Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning into another episode of Varieties Podcasts Strictly
Speaker 1: Business when we talked to some of the brightest minds
Speaker 1: working in media today. I am Varieties co editor in
Speaker 1: chief Andrew Wallace. I would have once said, my next
Speaker 1: guest works at a magazine company, the biggest one in
Speaker 1: the US at that, But the multimedia world the Meredith
Speaker 1: Corporation operates in today positions them more as a steward
Speaker 1: of some great brands that may have the gun life
Speaker 1: in print, but now are so much more. John Warder
Speaker 1: is president of Meredith National Media Group to overseas titles
Speaker 1: like Travel and Leisure, Eating well now thanks to the
Speaker 1: acquisition of Time Inc. Yet more brands like People Magazine.
Speaker 1: Thanks for sitting down with me, John, great to be here. Andrew,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. So I'd like to start with Time.
Speaker 1: Meredith swallowed a pretty big fish there. I would imagine
Speaker 1: that is disruptive for a company. It's a lot to
Speaker 1: take in. So talk about the integration process. I would
Speaker 1: imagine it's a lot. Uh, The integration processes has been
Speaker 1: a lot, but it's going very very well and we're
Speaker 1: really happy, um and and pleased with the opportunities that
Speaker 1: these two great companies coming together not only afford us
Speaker 1: as a combined business, but obviously afford the marketplace as
Speaker 1: well from an advertising perspective. Uh, we really have a
Speaker 1: very very complementary set of capabilities, and as we looked
Speaker 1: at opportunities in the marketplace, we really concluded that the
Speaker 1: best way we could check all the boxes that we
Speaker 1: wanted to check and deliver all the capabilities that we
Speaker 1: wanted to deliver to consumers and two advertisers was bringing
Speaker 1: these two great companies together. So the integration has gone
Speaker 1: very very well. We've one of the first things we
Speaker 1: did was we aligned our salesforces together and I aligned
Speaker 1: our go to market and we continue to see the
Speaker 1: benefits of that work, and we're getting great response from
Speaker 1: the marketplace um regarding that go to market and how
Speaker 1: we're really a lining all of our capabilities and teams
Speaker 1: to superserve our clients. Before we dig into that integration, though,
Speaker 1: you also sold off some brands like tim Ink and
Speaker 1: sorry not Timing Time magazine. What was the decision? What
Speaker 1: was the filter you guys are applying in terms of
Speaker 1: what stays or goes well. I think it's a couple
Speaker 1: of things. First, and foremost, we are going to continue
Speaker 1: to focus on our core entertainment, family, food, lifestyle, UH
Speaker 1: and home brands, and that's always been our our focus
Speaker 1: and we're going to continue to double down there. I
Speaker 1: think for some of these assets, as we looked at them,
Speaker 1: we really felt they weren't UM in part cord our
Speaker 1: strategy going forward Number one and number two, we felt
Speaker 1: that there were other companies or owners of these brands
Speaker 1: that would be able to UM really focus on them
Speaker 1: UH and lean into them from an investment perspective and
Speaker 1: from a operational perspective in a way that would be
Speaker 1: the best for that brand. I mean that core business
Speaker 1: I referred to off the top magazines tough times. Just
Speaker 1: today we saw some big moves at Hearst Corporation that
Speaker 1: we're reflective of that. What is the general attitude though
Speaker 1: at Meredith. Do you think there's still a lot of
Speaker 1: life in print? I know we're sitting at a conference
Speaker 1: where you talked a lot about video, but I'm just
Speaker 1: curious what the philosophy is of that core business. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and we think there's still a lot of life left
Speaker 1: in print. And remember, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we're a portfolio of brands, and we want our brands
Speaker 1: and our content and our products to be wherever consumers
Speaker 1: want them to be. Print is one of our our
Speaker 1: key channels, so to his digital, so to his video,
Speaker 1: so to his connected devices and appliances and cars, so
Speaker 1: to his social. And so we reach a hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy five million consumers every month across our channels, reach
Speaker 1: a hundred forty million. In digital we reach two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty five million, and social we have forty five
Speaker 1: million paid subscribers. And we really have a very diversified
Speaker 1: business UH that really looks to optimize all of our brands.
