Meredith Corp starts pay cuts, puts dividends on hold

Meredith Corp. announced Monday that it will be cutting the pays of 60 percent of its staff as a result of declining advertising revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pay reductions will be effective May 4 and last through Sept. 4.

Forty percent of the employees will see a 15 percent pay cut while the highest-paid 15 percent of the staff members will have their pay reduced between 20 percent and 40 percent.

In addition, no corporate or national media group employees earning less than $75,000 a year, and employees at Meredith-owned television stations who make less than $50,000 a year will be exempt from the pay cuts.

The company has also paused stock dividends due to “uncertainty stemming from the COVID-19 crisis.”

“Traffic to our digital properties is robust, viewership for our local news broadcasts is high, and print subscriptions remain steady,” Meredith president and CEO Tom Harty was quoted as saying in the Monday news release. “At the same time, the COVID-19 crisis has created an extremely challenging business environment, including significant advertising campaign cancellations and delays.”