Report: Meredith considering selling local TV stations

Media conglomerate Meredith is considering selling its 17 local television stations, realigning the company to focus on its magazine business, according to a report from Bloomberg Friday.

The company is working with an adviser to divest itself of the stations, according to Bloomberg, quoting anonymous sources, and a final decision on the sale has not been made.

“As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on rumors or speculation,” a Meredith spokesperson said when asked about the Bloomberg report.

Meredith also declined to comment to Bloomberg.

Meredith’s local television stations reach 11 percent of U.S. households, and most are located in “large, fast-growing markets,” according to Meredith’s corporate website. Seven of those stations serve the nation’s top 25 markets in cities like Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis and Portland, Ore.

In addition to local television stations, the company owns numerous magazine brands including People, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Allrecipes, Real Simple, Shape and Southern Living.

The company’s portfolio also includes what it calls “premium publishing” brands and partnerships with celebrities like home improvement cable show hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines.

In 2018, with the help of Koch Equity Development, a company controlled by Koch Industries, Meredith bought Time Inc., which includes Time magazine, for $1.8 billion. It agreed to sell Time magazine later the same year to Marc Benioff, co-founder of Salesforce.com, and his wife Lynne Benioff for $190 million.