Speaker 1: From a three and sixty degree perspectives, scale is great.
Speaker 1: What I'm curious though, is how do you differentiate yourself
Speaker 1: in terms of the quality of that audience? What what
Speaker 1: demos are you focusing on? So, from a demo perspective,
Speaker 1: we have obviously a very strong reach against women overall.
Speaker 1: We reach more than of of all United States women,
Speaker 1: we reach more than of all millennial women, we reach
Speaker 1: more than of all latinas, and we have not insignificant
Speaker 1: reach against male audiences as well. UH. So, as you,
Speaker 1: as you say, scale is uh is great. What we
Speaker 1: really are though, is scale with precision, UH, Scale with
Speaker 1: precision in terms of the insights and analytics that we
Speaker 1: bring to bear from a first party data perspective that
Speaker 1: can not only shape the media plans and media opportunities
Speaker 1: that are advertising clients and the agencies that represent them
Speaker 1: run with us, but also inform strategic decisions for our clients,
Speaker 1: like product portfolio decisions, because we understand our consumers to
Speaker 1: a very UH deep level UH and that understanding informs
Speaker 1: our own decisions in terms of the content we create,
Speaker 1: the products we develop, the new businesses that we enter,
Speaker 1: and it's really helped us diversify our revenue. So whereas
Speaker 1: print advertising is still a fairly significant UH percentage of
Speaker 1: our ad revenue, digital ad revenues growing um to a
Speaker 1: very significant instant and our consumer revenue continues to grow
Speaker 1: as well, particularly in in newer areas like commerce, affiliate marketing,
Speaker 1: brand licensing, etcetera. And so we continue to focus on
Speaker 1: advertising and diversifying to more premium forms of revenue that
Speaker 1: leverage our brands are insights and our technology platforms, and
Speaker 1: same thing on the consumer side, more more profitable and
Speaker 1: premium forms of consumer revenue generation that still are a
Speaker 1: complement to our traditional historical print advertising and print magazine
Speaker 1: subscription businesses and or video, which is where you're taking
Speaker 1: these brands that for many years, over over a century,
Speaker 1: Met Meredith goes back, are entrenched in consumer minds at
Speaker 1: a certain older demographic as print and so I'm curious
Speaker 1: to me, it's the biggest challenge of all how you
Speaker 1: translate these to a different medium, to a different audience.
Speaker 1: Some might suggest it's not even possible. Well, it is possible,
Speaker 1: and we do it every day. And it's important point.
Speaker 1: You're raising really the contents to be created for the
Speaker 1: channel in which you're reaching the consumer and for the
Speaker 1: consumer UH segment that you're reaching, and so we've really
Speaker 1: focused on creating all of our content and particular video
Speaker 1: content for the right channel. And one of the things
Speaker 1: we announced that our recent UH new front was leaning
Speaker 1: into things like Instagram, TV and live video content really
Speaker 1: anchored around not only the People brand from an entertainment perspective,
Speaker 1: but also our other brands from a food, home and
Speaker 1: lifestyle for serspective. And we really want to be again
Speaker 1: where the consumer is and are owned and operated. Audience
Speaker 1: accesses Instagram thirty times a day, and so we feel
Speaker 1: that there's an opportunity with our Instagram specific Instagram TV
Speaker 1: video assets, which are configured and created for that platform specifically,
Speaker 1: is a great way to superserve that audience and appeal
Speaker 1: to newer audiences that may not be as familiar with
Speaker 1: our brands and super served. You are, I mean ten
Speaker 1: series coming to I G t V, and I get
Speaker 1: what you're saying. There's a natural evolution of your heavy
Speaker 1: Instagram user based checking out I G t V. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: you're not starting with one. You're You're You're doing ten
Speaker 1: and you know, I've spoken to publishers and the like
Speaker 1: who have suggested that there's a lot of hype around
Speaker 1: i G TV, but also it's so early that they're
Speaker 1: not sure what to make of it. Well, when we
Speaker 1: decide to explore UM different district aribution platforms and channels,
Speaker 1: we do it with the purpose and we do it
Speaker 1: with the notion that we want to deliver content to
Speaker 1: consumers where they want to consume it. We want to
Speaker 1: learn together UM, with those consumers and with our partners
Speaker 1: what's working UM and ultimately use that as a foundation
Speaker 1: to create to continue to create even better content UM
Speaker 1: that ultimately grows with with the channel. We were one
Speaker 1: of the first UM uh you know, publishers to lean
Speaker 1: into and companies to lean to Facebook Live. It worked
Speaker 1: really well for us. We continue to focus on ot T.
