Meredith Publishing's Jack Griffin is Reinventing the Print Media Business

Meredith Publishing under the helm of veteran Jack Griffin continues to reinvent itself and at the same time redefine the modern media company Part traditional magazine publisher part database and direct marketer part marketing agency part custom publishing and sales engine and part digital new media leader Meredith is in the enviable position of having powerful brands delivering content to adult women through virtually every distribution venue available Griffin believes quotmarket leadership can be articulated based on how consumers interact with your products and services You don39t need to be the largest to be the leaderquotLast month Meredith acquired Directive Corporation a customer intelligence and direct marketing firm enabling Meredith Integrated Marketing to expand its focus on building a lifetime value chain with consumers Earlier this year Meredith acquired consumer health search engine Healia wwwhealiacom Genex an interactive marketing services firm specializing in online customer relationship marketing and New Media Strategies an interactive wordofmouth marketing company These follow the 2006 acquisition of the O39Grady Meyers Interactive Agency Last month Meredith won the Kraft Food and Family direct marketing accountGriffin has also expanded Meredith Video Solutions with two current broadband channels wwwParentstv and wwwBettertv These channels reside on all 21 Meredith publication websites including Parentscom LHJcom and BHGcom Meredith sites attract 12 million unique users and 150 million page views monthly Reach senior ad execs Advertise on JackMyerscomWhen Meredith acquired Gruner ampamp Jahr39s Family Circle two years ago the magazine was fifth in a six book field quotIt had a great heritage but had been neglectedquot Griffin told Jack Myers Media Business Report in an exclusive interview The magazine now ranks second among what was once called the 39seven sisters39 of women39s service publications At the same time the company closed Child magazineDifferentiation is the key Griffin believes quotHaving an intimate knowledge of the customer and being able to deliver demonstrable success for advertisers across multiple platforms through great editorial product is the key to differentiationquot Unlike competitive publishing companies that are layering digital and integrated marketing onto a print platform Meredith39s focus has been to place digital at the fulcrum and integrate advertising marketing event community building custom publishing and promotional support services Video content is increasingly becoming central to Meredith39s content development plans with expanding strategies for broadband DVD television and mobileRead TiVoWorthy TV Everyday at JackMyerscomquotBut print has actually never been healthierquot he hastens to add quotThere is not enough active acknowledgement that there has been successful reinvention of the print business and it is alive and wellquot The caveat though is that the healthiest print publications are those with strong welldefined brands quotThere is a stunning divergence between the leaders and the laggersquot Griffin suggests quotand strong brands increasingly define vitality Certain competitors are answering the challenge and are not only succeeding but thrivingquot While overall the women39s service category looks flat the category leaders are experiencing strong double digit growth quotWithin the category some are doing great and others are getting clobberedquot Griffin explains Meredith Publishing39s revenue growth in calendar year 2008 is tracking at 10 based on the same publications and same frequency quotWe need to be big enough to matter and small enough to maneuverquot he addsGriffin suggests the advertising business is bifurcated with 75 percent of Meredith39s business following a traditional transactional model and 25 percent being highly strategic and nontraditional Two years ago he says less than 10 percent was nontraditional quotWe39ve taken costs out of the transactional side to underwrite strategic development and in two to three years we are planning for only 50 percent of our business to be transactional We can39t just hold onto the legacy models digital is the foundation of our strategic business and experimentation is as important as a clear business modelquot The Meredith 360 group was created 18 months ago to develop custom solutions for advertisers JackMyerscom media Leadership Opinion Vision EvolutionUnlike Silicon Valley startups and unbranded media Meredith offers depth of relationships with consumers that can be shared with advertisers Griffin points out Better Homes ampamp Gardens has extended its brand with a major licensing program with WalMart which will launch a line of BHG branded home goods in 2008 The Better Homes ampamp Gardens real estate group is also being reintroduced in 2008 by Realogy parent of Century 21 after a ten year hiatus quotWe39re making hard decisions on where to put our horses and that39s what smart companies are doingquot says Griffin For more information on Meredith Publishing contact Patrick Taylor at Patricktaylormeredithcom

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Meredith Publishing's Jack Griffin is Reinventing the Print Media Business

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