Congratulations to Woody Pastorius and the team at Mywedding.com on the sale to Meredith Corporation

DES MOINES, Iowa and NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com), the leading media and marketing company serving American women, announced today that it has agreed to purchase Mywedding.com, further extending Meredith's reach to millennial women and the Company's presence in the $53 billion American wedding marketplace.

Mywedding.com, one of the top five wedding websites in the U.S., provides couples with the complete wedding planning product suite. With free planning tools, inspiration-focused content and a search experience designed to connect couples with local, national and international wedding professionals and venues, mywedding.com empowers couples to create a wedding that perfectly encompasses their unique style and budget.  The site offers advertisers exposure and connection to motivated millennial consumers at a pivotal life stage.  

The purchase of mywedding.com follows Meredith's recently announced agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO), which includes the operations of the popular Martha Stewart Weddings magazine and website. Martha Stewart Weddings is a leading bridal magazine on newsstands and also a top digital wedding destination. 

The combination creates one of the largest audiences in the wedding media marketplace.  It gives Meredith access to millennial consumers at the earliest stages of family formation, complementing existing Meredith brands such as Fitness, American Baby, Parents and Allrecipes.  It further solidifies Meredith's position as the nation's leading media company focused on home and family. 

"With its access to younger consumers at such an important time in their lives, strong local sales model, and digital expertise, mywedding.com is a valuable addition to our portfolio," said Meredith National Media Group President Tom Harty.  "We believe we can further grow mywedding.com's consumer audience, while at the same time developing the next generation of consumers for Meredith brands and creating new sales and marketing opportunities for our clients."

There are over 2 million weddings in the United States annually, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.  Three-quarters of couples use online resources to plan their weddings, and spending on weddings totaled more than $53 billion in 2013. 

"We continue to strengthen our focus on the most important milestones in the lives of our consumers, specifically marriage, home ownership and raising a family," said Meredith Chairman and CEO Steve Lacy.  "This acquisition augments our initiatives in the digital space, and is consistent with our Total Shareholder Return strategy to pursue investments that scale our business and increase shareholder value."

Said mywedding.com President and CEO Woody Pastorius, "Mywedding.com is designed to meet the ever-evolving needs of the millennial couple, and through customized content and marketing programs we have successfully created a digital environment that connects this audience with relevant local and national providers. Meredith is the perfect home for us, and we are delighted to join with them to grow the mywedding.com brand."

Mywedding.com is the latest in a series of acquisitions, launches and alliances for Meredith's National Media Group.  Last month, Meredith announced a 10-year licensing agreement with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) to acquire the rights to Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Weddings and www.marthastewart.com.  In November 2013, Meredith launched the award-winning Allrecipes magazine, which followed the acquisition of allrecipes.com in March 2012.  

Additionally, over the last three years, Meredith has acquired the Eating Well, Family Fun, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Parenting and Baby Talk brands.  In spring of 2015, Meredith plans to launch Parents Latina, an English-language magazine with a ratebase of 700,000 targeting millennial Hispanic moms.

Meredith has also been executing a strategy to expand its broadcast television footprint.  In the last year Meredith's Local Media Group has completed or announced the acquisition of television stations in Phoenix, St. Louis, Mobile-Pensacola and Springfield (Mass).

"We continue to look for strategic acquisitions, partnerships and investment opportunities like these to expand our reach and create additional shareholder value," said Meredith Chief Development Officer John Zieser. 

The acquisition of mywedding.com will not have a material effect on Meredith's fiscal 2015 second quarter financial performance.  Meredith will provide more detail when it reports its fiscal 2015 second quarter results in January 2015.

ABOUT MEREDITH CORPORATION

Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com) has been committed to service journalism for more than 110 years.  Today, Meredith uses multiple distribution platforms – including broadcast television, print, digital, mobile, tablets and video – to provide consumers with content they desire and to deliver the messages of its advertising and marketing partners.

Meredith's National Media Group reaches an audience of over 200 million monthly, including 100 million unduplicated women and 60 percent of American millennial women.  Meredith is the leader in creating content across media platforms in key consumer interest areas such as food, home, parenthood and health through well-known brands such as Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Allrecipes.  The National Media Group features robust brand licensing activities, including over 3,000 SKUs of branded products at 4,000 Walmart stores across the U.S.  Meredith Xcelerated Marketing is a leader at developing and delivering custom content and customer relationship marketing programs for many of the world's top brands.