Speaker 1: We continue to focus UM on connected devices UM you
Speaker 1: know for all recipes. As an example, we were one
Speaker 1: of the first Alexas skills. We have people content on
Speaker 1: Echo show. So we really like to experiment UM with
Speaker 1: a purpose with these newer UM and more emerging UH
Speaker 1: distribution channels, which we found to really be effective in
Speaker 1: terms of engaging the audiences we traditionally engage and would
Speaker 1: also like to engage that we may not be UM.
Speaker 1: It's front and center with today. When you made the
Speaker 1: announcement about the I G t V shows at the
Speaker 1: New Fronts West, you also talked about the expansion of
Speaker 1: People People TV as an ot T brand. I was
Speaker 1: also struck just as much as I was struck by
Speaker 1: you know, the ten series move expanding to four live
Speaker 1: hour seems to me unusually ambitious for O T T.
Speaker 1: Where talk about early days, it's the earliest of early
Speaker 1: We're exciting. We're seeing incredible engagement with the People brand
Speaker 1: from a video perspective across channels. At the recent Royal
Speaker 1: wedding a couple of months ago, we had seventy million
Speaker 1: views of our coverage of that wedding over a seventy
Speaker 1: two hour period. So we think there's a massive opportunity
Speaker 1: with our entertainment brands in particular to really engage and
Speaker 1: activate and monetize over time uh that uh, that audience
Speaker 1: through the channel. So when you think about UM, you know,
Speaker 1: People TV, we think it's an incredible opportunity. We're gonna
Speaker 1: build on that foundation with People now with Chatter from
Speaker 1: a daytime time and from a you know, a prime
Speaker 1: time perspective, and then also other programming like Jess Kegel
Speaker 1: Interview UM and Couch Surfing and Entertainment Weekly cast Reunions,
Speaker 1: which we think, together with a hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: events that we also live stream UM each year, will
Speaker 1: really give us an opportunity to take a leadership position
Speaker 1: and be the de facto entertainment network for live streaming
Speaker 1: and beyond. People is a pretty huge brand that came
Speaker 1: over with the Timing acquisition. I get why if you're
Speaker 1: going to go into the O T T space, best
Speaker 1: to to lead with that are you thinking about it
Speaker 1: in terms of your other brands, which are no slouches either, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and so one of the things you'll see, and we
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about this at the recent New Front,
Speaker 1: is that we are going to UM and we already
Speaker 1: have leaned into some of our other brands from an
Speaker 1: OTT and live streaming perspective. Think of food, think of home,
Speaker 1: think of lifestyle programming beyond entertainment, and those are some
Speaker 1: of the things that you know we can tinue to
Speaker 1: explore UM four brands like better Homes and Gardens for real,
Speaker 1: simple all recipes, UM, et cetera. You also mentioned Alexa, which,
Speaker 1: my god, we're in twenty eighteen, aren't we when we're
Speaker 1: talking to publishers about what are you doing on voice products?
