ABSTRACT
Early in 2013, the magazine publishing industry was abuzz with the news that Meredith Corporation, publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, and Ladies’ Home Journal, was in talks to acquire Time, Inc.’s lifestyle and style and entertainment holdings, which included People and InStyle magazines. Weeks later, it became obvious that the hoped-for merger would not occur. Publicly, the failure was blamed on a variety of business considerations, including Meredith’s limited interest in Time, Fortune, Money, and Sports Illustrated and Time, Inc.’s concerns about ownership of London-based Time-Warner subsidiary IPC Media. Privately, representatives from the two companies also noted that the cultures of the two corporations simply did not allow a single company to emerge. On one hand, Time Inc. was North America’s largest publisher of general interest magazines and Time-Warner’s offices were located in New York City, contributing to the big-city/big-company culture that existed within the firm. On the other hand, Meredith’s magazines were aimed at limited audiences sometimes considered unfashionable and its headquarters were located in Des Moines, Iowa, lending a more Midwestern, conservative feel to the company. Whereas a Meredith business meeting might include a lunch of kale salad and rosemary-infused lemonade served in a company conference room, Time, Inc. executives were more likely to meet at Michael’s for dry-aged steaks and later at the Lamb’s Club for after-work cocktails. The two companies, and the two groups of employees, could not find common cultural ground, and this failure was, in the end, a very important reason why the merger did not take place. 1
