Meredith Corp. Announces Had Q2 Special Charge of $0.10/Share, Reaffirms Outlook

Meredith Corporation(NYSE: MDP) said today it recorded a net special charge of$7 million ($4 million after-tax, or $0.10 per share) in its fiscal 2013second quarter.  The charge was related to business realignments and selectedworkforce reductions designed to realize the full value of recentacquisitions, and as part of an ongoing process to optimize performance andachieve further cost efficiencies. Meredith has aggressively scaled its capabilities to deliver content overmultiple platforms to meet increased consumer demand and growing clientrequests for multiplatform advertising and marketing programs in the pastyear.  As a result, Meredith has added or created approximately 300 jobs tosupport key strategic growth initiatives including the: o Acquisition of Allrecipes.com, doubling Meredith's digital presence. The addition made Meredith the No. 1 digital food media company, and moved it to No. 3 in the digital women's lifestyle category. o Addition of the EveryDay with Rachael Ray and FamilyFun brands. These moves increased Meredith's share of the U.S. magazine industry advertising revenues to its current level of nearly 12 percent. o Purchase of ShopNation and launch of a growing e-commerce platform. o Execution of digital, mobile, video and social expansion strategies, including creating tablet editions; developing new mobile apps; and expanding video content creation capabilities. o Expansion and monetization of Local Media Group video content through an increase in local news programming, along with more national video content creation.