Speaker 1: But do you see big opportunities there? Yeah, we're very
Speaker 1: excited about it. We think it's a it's an emerging
Speaker 1: channel for us. A significant percentage of searches today are
Speaker 1: carried out through voice enabled devices, and we'll continue to
Speaker 1: be UH done so that way. And we ultimately look
Speaker 1: at our brands as UM providing very compelling and useful
Speaker 1: content to help people look to achieve what they're trying
Speaker 1: to achieve on a daily basis, or things that are
Speaker 1: more aspirational. And voice enabled devices and connected appliances and
Speaker 1: and cars are something that we continue to focus on
Speaker 1: and believe will be a key part of our UM
Speaker 1: engagement strategy going forward. Key part. You know, looking five
Speaker 1: ten years down the road, do you see voices something
Speaker 1: that could be as significant as video or print? Um,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't surprised me. It's it's hard to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: assess that it's still as you said, early days, but
Speaker 1: it's something that that we're excited about. And UM we're
Speaker 1: um um bullish on opportunities. In terms of the brands
Speaker 1: that you have prior to the Timing acquisition, I'm curious,
Speaker 1: is there any one of them that you think really
Speaker 1: exemplifies what Meredith is able to do outside print? That's
Speaker 1: a great question. I would say, not only outside print,
Speaker 1: but within print as well. I'll give you a couple
Speaker 1: of examples. First, UM, I would look to a brand
Speaker 1: like All Recipes UM and brands like Better Homes and Gardens.
Speaker 1: So Better Homes and Gardens. As an example, is UH
Speaker 1: generates When Meredith is a company really generates UH, it's
Speaker 1: the second largest UH company in terms of UH brand
Speaker 1: licensed product retail sales after Disney and Better Homes and
Speaker 1: Gardens is really the key to that. So when you
Speaker 1: think about that for a second, it showcases the power
Speaker 1: of that brand um to engage consumers and be monetized
Speaker 1: outside of a print experience and outside of an advertising experience.
Speaker 1: When you look at All Recipes, that was a digital
Speaker 1: brand that was really desktop first when we we bought it,
Speaker 1: we ultimately leaned into mobile madd a mobile first brand,
Speaker 1: and we've taken that brand to connected devices, and we've
Speaker 1: also taken it to print and it's been a really
Speaker 1: successful print title for us and really helped us to
Speaker 1: create an even greater sixty degree brand for consumers. And
Speaker 1: then one other example in print we would we would
Speaker 1: highlight as well is the Magnolia Journal, and that's a
Speaker 1: brand where our partnership parameters are really within the print
Speaker 1: medium alone, and that has been an incredible success for
Speaker 1: us as a company. We've leaned into it from a
Speaker 1: consumer revenue perspective and to a lesser degree from an
Speaker 1: advertising perspective, and it's become one of the most profitable
Speaker 1: brands in the hundred and sixteen year history of our
Speaker 1: company within its first year of operation, and we're very,
Speaker 1: very excited about that. So to your point, we think
Speaker 1: for all of our brands, there are opportunities, whether it's
Speaker 1: print advertising, digital advertising, newer premium forms of advertising, commerce,
Speaker 1: affiliate marketing, brand licensing, lead generation, other forms of consumer
Speaker 1: revenue like paid products and memberships that each one of
Speaker 1: these core brands has the permission to play in and
Speaker 1: to ultimately participate in as a brand in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: And we're seeing a lot of success from all corners
Speaker 1: of the media ecosystem with a lot of these, uh,
Speaker 1: these brands that we have, whether they pre existed the
Speaker 1: transaction with time or they joined the company as part
Speaker 1: of our transaction. I get, you know, the the diversification
Speaker 1: strategy here. I'm still curious that whether Meredith takes a
Speaker 1: particular point of view with regard to the long term
Speaker 1: viability of print. In other words, do you guys feel no,
Speaker 1: ten years from now we still expect to be in
Speaker 1: this business. We do, And I think remember we have
Speaker 1: to look at print and that medium is one of
Speaker 1: the channels in which we operate, and there is an
Speaker 1: advertising component to that and a consumer revenue component to that.
Speaker 1: And so we believe that you know, print is is
Speaker 1: not going to disappear. We believe in it. We believe
Speaker 1: it's one of the channels that we need to continue
Speaker 1: to to operate in and that our consumers really enjoy
Speaker 1: that channel. Um. And what's going to be interesting is
Speaker 1: now gen zers enter the life stages that we serve.
