This has nothing to do with its television division, but Meredith Corporation is recording a special charge of approximately $10 million this quarter. The company is shuttering the ReadyMade brand – a do-it-yourself magazine that it acquired in 2006.
The company blamed ongoing weakness in the home category/marketplace. The write-off will amount to about $6 million on an after-tax basis, or 13 cents per share. Meredith is also making some other staff reductions, so the headcount will decline by about 75 overall.
“Positioning Meredith for continued growth requires periodic realignment of resources, including how we deploy our workforce,” said Meredith Chairman and CEO Steve Lacy. “These actions will enable us to devote additional resources to key strategic growth initiatives, including digital platform expansion.” He noted that the company has created nearly 200 jobs in this fiscal year for growth areas, such as mobile and/or electronic tablet platforms and apps.
Meredith’s fiscal year runs through the end of this month. The company said it now expects fiscal 2011 full-year earnings per share to be at the higher end of its previously communicated $2.72 to $2.78 range. The company said it will provide its fiscal 2012 earnings outlook when it releases fiscal 2011 earnings on July 28, 2011.
