News Releases

MEREDITH PUBLISHING GROUP ANNOUNCES EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS AND PROMOTIONS

Andy Sareyan Named President of Better Homes and Gardens® Brand

NEW YORK, N.Y. (February 14, 2006) – Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP), the leading publisher serving American women with a monthly reach of more than 75 million, today announced a series of promotions and executive appointments. Meredith is the publisher of such well-known titles as Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, More, American Baby, Parents, Child, Fitness, Family Circle, Traditional Home, Country Home, Midwest Living, Siempre Mujer and Ser Padres magazines among others.

The leadership appointments and promotions announced today by Jack Griffin, President of the Meredith Publishing Group, are:

Andy Sareyan is joining Meredith as President of Better Homes and Gardens ® and Executive Vice President, Meredith Publishing Group. This is a newly-created position designed to keep Meredith’s flagship magazine and brand moving vigorously forward. Sareyan will direct all activities of Better Homes and Gardens magazine and Karol Nickell, Editor-in-Chief, and Amy Wilkins, Publisher, will report to him. He will also oversee on a dotted-line basis the senior Better Homes and Gardens managers in the brand’s various revenue support groups including Consumer Marketing, Partnership Marketing, Database and Newsstand.

In addition, Sareyan will coordinate the various activities of the Better Homes and Gardens brand across the Publishing Group. He will work closely with the creative and business leaders of BHG.com, Licensing, Special Interest Publications, Meredith Books and other units that leverage the Better Homes and Gardens brand across different platforms.

Sareyan’s background includes serving the last 18 years at Time, Inc., in a number of key leadership posts. Most recently, he served as President of Entertainment Weekly. After assuming that post in 2002, he led an ambitious and highly successful expansion of the Entertainment Weekly brand into television and radio programming, event marketing, mobile platforms and EW.com. He also established a number of successful and innovative circulation partnerships for Entertainment Weekly and other Time, Inc. brands. Under his leadership, revenue and profit increased significantly each year at Entertainment Weekly.

Sareyan’s prior Time, Inc. experience also includes President of The Parenting Group (2001-2002), where he was pivotal in the expansion of that brand into custom publishing, books, Internet and database. Previously from 1999-2001, he was the founding Publisher of Real Simple where he created and executed the plan for one of the most successful magazine launches ever. He also served as Associate Publisher of InStyle, another highly successful Time, Inc., brand and magazine launch.

He began his career at Time, Inc., by spending six years in a number of assignments in Circulation and Consumer Marketing. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

He will report to Griffin.

Wendy Riches has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Meredith Publishing Group. Since joining Meredith last year, Riches – currently Executive Vice President, Meredith Integrated Marketing (MIM) – has made enormous strides to realize the full potential of MIM. Working with Senior Vice President Matt Petersen, she has successfully evolved the MIM proposition to encompass the full range of marketing communications disciplines including online solutions, customer relationship marketing, custom publishing and loyalty marketing.

In addition, working with Lauren Wiener, Vice President of Meredith Interactive, Riches will be responsible for leading the strategy, operations and development of Meredith’s Internet businesses including BHG.com, AmericanBaby.com and our other consumer sites. She will also oversee the launch and deployment of new online initiatives in the shelter, parenthood and women’s lifestyle fields.

Riches brings exceptional experience and credentials for this expanded assignment, including her most recent role prior to joining Meredith where she served as President of Arc Integrated Marketing, the D’Arcy global marketing services network. She has also held positions as President of E-Commerce and Direct Marketing for Hasbro, and several years with Ogilvy and Mather in New York and London, including holding the position of CEO of OgilvyOne North America. She started her career as an editor at IPC Magazines in London. Petersen and Wiener will report to Riches, who will report to Griffin.

Tom Harty has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Meredith Publishing Group. In this new assignment, Harty will oversee the operations of many of Meredith’s consumer magazines and its group sales unit.

Since joining Meredith from Advance Publications in 2004, Harty who most recently served as Senior V.P./General Manager/Publishing Director, has successfully overseen many of Meredith’s key businesses. These include Better Homes and Gardens magazine, which enjoyed record advertising performance in 2005 under his leadership. During the past year, Harty also orchestrated the successful integration of Family Circle magazine into Meredith.

In addition to his new responsibilities, he will continue to oversee Direct Response & Travel Sales; Retail Marketing, and Planning & Analysis. Harty will continue to report to Griffin.

Jack Bamberger has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Corporate Sales. Since joining Meredith last summer from Gruner & Jahr, Bamberger – currently Vice President, Corporate Sales – has had an immediate and demonstrative impact on Meredith’s business and has built a first-class Corporate Sales operation. He will continue to oversee group-wide sales activities and report to Harty.

Nancy Weber has been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer. Weber, who is currently Vice President/Group Marketing Director, will lead the development and implementation of Meredith’s marketing to leverage the media company’s unique position in marketplace. She will continue to oversee the Corporate Marketing unit, headed by Julie Fuoti. In addition, in order to best leverage our marketing and research insights, Britta Ware, Executive Director of Research, will now report to Weber. In her new role, she will report to Griffin.

In addition to the new appointments and promotions, Griffin announced a number of expanded responsibilities including:

Michael Brownstein, Senior Vice President and Publishing Director, will expand his responsibilities to include oversight of advertising sales and marketing for Family Circle magazine, and Publisher Jim Carr will report to him. Brownstein will continue to oversee business and editorial management for Country Home, Traditional Home, Midwest Living as well as SIP Advertising Sales and Meredith Home Solutions.

Doug Olson, Senior Vice President of Operations, will assume oversight for Meredith’s Newsstand Group and Sheryl Carlson, Executive Director of Newsstand will report to Olson.

Mike Lafavore, Editorial Director, will assume editorial oversight for Family Circle magazine, with Linda Fears, Editor-in-Chief reporting to him. Lafavore, who currently has editorial oversight for Fitness magazine also continues to be responsible for Newsstand Covers and New Product Development.

In making the announcement, Griffin stated, “We are delighted to bring someone of Andy’s experience and caliber to Meredith and congratulate these other executives on their new responsibilities. They are deserving of this recognition, and we feel confident that they will bring tremendous energy and enthusiasm to their new assignments and responsibilities.