Meredith sells TV stations to Gray

Until this hadn’t realized Atlanta’s Channel 17 had left the corporate arms of Time Warner.

Gray Television to Buy 17 Meredith Stations for $2.7 Billion - Variety

 

Meredith's CEO sent out an email to the company explaining that this move will help them in their "vision to build the most vital media company in the U.S."

Apparently you become the "most vital media company in the U.S." by selling your TV assets so you can focus on your magazine publishing. In 2021 it's fair to say there's nothing more "vital" than the next issue of Wood, Successful Farming or Practical Boat Owner.

Let's just say that if one were hypothetically a long-term employee of Meredith who had heard sale rumors for years and years and years, it would be quite a relief that when it finally happens it involves Gray Television and not one of the other options out there.

 

Selling its tv assets did not work for old Gannett.

 

Seems like a crime that there isn't some strained Grey's Anatomy headline for this.

 

I can’t speak to Wood and Practical Boat Owner, but I know Successful Farming is no joke.

 

@PCLoadLetter @exmediahack
As a fanboi of WSMV, I gotta ask for a little more insight into Gray, who I know nothing about (my local TV experience begins and ends with Hubbard). Will they be a good-ish owner for Channel 4?

 

I think so? Gray is one of the few TV ownership groups left that has a positive reputation. I've heard good things. And Meredith seems to have been checked out for a while, so it's hard to imagine having a new and engaged owner wouldn't be a positive.

The only thing that really concerns me about Gray is that their stations are mostly in really small markets. (Like, they have nine stations across six cities in Nebraska. I had no idea that was even possible.) As long as they don't try to run Atlanta and (ahem) Phoenix the same way you would run your seven (!) stations in South Dakota, things should be good.

 

I have little use for them after their purge of experienced talent a few years ago, culminating in the absolutely disgraceful way they treated Demetria Kalodimos. Unofficially I’ve heard that cost them in the ratings too.

Nashville's Channel 4 'regrets' the way Demetria Kalodimos was let go

 

Gray stations tend to run lean, I’m told. I hope none of the Meredith stations are overly bloated.