Meredith's Local Media Group includes 17 owned or operated television stations reaching more than 10 percent of U.S. households.  Meredith's portfolio is concentrated in large, fast-growing markets, with seven stations in the nation's Top 25 – including Atlanta, Phoenix and Portland – and 14 in Top 60 markets.

Meredith's balanced portfolio consistently generates substantial free cash flow, and Meredith is committed to growing Total Shareholder Return through dividend payments, share repurchases and strategic business investments.  Meredith's current annualized dividend of $1.73 per share yields approximately 4 percent.  Meredith has paid a dividend for 67 straight years and increased it for 21 consecutive years.

Scenario Planning - Part 3 - Are you ready for disruptions?

Editor's Note: This is the third of a five-part series on the impact of scenario planning. The Mead Consulting Group has been utilizing scenario planning to help clients build flexibility into planning and execution for almost 20 years. While scenario planning was once conducted primarily with our larger clients, today, over half of our clients (owner-operated, strategic, and private-equity- backed) have discovered the benefits of scenario planning.  - DPM

Events that disrupt business occur every day. And while it is impossible to predict exactly where and when these disruptions might happen, scenario planning can help organizations protect revenue streams, increase profitability, and ensure business continuity despite major upheavals.

Disruptions can be sorted into four primary groups:

1. Market disruptions (new competition, market transitions, technology advances).

Many companies have been caught off-guard by market changes such as shifting consumer preferences, significant technology advances, and unexpected competition. Sony, for example, created the market for portable music players with the company's Walkman device, but missed the transition from hardware-only solutions to an ecosystem of products that includes integrated hardware, software, and services.

2. Natural and biological disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, pandemics).  

Even though natural disasters are difficult to predict, it is relatively easy to prepare for them, because we know where they are likely to occur. For example, companies based in California need to be prepared for disruptions caused by earthquakes, while businesses located in the Gulf of Mexico and on the East Coast should be ready for the effects of the annual hurricane season. Pandemics, while in the same category, are harder to predict. From history, we know a pandemic is coming, but we don't know exactly when it will occur or how severe it will be. Many companies have not prepared for the impact of natural and biological disasters on the overall business. Businesses must be prepared to answer questions such as:   

● How can employees continue to work if they can't go to the office?

● How will we communicate with customers?

● How will we continue to manufacture or source our products?

● How will our business strategies change?

3. Political or social change (terrorist attacks, new regulations, new social trends).                   

Most terrorist attacks are nearly impossible to foresee, while increasing regulations from a shift in political parties can be relatively easy for which to prepare. As businesses become more global, preparing for political and social disruptions becomes more complex since each region of the world is subject to different political and social forces. Complicating matters further, we tend to think about the world from our own vantage points.

Google, for example, was caught off-guard by China's action to block its service. Google's stock price has dropped more than 15 percent (as of September 23) from its 2010 peak, in large measure over concerns about the China standoff.

4. Unexpected events.

Companies can prepare for and respond to unexpected events by creating business and technology architectures that are agile and flexible.

Impact of Disruptions

The impact of not being prepared includes missed revenue opportunities, increased costs, and even going out of business. The following examples highlight some of the risks of failing to prepare for the types of disruptions just discussed.

● Blockbuster-The world's largest movie-rental company filed for bankruptcy in September 2010 after failing to adapt its storefront model to online technology pioneered by rivals. Conversely, Netflix grew by renting movies online and through the mail, while Coinstar prospered by placing Redbox vending machines offering $1 DVD rentals in supermarkets, drugstores, and other convenient locations. Subsequently, Netflix is now under stress from streaming rivals.

● Encyclopedia Britannica-This provider did not fully envision how disruptive the Internet would be to its business. By the time executives recognized that most customers no longer wanted the company's content in book form, it was almost too late. The company has since done a good job of transforming itself by offering a mix of printed and online products.

● Kodak-Once known as a leading innovator in the photography market, Kodak's business was severely disrupted by the transition from physical media to digital media.

While these examples highlight the risks of losing focus and not preparing for future events, for most companies, the impact is much less dramatic. By not being prepared, however, businesses can expect higher costs and longer recovery time, potentially causing decreased customer loyalty and confidence. It is important to note that many companies have used disruptions to their advantage. Amazon.com, for example, helped transform retailing by enabling people to buy products online. YouTube created an entire business from the positive disruption of inexpensive, prolific video-camera technologies. And Facebook is benefiting from peoples' desire to connect and share information.   

Next - Benefiting from Disruptions

Check out the full scenario planning series on our blog - as it unfolds.Comment on your experiences with scenario planning.