Speaker 1: They're getting their first place to live, they're moving out
Speaker 1: on their own, they're finishing school, they're getting their first job,
Speaker 1: they're thinking about getting married, They get married, they have
Speaker 1: a kid. Though, all of those stages people are entering in.
Speaker 1: And what we're seeing is that there's still a role
Speaker 1: for all of our media in those life stages. UM.
Speaker 1: And so that's exciting to us. What you're saying almost
Speaker 1: brings to mind. I believe it was the new owner
Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Times, likening print of record Vinyl
Speaker 1: that still has a place the table. Would you? I
Speaker 1: think to me, Vinyl is a little more niche than
Speaker 1: I would expect, you know, print to be. Um. We're
Speaker 1: seeing and I mean, some of our most engaged audiences
Speaker 1: are leading and trailing millennials, UM with that medium. UM.
Speaker 1: So I to me, I look at Vinyl and I
Speaker 1: love it. Don't get me wrong. My my brother is
Speaker 1: a big Vinyl collector, but to me, that seems like
Speaker 1: a lot more niche than I would expect print uh
Speaker 1: to be ten years from now. And of course, Meredith,
Speaker 1: as we've talked about in this conversation, very active on
Speaker 1: the acquisition front. Uh. Time In gets sold off, some
Speaker 1: others were probably gonna go out the door as well.
Speaker 1: I'm curious that once you get on the other side
Speaker 1: of that, is Meredith still in an acquisitive mode. Do
Speaker 1: you still see consolidation is something that's going to affect
Speaker 1: your industry. Yeah, we expect that, uh, you know, consolidation
Speaker 1: will continue to occur, and we like being in the
Speaker 1: position of being a consolidate tour and ultimate lee. As
Speaker 1: opportunities present themselves, were always considering opportunities at all times.
Speaker 1: I would expect us to continue to explore opportunities to
Speaker 1: add to our portfolio, whether from a product perspective, from
Speaker 1: a brand perspective, from a category perspective, from a new
Speaker 1: revenue stream um perspective. Anything that's going to continue to
Speaker 1: diversify and strengthen our relationships with consumers and advertisers, I
Speaker 1: think will be something that we would uh we consider
Speaker 1: so long as it's something that we feel we can
Speaker 1: sustainably grow profitably. On that note, are there gaps you're
Speaker 1: looking to fill places where build or buy you want
Speaker 1: to get there and you're not there, Well, I think
Speaker 1: every company has gaps, and we feel we've filled a
Speaker 1: lot of the gaps that we had UM with our
Speaker 1: combination with time UM. We ultimately want to scale videos
Speaker 1: of place. We really like to continue to scale and
Speaker 1: we have an incredible amount of engagement there. Uh. We
Speaker 1: think there's a lot more upside in terms of the
Speaker 1: monthly video views UH and UH monetize herble video of
Speaker 1: views that we can generate across all the channels in
Speaker 1: which we operate, and that I think is an example
Speaker 1: of an area that we're going to look to continue
Speaker 1: to build out together. We're stronger than either one of
Speaker 1: us was before, but we think there's an even bigger
Speaker 1: opportunity for us to scale our video assets UM going forward.
Speaker 1: In another way, the Meredith Time combination reminds me a
Speaker 1: bit of what A T and T and Time Warner
Speaker 1: are going through in terms of just the sensibility of
Speaker 1: the brands. I think Meredith, for instance, is known for
Speaker 1: a wholesome feels like the wrong word, but not a
Speaker 1: bad word to use. Then when the timing stuff comes in,
Speaker 1: you start to get maybe a little more outside what
Speaker 1: I would consider the traditional brand definition. And just in
Speaker 1: the same way that Time Warner changes the complexion of
Speaker 1: a T and T with content like HBO. Do you
Speaker 1: see the brand complexion of Meredith changing as a result
Speaker 1: of this or are you guys the same brand you
Speaker 1: were before? No? I think we we do continue to
Speaker 1: evolve from a branding category perspective. I think by combining
Speaker 1: our two companies, we are thought of more as an
Speaker 1: entertainment and beauty focused company than we ever were before.
