Dotdash Meredith CEO Talks Meredith Integration, Ad Slowdown
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Dotdash Meredith's CEO explains why its $2.7 billion acquisition of Meredith has been tough as the ad industry gets creamed
Neil Vogel, CEO of Dotdash Meredith. Courtesy of Dotdash
- Dotdash Meredith's acquisition of Meredith has had a rough first year, said CEO Neil Vogel.
- He also said the publisher also will not use AI to write stories, unlike competitor CNET.
- Dotdash Meredith is laying off 7% of its workforce.
This story was originally published on January 24, 2022. It has been updated with new information about layoffs at Dotdash Meredith.
IAC-owned Dotdash Meredith is about a year into its $2.7 billion acquisition of magazine giant Meredith, and a rough ad market has made the transition to become a big player for advertisers tough.
"The market is hard," said Neil Vogel, CEO of Dotdash Meredith.
On January 23, Vogel spoke with Axios' senior media reporter Sara Fischer at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Annual Leadership Meeting in Marco Island, Florida, about Dotdash's acquisition of Meredith and other topics.
One of the challenges has been merging the two companies' culture, he said. Dotdash's roots are in digital media with service-oriented journalism, and he said there have been some culture challenges in acquiring print-heavy Meredith. Dotdash Meredith owns more than 40 brands including People, The Spruce, and Food & Wine.
IAC-owned Dotdash Meredith reported a 19% year-over-year decrease in pro forma revenue during the third quarter, blaming the slow integration of the two media brands. At the same time, the ad market soured last year as advertisers reigned in spending.
Today, he said the two groups function as one team.
"These mergers are hard, and this was really hard and slow," Vogel said. "And in a good market, nobody sees your mistakes. In a bad market, everyone sees every mistake."
This year, the company will be the largest print publisher in America but will print about half as many magazines as it did two years ago, he said.
On January 26, Dotdash Meredith let go of 274 staffers, equivalent to 7% of its workforce. Roles impacted include editors, writers, marketers and production managers.
"We are not immune to the economic factors that everyone else is facing," Vogel said earlier in the week at the conference=.
Despite the ad slowdown, Vogel said affiliate marketing — another large part of Dotdash Meredith's business where the publisher takes a cut for every sale from products recommended in stories — have not been impacted, Vogel said.
"It has been growing in an outsized way relative to advertising," he said.
Vogel also said Dotdash Meredith won't have artificial intelligence write stories. His comments come shortly after competitor Red Venture-owned CNET faced backlash for publishing a series of AI-generated stories. He added that Dotdash has used AI to automate some internal processes like sourcing photos for stories.
"We'll never have an article written by a machine," Vogel said.
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