximum financial potential of our expanded portfolio as part of our commitment to Total Shareholder Return.”
Meredith reaffirmed today its earnings outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2013 of $0.85 to $0.90, and for full fiscal 2013 of $2.60 to $2.95, both excluding the special charge. Meredith will update progress on its strategic growth initiatives, as well as its earnings outlook, when it releases fiscal 2013 second quarter earnings on January 24, 2013.