Speaker 1: UM as an example, I think from a entertainment, lifestyle, food, home,
Speaker 1: and family perspective, I think we're without pier and that's
Speaker 1: very exciting for us UM but absolutely one of the
Speaker 1: reasons we were excited about coming together as a company
Speaker 1: as we felt it would expand our opportunities to cover
Speaker 1: a broader range of categories for consumers that we serve
Speaker 1: and advertiser that we serve. And I think we're seeing
Speaker 1: that UM play itself out and it's really been a
Speaker 1: very very complementary UM transaction. I can't really think of
Speaker 1: an area where UM both companies were equally strong in
Speaker 1: a core component of our business. So, for example, when
Speaker 1: you look at content driven commerce at Meredith, historically we
Speaker 1: focused at the very bottom of the funnel UM through commerce,
Speaker 1: affiliate marketing, et cetera, affiliate links within content. On the
Speaker 1: time inkside, the focus was more on content to drive commerce.
Speaker 1: And now we've put those two together, and so throughout
Speaker 1: that funnel from a content perspective all the way down
Speaker 1: through the transaction. We think we're a much stronger company
Speaker 1: than ever before. And we're generating hundreds of millions of
Speaker 1: dollars a year in retail sales for our partners, and
Speaker 1: we only expect that to grow. So I think it's
Speaker 1: an example of an area where we had complementary strength,
Speaker 1: and it's one of many we're together. We're much stronger
Speaker 1: now than either one of us was before. You mentioned
Speaker 1: the affiliate links, and that is obviously something that a
Speaker 1: lot of publishing companies are looking at right now. I'm curious,
Speaker 1: you know how aggressive you're looking to be there. I
Speaker 1: hear a lot about the shoppable format. Is that a
Speaker 1: place where you're playing as well and explain what that is.
Speaker 1: Sure absolutely so from we we're looking to make all
Speaker 1: of our media shoppable UM, from video to print to
Speaker 1: digital UM. We are leaning in to that regard because
Speaker 1: we think it provides a value to consumers and we
Speaker 1: are inspiring our content leads UM are inspiring consumers to
Speaker 1: transact and ultimately we're providing value to consumers in that regard.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure the right products and UM
Speaker 1: content are in front of them UM and ultimately we
Speaker 1: facilitate that transaction. We want to make sure we're capturing
Speaker 1: our fair share of the inspiration that we UH we
Speaker 1: create and the transactions that we facilitate. And in terms
Speaker 1: of what you're doing just in general with affiliate commerce,
Speaker 1: that are their particular instances with particular brands where it's
Speaker 1: like you got to see what we're doing here. Sure.
Speaker 1: So one of the great again complimentary things that we've
Speaker 1: done is we have a very successful set of store
Speaker 1: fronts that we've set up within a lot of our brands,
Speaker 1: and we're actually extending those to the newer brands that
Speaker 1: have enter our portfolio, like people like Entertainment, Weekly in Style, etcetera.
Speaker 1: We are going to create um a larger commerce play
Speaker 1: and affiliate marketing play among those brands, in addition to
Speaker 1: looking to extend our brands from a brand licensing perspective
Speaker 1: into online and physical retail. I gotta say, as I
Speaker 1: as I listened to this, in general, I think of
Speaker 1: what must be operationally unbelievably complicated when you consider now
Speaker 1: forty brands all seem to be highly diversified doing things
Speaker 1: on lots of different platforms. I mean even I obviously
Speaker 1: work for a publishing company as well, and I see
Speaker 1: the dance of like balancing or juggling I should say,
Speaker 1: video and print and social and all that. How are
Speaker 1: you guys adapting to this reality? Well, it is complicated
Speaker 1: as you As you mentioned, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we have an incredibly talented leadership team and employee base,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the things that excites me the
Speaker 1: most because at the end of the day, that's our
Speaker 1: uh real secret, Sauce, I think is the is the
Speaker 1: incredibly small aren't talented employees that we have and their
Speaker 1: ability to multitask and focus on a number of different
Speaker 1: opportunities at once, whether they be brand lead, whether they
Speaker 1: be product lead, whether they be consumer revenue driven, whether
Speaker 1: they be UM advertising lead, and that's ultimately what we're seeing.
