So Long Dotdash Meredith, Hello People Inc.
At the end of 2021, the IAC by Barry Diller signed an agreement of $ 2.7 billion to acquire Meredith Corp. In a successful move to create a digital media power.
“In fact, we did not really know how to call it, so for convenience, necessity and speed, we just called it dotdash meredith,” recalls Neil Vogel, CEO of the company, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “It made everyone happy, nobody was crazy. But we knew in a way that it would not be a name forever. ”
And therefore the company formerly known as Dotdash Meredith will be, from Thursday, now by People Inc.
It is one of the largest media publishers in the world, with brands that include People,, Travel and leisure,, Married,, Best houses and gardens,, Weekly entertainment,, Food and wine And AllrecipesSo a brand change is a big change, but Vogel maintains that it is a logical decision.
“We have kicked the names for a while, probably in the past two years, and it has come to us that we had the name we wanted, and the name was people,” explains Vogel. “”People is our flagship property, it’s a bit like the way Coca Cola has Sprite and many other things, but it is always Coca Cola company. »»
The name is also a nod to Time Inc., whose brands are a large piece of the company’s portfolio.
“But I think the second thing we have done, which is actually quite important, is that in the era of all that is synthetic and artificial and merged and crushed, we are people who make content for people, people who are really passionate about things,” he adds. “So we thought that the names of the people worked for that. We are not, we are People And Food and wine And Travel and leisure And Weekly entertainment And all these brands that you have known for a very long time, and have this great heritage and this great confidence. »»
People Inc. brands are essential to Vogel’s strategy, which he describes as “ruthlessly non -sentimental”.
“In this new world where everything is a little confusing, you do not know what is happening, the brands are all we have, right? Our brands, this is what will make us advance,” says Vogel, describing his philosophy. “There are more media consumed than ever in the history of anything. And our work is that if you have a brand that people love and who have confidence and you have a affinity, you have a chance. And I think there are two things: one, you have to choose your winners, which I think we are doing, and two: you have to let these teams do their case.”
The beginnings of People Inc. arrive at a tumultuous moment for the media, which is struggling with a difficult advertising company and an imminent threat of artificial intelligence, in particular with the search for AI threatening the whole model of the Internet. Dotdash Meredith, for its part, has signed agreements with companies like Openai while she seeks to face these challenges.
“You cannot fall in love with what you did yesterday, because it may no longer work. No fault in yours,” explains Vogel. “We were great on the web open for a very long time, but the open web has not grown up. We have to find other things to be really great. ”
“I always use People Magazine himself as the example of how you can take something that is apparently old and tired, and you can absolutely reinvent it for the new world. When we got our hands on People Three and a half years ago, everything was managed by a editor, a print, which just dictated what happened everywhere, and it was very commander and control, “added Vogel.” We have said, okay, we will do it differently. The editor -in -chief was now in charge of the brand’s mission, but we will have a completely different writing and production process to print, web, tiktok, Instagram, our own application, YouTube, everything we do, rather than having a central figure like what happens everywhere. “”
And in the future, the company will apply this mentality to all its brands.
“What we have learned are not all our brands that will have a future, and it’s okay,” says Vogel. “The brands which, in our opinion, have the brightest future obtain the most resources, and these tend to be marks – which is really interesting for us – which have history and gravity, Food and wine And Really simple And Travel and leisureand allrecipes and Best houses and gardensAnd all these brands you know are the brands that are equipped to reach the following place. »»
Vogel says that People Inc. is about to be a good story in a media business which has, in other places, difficulty surviving.
The company (as Dotdash Meredith) said fourth quarter revenues of $ 522 million, up 10% compared to one year earlier, with digital income including $ 311 million in this total and an EBITDA adjusted up 5%. The company finished 2024 with $ 1.8 billion in income ($ 1 billion in this digital) and benefits from 25% compared to the previous year. The company claims that more than 175 million people per month visit the brands of People Inc.
“In a world where there are not many happy and good media stories, we are well, we come out of six consecutive quarters of digital growth,” explains Vogel. “We just wanted to do [the rebrand] NOW. Just put it, a participation in the ground around what we do. »»
