Meredith Corporation operates as a media and marketing company in the United States. It engages in magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing, and interactive media businesses. The company operates in two segments, Publishing and Broadcasting. The Publishing segment publishes and markets magazines to the home and family market. It publishes 25 subscription magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, Family Circle, Parents, American Baby, Fitness, and More. This segment also publishes books with approximately 400 books in print; offers integrated promotional, database management, relationship, and direct marketing capabilities for corporate customers; publishes approximately 200 special interest publications under approximately 80 titles; offers magazines through the Internet; and provides content and applications in areas of decorating, food, gardening, home improvement, and remodeling through its bhg.com Web site. In addition, it engages in integrated marketing, brand licensing relationships, and other related operations. The Broadcasting segment operates 14 network-affiliated television stations and 1 AM radio station. The television stations consist of six CBS affiliates, four FOX affiliates, two WB affiliates, one NBC affiliate, and one UPN affiliate. It also operates 14 Web sites. In addition, this segment involves in video production and its video library includes a series of 30 minute shows based on magazine content; additional video segments carrying the American Baby and Better Homes brands; custom DVDs; and news vignettes. Meredith Corporation was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa.

Discretionary Industry Analysis

WikiWealth.com Industry Description: the consumer discretionary industry refers to products and services bought with discretionary (normal expenses) income. The Consumer discretionary sector encompasses industries that tend to be the most sensitive to economic cycles and stock market swings. Its manufacturing segment includes automotive, household durable goods, textiles & apparel and leisure equipment. The services segment includes hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities, media production and services and consumer retailing. Read More. Also see the Industry Analysis Home Page.

WikiWealth.com Industry Analysis: During economic recessions, consumers tend to cut back on discretionary expenses to save money during those tough economic times. Less spending by consumers eventually decreases business revenue and stock prices. During economic recoveries, consumers have more discretionary income, so spending quickly increases. Higher spending increases business revenue and eventually increases stock prices. During long economic expansions, discretionary income increase, but at a slower pace than during the initial economic recovery stage.

¹ Investment potential (margin of safety) is a weighted average of the discounted cash flow analysis (DCF), the enterprise value (EV) market multiple analysis, and the Warren Buffett investment analysis. WikiWealth obtains 80% of their quantitative investment potential from fundamental investment analysis.
² The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) analysis for the industry is a broad representation of the WACC for each individual company. A sub-industry WACC analysis offers both stability and accuracy for each individual company.

WikiWealth.com Industry Profit Analysis: The best way to profit from discretionary stock investments is to find the most undervalued investments (Wall Street and Main Street buy ratings) during economic recessions. Those investments should be undervalued (see Wall Street Analysis on left side), and have high Main Street Common Sense investment ratings (see Main Street Analysis on right side). When an economic recovery occurs, discretionary stocks tend to outperform the general stock market, because consumers quickly resume spending on items they wanted, but resisted buying during tougher economic times. Eventually those investments become overvalued, because profits and stock prices increase past their fair values. In other words, the margin of safety becomes low or negative. During the last stages of an economic business cycle, just before a recession, it is best to sell discretionary stocks, because they are likely to decrease in price the fastest. Selling an stock investment is difficult do properly. Expensive (overvalued) stocks with low Main Street Common Sense ratings should be sold at any time to invest in better stocks. Two buys ratings are the best and two sell ratings are the worst possible stock investments. As a general rule, the larger the investment potential (margin of safety), the safer the investment. For more information on stock research ratings click here.

Investment Moats

Investment Moats are fundamental investing theories developed by Warren Buffett and adapted to the SWOT analysis. Investment moats are general characteristics that separate great investments from average stock investments. The wider the investment moat the better. Read more: Investment Moats. For company-specific investment moats: SWOT Analysis.

SWOT Strengths Increase Investor Moats: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist

SWOT Weaknesses Decrease Investor Moats: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist

Stock Price Triggers

Stock Price Triggers were developed by WikiWealth.com to predict changes in stock price direction, which depend on events outside of the control of the company. In general, if SWOT opportunities are greater than SWOT threats, the stock price should raise; the opposite is also true. For more precise measures, examine each SWOT opportunity and threat, then rank them according to importance and timing. The more important the investment characteristic, the greater the impact on stock direction. The sooner a investment trigger may occur, the more influence it will have on stock price direction. Read more: Stock Price Triggers. For company-specific stock price triggers: SWOT Analysis.

SWOT Opportunities are Positive Stock Price Triggers: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist.

SWOT Threats are Negative Stock Price Triggers: Below is a list of relevant industry investment characteristics, if any exist.

Long Company Description (help)

Meredith Corporation NYSE: MDP is based in Des Moines, Iowa. The company has two divisions, publishing and broadcasting.

Edwin Thomas Meredith founded the company in 1902 when he began publishing Successful Farming magazine. In 1922, Meredith began publishing Fruit, Garden and Home magazine, a home and family service publication. Two years later, this magazine was retitled Better Homes and Gardens with the first issue costing a dime on the newsstand. In 1930 they published the first edition of the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.
Since this time, Meredith has introduced numerous other magazines. In 1986, the company purchased Ladies' Home Journal magazine and in 2005, the company purchased the women's magazine portfolio of Gruner + Jahr. To date Meredith publishes 26 subscription magazines, approximately 200 special interest publications and 400 books, along with 32 websites.

Broadcast Holdings

The broadcasting division owns 14 television stations and 1 radio station. The sole radio station is WNEM (AM) in Saginaw, Michigan, a sister station of WNEM-TV based in the same city; Meredith did have a sizeable (for the time) radio group in the 1960s and 1970s. Meredith's broadcasting division also produces Better.TV, a daily program based on BH&G which features lifestyle, parenting, crafting and gardening tips. The program currently airs on Meredith stations and those of the Journal

Business Deals

Healia search engine and a number of other web companies were acquired in 2007. Also license deals of lead publications for overseas markets commenced as well for India, Indonesia and various other markets in Asia.

In 2007, Meredith Corporation also acquired social media marketing firm New Media Strategies, Genex and O'Grady Meyers, signaling a new strategic direction.

TV stations currently owned by Meredith

SWOT Analysis

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