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of new ideas and great ideas
Speaker 1: of bringing these two companies together where we've been able
Speaker 1: to take existing products to a different level, existing monetization
Speaker 1: opportunities to a different level, and leverage the collective capabilities
Speaker 1: that each of the companies that's come together had In
Speaker 1: certain many places, time in brands were stronger the Meredith brands,
Speaker 1: and in many places the Meredith brands and business was stronger.
Speaker 1: And together we're just finding a lot of opportunity from
Speaker 1: a revenue growth perspective and from a margin improvement perspective
Speaker 1: that excites us. But it really comes down to focus UM.
Speaker 1: It comes down to recognizing what businesses are really core,
Speaker 1: what brands are core UM, what businesses and products truly
Speaker 1: have the ability to be sustainable growth engines that are
Speaker 1: profitable for the company UM and and focusing on those
Speaker 1: and leveraging the best in class talent that we have
Speaker 1: to really unlock the fullest UM sense of those opportunities
Speaker 1: for us. How would you describe because you know Meredith
Speaker 1: is a company because it's in Des Moines, Iowa, and
Speaker 1: I'm a New York l a kind of guy I
Speaker 1: don't have much exposure to and I'm just curious, you know,
Speaker 1: how do you define what the Meredith culture is from
Speaker 1: a corporate perspective? Does the Time Ink acquisition change that?
Speaker 1: If you could describe that well, I think at Meredith
Speaker 1: we've always been a company were very collaborative company. We've
Speaker 1: been a company that's very results oriented, very team oriented
Speaker 1: UM where we really look to capitalize on opportunities as
Speaker 1: a team UM and we look to engage with each
Speaker 1: other to try to resolve any challenges that we have.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that's been interesting to me
Speaker 1: is I've found, you know, a lot of people asked
Speaker 1: us as are two companies came together, Meredith and time
Speaker 1: Are you expecting a real significance UM in cultural differences?
Speaker 1: And based on my early interaction with folks, I really didn't,
Speaker 1: and that's played out. We really have a very very
Speaker 1: aligned UM culture. I think everybody is excited to be
Speaker 1: part of a larger company UM that offers an amazing
Speaker 1: array of of brands, content and products to consumers and
Speaker 1: advertisers and really can see UM the success that we
Speaker 1: feel that we have not only today, but ahead of
Speaker 1: us going forward, and we found it to be you know,
Speaker 1: very very seamless, I think, much more seamless, and probably
Speaker 1: the marketplace expected it to be um out of the gate.
Speaker 1: And uh, that's one of the things that really excites
Speaker 1: me a lot. There's our cultural alignment. And I guess
Speaker 1: I made it an almost joking reference, but I am,
Speaker 1: honest to God curious about the iowa of it all.
