MDP

Meredith Corporation

Meredith Corporation is one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies. Meredith began in 1902 as an agricultural publisher. The Company entered the television broadcasting business in 1948. Today Meredith is engaged in magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing, and interactive media. The Company is incorporated under the laws of the State of Iowa. Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MDP.

The Company has two operating segments: publishing and broadcasting.

The publishing segment focuses on the home and family market. It is a leading publisher of magazines serving women. More than twenty-five subscription magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, American Baby, Fitness, and More and approximately 135 special interest publications were published in fiscal 2009. The publishing segment also includes book publishing, which has over 200 books in print; integrated marketing, which has relationships with some of America's leading companies; a large consumer database; an extensive Internet presence that consists of more than 30 websites and strategic alliances with leading Internet destinations; brand licensing activities; and other related operations.

The broadcasting segment includes 12 network-affiliated television stations located across the United States (U.S.) and one AM radio station. The television stations consist of six CBS affiliates, three FOX affiliates, two MyNetworkTV affiliates, and one NBC affiliate. The broadcasting segment also includes 20 websites, eight mobile websites, eight iPhone applications, and video related operations.

The Company's largest revenue source is advertising. National and local economic conditions affect the magnitude of our advertising revenues. Television advertising is seasonal and cyclical to some extent, traditionally generating higher revenues in the second and fourth fiscal quarters and during key political contests, major sporting events, etc. Both publishing and broadcasting revenues and operating results can be affected by changes in the demand for advertising and consumer demand for our products. Magazine circulation revenues are generally affected by national and regional economic conditions and competition from other forms of media.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

In November 2008, Meredith acquired a minority investment in Real Girls Media Network (RGM), a group of social communities connecting millions of women online. This investment enhances the depth and breadth of Meredith Interactive Media's offerings and capabilities, chiefly in the area of social networking. As part of this strategic investment, Meredith and RGM combine their inventory and sales forces to deliver premium branded content. The relationship also allows Meredith to take advantage of RGM's proprietary technology platform to enhance existing sites. Specifically, the agreement adds RGM traffic to Meredith's network of sites thus helping to increase Meredith's average unique visitors to 15 million per month in fiscal 2009, a 25 percent increase from fiscal 2008.

Following this investment, in January 2009, Meredith announced the launch of Meredith Women’s Network, a branded network comprised of premium websites geared toward the topics that matter most to women. The Meredith Women’s Network includes The Better Homes and Gardens Network (made up of over 20 websites including Better Homes and Gardens and Better Recipes), The Parents Network (Parents and Top Baby Name) and The Real Girls Network (including RGM’s DivineCaroline and Meredith’s Fitness, More, and Ladies’ Home Journal). Also in January 2009 as part of the The Better Homes and Gardens Network, Meredith launched MixingBowl.com, a social network built entirely around food, recipes, and entertaining. In June 2009, the Company announced the launch of Mixing Bowl magazine as an extension of MixingBowl.com.

In October 2008, Meredith announced multiple magazine licensing agreements to extend Parents, More, and Diabetic Living brands to seven international partners, collectively. With these new alliances, Meredith's global reach has been expanded to approximately 25 agreements in 40 countries.

In December 2008, Meredith announced a licensing agreement granting John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (Wiley) exclusive global rights to publish and distribute books based on Meredith’s consumer-leading brands, including the powerful Better Homes and Gardens imprint. Under the agreement, effective March 1, 2009, Meredith continues to create book content and retains all approval and content rights. Wiley is responsible for book layout and design, printing, sales and marketing, distribution, and inventory management.

In December 2008, management committed to a performance improvement plan that included the closing of Country Home magazine following the publication of the March 2009 issue. Previous to this, in March 2007, management discontinued the print operations of Child magazine following the publication of the June/July 2007 issue.

During fiscal 2008, the Company continued to enhance the capabilities of Meredith Integrated Marketing with the acquisitions of Directive Corporation, a specialized customer intelligence firm, and Big Communications, a leading healthcare marketing communications firm. These acquisitions followed the fiscal 2007 acquisitions of two online businesses: Genex, an interactive marketing services firm that specializes in online customer relationship marketing, and New Media Strategies, an interactive word-of-mouth marketing company.

In April 2008, the Company completed the sale of WFLI, a CW affiliate serving the Chattanooga, Tennessee market. Meredith also completed the sale of KFXO, a low-power FOX affiliate serving the Bend, Oregon market in May 2007.

EMPLOYEES

As of June 30, 2009, the Company had approximately 3,160 full-time and 120 part-time employees. Only a small percentage of our workforce is unionized. We consider relations with our employees to be good.