¹ Excerpts from Scenario Planning: Are You Ready? By Dave Evans and Rick Hutley, Cisco IBSG Innovations Practice

Colorado success stories: Newsgator - Enterprise social computing: making Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn work for the enterprise

From the Front Lines: Colorado Success Stories

This series of interviews with Mead Consulting clients and friends focuses on companies that have succeeded during the recession through disruptive innovation, new business models, or superior execution. The stories are told by the CEOs and business owners themselves. This article was first published on March 30, 2011 in ColoradoBiz magazine or you can read it below.

NewsGator specializes in Enterprise Social Computing which involves integrating social media and social computing (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, etc.) at the enterprise level. The company started in 2004, but hit an inflection point in 2007 when it married NewsGator's software product to Microsoft's collaborative software, SharePoint. NewsGator has been doubling in size each year for the last three years. I recently met with President and CEO, J.B. Holston in NewsGator's downtown Denver offices.

How do you compete? To what do you attribute the fast growth?

We have a bit of a first-mover advantage. We solve problems and fill voids in the Microsoft product set. We can easily drop our NewsGator solutions on top of SharePoint. The IT folks love us because our solutions are simple to deploy and allow them to take advantage of the latest innovations. Literally, we can email the application. We make SharePoint a much more user-friendly product. SharePoint was created when collaboration was document-centric; today it's people-centric. Our solutions enable the social computing side. Since SharePoint has a 100 million seat installed base around the world, we have a considerable available market to target.

Has the growth always been smooth? Were there any bumps in the road?

While from a financial point of view things have been relatively smooth, there have been a series of big decisions regarding focus. We had to decide to STOP doing certain things so that we could concentrate on other areas. For example, at one point we had an online consumer RSS reader (similar to Google Reader). We made the decision to port our product to Google. So, along the way, we have had to learn to focus well - and saying NO is tough.

Your culture is very important to your success. How would you describe it?

Our culture is centered on innovation and is very client-focused. We spend our days watching what the consumer is doing and determining how to deploy these new features and applications on an enterprise level. Because the adoption of new applications is accelerating so rapidly on the consumer front, we can wait to see if something is successful with the consumer before we decide to commit resources. That means we can effectively avoid false signals. By reading these signals accurately, we provide our customers with only the most valuable, innovative tools.

How do you maintain that culture?

We do a number of simple things. Communication is extremely important. We have an all hands meeting by video conference and in person every week. We hold mandatory meetings every six weeks in each region. As CEO, I am very transparent. We use our own system. Perhaps 50 times a day, I post messages on our system (like Facebook) sharing information, praising an employee, commenting on a project schedule, etc. By posting these messages on an open system, we include a broader group of employees rather than guessing who should be included on an email distribution. The pleasant surprise is when someone in the whole population comes up with an unexpected solution. Interestingly, we have reduced email use by 2/3. We also have an ongoing focus on training and recruiting which we are working to improve as we scale the business.

How do global factors impact your growth?

Currently, 30 percent of current sales are outside the U.S. We will need to continue to establish operations outside the U.S. where local and regional "go to market "strategies are different. Additionally, outsourcing and cost competition are factors that need to be addressed and balanced with such factors as speed to market.

What are the keys to growth for NewsGator over the next 5 -10 years?

The company needs to grow at least 4X over the next two years - just to keep pace with the market. How do we keep up with that growth? Talent management is the most critical variable. We'll need to find, recruit and develop the right people, including building a management team that can scale as the company grows and adapt to an ever-changing environment. Along with finding adaptable people, we need to keep pace with the technological shifts.

A great example is what has happened in our sales effort. In the early stages, we needed a high percentage of people in outside sales. Now we no longer need to evangelize; enterprise social computing is well understood, but we need sales people who can understand the customer's specific need for social collaboration much more quickly and get to a 'quick yes.' We will also need more inside sales people. With the advances of video technology, I can see a time when even our "outside sales" people will not actually travel.

Comment on the business climate in Colorado?

While there are not as many people in Colorado who have operated in a hyper-growth business environment (such as Silicon Valley, for example), Colorado employees are extremely smart, loyal and engaged. There needs to be a better eco-system in Colorado to support software companies that want to grow to a significant size. This will be a critical issue for us as we continue to grow.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

1. From the Front Lines: MORE Company Success Stories

2. Watch for the following upcoming series:

The Coming Window for Selling Your Business. Are You Preparing to Sell During the 2012-2014 Window of Opportunity?