Meredith Reports Declines In Profit, Revenue

The quarter for the womens’ media company covers the three months ended December 31, 2011.

The company was able to lower expenses and keep circulation steady, but wasn’t able to counter the downward slide of advertising revenues, just like most media companies struggling to take in advertising dollars from an increasingly fragmented media world.

While $21 million of Meredith’s $30 million advertising slide was from a lack of political advertising (as expected in an off year), the remaining $9 million came from a lack of ads in the food and consumer packaged goods categories, whose producers have been “particularly impacted by higher commodity prices,” and pharmaceutical companies, who brought fewer new drugs to market.

“We