Speaker 1: As you guys get bigger, isn't it sort of inevitable, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, headquarters have to move to New York or
Speaker 1: something like that. I think we've found sort of having
Speaker 1: our our our headquarters in Des Moines from a corporate
Speaker 1: or sspective, and really having our core advertising um UM
Speaker 1: and content creation efforts not only in uh New York,
Speaker 1: but also in Des Moines and now in Birmingham with
Speaker 1: UM some of the brands we've added in the facility
Speaker 1: that we have there. We found a great balance, and
Speaker 1: I think culturally our our employees are fairly UM, really aligned,
Speaker 1: I would say in in l A in Seattle as well,
Speaker 1: we haven't seen it. And so I think we have
Speaker 1: that UM, that collaborative ethos, we have that team oriented
Speaker 1: culture in all the offices that we're in UM and
Speaker 1: so if that makes us a little more des moine
Speaker 1: across all of our UM uh you know cities in
Speaker 1: which we operate, we think that's a great thing. One
Speaker 1: last question. You know, we've talked a lot about the
Speaker 1: different ways Meredith is innovating, and we touched on data. Yes, uh,
Speaker 1: could you talk about sort of the role of data
Speaker 1: science and Meredith might guess is it probably didn't even
Speaker 1: exist at Meredith two or three years ago. Well, one
Speaker 1: of the first things I joined the company six and
Speaker 1: a half years ago and UM, my first operating role
Speaker 1: that they moved me into was overseeing UM part of
Speaker 1: our good chunk of our digital business and ultimately entire
Speaker 1: digital business. And one of the first things that we
Speaker 1: did UM with that was we centralized all of our
Speaker 1: data science and business analytics teams. We had teams sitting
Speaker 1: within consumer marketing, we had teams sitting within UM Advertising,
Speaker 1: we had teams sitting within research, we had teams sitting
Speaker 1: within the brands, and we centralized all of those teams
Speaker 1: because we wanted to do was we wanted to harness
Speaker 1: all of those insights and analytics on behalf of our
Speaker 1: entire business from both an advertising and consumer revenue perspective,
Speaker 1: and be able to bring the full weight of those
Speaker 1: insights and analytics and that proprietary first party data to
Speaker 1: bear for our advertising clients, agencies that represented them, and
Speaker 1: the partners that we work with at the most strategic level.
Speaker 1: So that's something we did probably doably close to four
Speaker 1: or five years ago, and we really think it's it's
Speaker 1: helped us and it's one of the things that's going
Speaker 1: to continue to differentiate Meredith. We hear all the time
Speaker 1: from our clients that one of the things that excites
Speaker 1: the about working with us is not only that our
Speaker 1: first party data and insights can help inform their media plans,
Speaker 1: which are of course important, but they're also helping inform
Speaker 1: their product portfolios and their product decisions. So when you
Speaker 1: can do that as a company UM, you become a
Speaker 1: very strategic partner to marketers, UM and the agencies that
Speaker 1: represent the particularly marketers, because you're ultimately helping them UM
Speaker 1: many minimize the risks that could be potentially associated with
Speaker 1: a decision they may or may not make, or to
Speaker 1: sort of narrow the range of potential outcomes UM and
Speaker 1: optimize for areas that they have the chance to be
Speaker 1: more successful, and we've helped numerous companies launched new products.
Speaker 1: We've helped numerous companies not launched new products by alerting
Speaker 1: them to the fact that we've taken at this and
Speaker 1: we think this trend has peaked. UM. A great example
Speaker 1: is UM overnight oates. We saw that trend six months,
Speaker 1: probably before anyone else did. We were able to partner
Speaker 1: with one of our key clients to identify that new
Speaker 1: use case. You know, oatmeal is a power food UM,
Speaker 1: and we're constantly seeing those opportunities in our up portfolio
Speaker 1: across all categories and that's something I think that again,
Speaker 1: taking that centralized view and harnessing all of our data
Speaker 1: and insights together on behalf of advertisers is really powerful.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we leverage those same insights and
Speaker 1: platforms and capabilities for our own business because we are
Speaker 1: a consumer first company. We have our own brands and
Speaker 1: our own experiences that are incredibly important to us that
Speaker 1: we've built incredible equity and over a hundred and sixteen years,
Speaker 1: and those are critically important, and so the same insights
Speaker 1: and capabilities that we leverage ourselves or we try to
Speaker 1: leverage for our partners and clients. Well, I got a
Speaker 1: feeling this is an area that's really just beginning to evolve,
Speaker 1: not just at your company, but at many others. Thank
Speaker 1: you for sharing with us about the Meredith world today.
Speaker 1: I appreciate coming in, John Andrew, thanks so much. It's
Speaker 1: real pleasure to be here. This has been another episode
Speaker 1: of Strictly Business. Tune in next week for another helping
Speaker 1: of scintillating conversation with media movers and shakers, and please
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe to the podcast to hear future episodes. Also,
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