What's in a Name?

Landmark Meredith Is Rechristened

In 1979, I boarded a plane at the Milwaukee airport. My destination was Des Moines, Iowa, and my purpose was a job interview.

The engraved letters tucked below the crown molding of the Italianate building facade at 1716 Locust Street read The Dairy Farmer. Next to it was the name, Successful Farming. But the signage at the entrance of the imposing red brick edifice with its distinctive tower was Meredith Corporation.

When I returned a few weeks later in May for my first day of work, I took the elevator to the fourth floor. The building decor was nondescript, and the inner stairwell walls needed a coat of paint. But I was joining the staff as an editor at Successful Farming, a national farm publication, and returning to my home state of Iowa. I had no idea when I walked through the door that it would be my home away from home for the next 36 years.

As a twenty-something who grew up near the western border of Iowa, I didn't know anything about Meredith. Before long I began learning its history, and over the decades, the trajectory of my career became inextricably intertwined with the storied rise and fall of the company known as Meredith.

Des Moines Attracted Big Ambitions

Born on a farm near Avoca, Iowa, Edwin Thomas Meredith, came to Des Moines to live with his grandfather while he attended Highland Park College. As a wedding gift in 1896, his grandfather handed him a stake in his struggling populist newspaper, The Farmers' Tribune, along with a note, "Sink or Swim."

Known as E.T., the 26-year-old Meredith operated the publication, growing its subscriber base before selling it for a profit. He used the proceeds to launch Successful Farming in October of 1902. Beginning with 500 subscribers, by 1908 the magazine had 100,000 subscribers. Its humble headquarters was on 10th Street between Walnut and Mulberry Streets.

Following unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Senate and the Iowa governor's seat Meredith attracted the attention of President Woodrow Wilson, and was elevated to serve as a Chicago Federal Reserve Bank director. In 1920, Wilson tapped him for the Cabinet role of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

But he returned to magazine publishing, and after buying the Dairy Farmer in 1922, he launched Fruit, Garden, and Home (renaming it Better Homes and Gardens in 1924). Later The Dairy Farmer was merged with Successful Farming.

Through my decades there, I acquired several original Successful Farming publications and bound volumes. In the April 1911 issue, E.T. Meredith delivered a direct one-page message to his subscribers below the bold-faced headline "I Guarantee This Investment":

"Thanks to the loyal support of our 500,000 subscribers, Successful Farming has entirely outgrown its present print facilities and its present building," he wrote. Meredith shared that he had purchased "an elegant new $35,000 press that will print papers five times as fast as my present equipment." He added, "This new press is to be installed in a fine new building, costing, with the ground, $125,000. Our family of 150 people will have better air, better light, a nicer, cleaner place to work, with recreation grounds, library, reading room, rest room, etc. It will be a model publishing plant in every particular. Do you want an interest in it?"

Meredith suggested an investment of 50 to 1,000 shares, at 7% dividends. "We prize too highly the confidence we know our readers have in Successful Farming to ever, in any way, takes chances on recommending any investment or purchase that might cause a loss to any subscriber," he wrote.

He pledged to buy their stock back at the price paid for it any time.

I'm not sure how many farmers took advantage of his offer. But the original building, located on 2.8 acres between Locust Street and the Raccoon River, was completed in 1912

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Making Iowa the Crossroads of the Nation

Meredith was a visionary in many respects. Each issue of Successful Farming featured a Junior Farmers Section, and his idea for The Boys and Girls Club was the forerunner of 4-H. In 1916, he established a $250,000 loan fund for club members to buy purebred livestock, hybrid seed corn, and make other farm and home investments. Throughout its history, the Meredith Foundation remained a generous supporter of 4-H.

He also was a catalyst in the "Good Roads Movement" after the turn of the century, serving as the first president of the Jefferson Highway Association in 1917. His vision was to blaze a 2,300-mile motor trail from Winnipeg to New Orleans. Roads were a state responsibility in the early 1900s, and few were paved. Iowa's roads disintegrated into a bed of muck beneath the rain and snow, making roads impassable. His goal was building hard-surfaced roads to expand commerce and tourism, and connect Iowa to the wider world.

In 1914, Meredith went out on a limb, convincing bankers to loan him $10,000 to charter two trains bringing East Coast businesses and advertising executives to Des Moines to impress them with Iowa's farms and Des Moines's opportunities. He called the trains the Meredith Flyers.

The mechanization of farming, along with the Dust Bowl led to a declining number of family farms. In 2025 the company name was changed from Successful Farming Publishing Co. to Meredith Publishing Co. Following its name change, Better Homes and Gardens finally made a profit in 1927. With one million subscribers that year, it, assumed the role of Meredith's flagship publication.

By this time, E.T. Meredith was seriously considered as a presidential candidate. But his health was failing, and he died at the age of 51 in 1928. Two thousand people attended his memorial service in Des Moines.

The company was steered through the Depression and World War II by his son-in-law, Fred Bohen. Meredith opened its first New York City office in 1934. By 1948, Better Homes & Gardens and Successful Farming had a combined circulation of 2.5 million. Meredith expanded into TV station ownership in 1948.

E.T. "Ed" Meredith, Jr. joined the family business in 1956. The magazine printing, along with custom printing, was moved from the sub-basement at Locust Street to a new plant at 5701 Park Ave. in 1959.

Ed Meredith died in 1966. His son E.T. "Ted" Meredith had joined the company board in 1956, and in 1968, the first non-family member was named to head the company. In 1969, Meredith formed a printing partnership with the West German family, Burda, one of the largest in the U.S. Meredith launched its Better Homes & Gardens real estate service in 1978.

Not long after I arrived at Meredith, a stable of other publications followed, including Metropolitan Home, Midwest Living, Wood Magazine, as well as Country Home and many other special interest publications and custom publications.

In 1986, Meredith purchased its largest rival, Ladies Home Journal. Soon it became a Fortune 500 Company. Ted Meredith opposed moving headquarters to New York City, but top executives shuttled between their offices in midtown Manhattan and Des Moines.

In the mid-1980s, in an effort to maximize its plant's custom printing, Meredith contracted with Penthouse. It was a shocking departure for this conservative, family-oriented company, and it's reported that Meredith invited Gloria Steinem as its keynote speaker at the annual stockholder's conference. The contract was ended in 1990.

Instead of following other companies to the suburbs, in 1998, Meredith added a 185,000 square feet addition across the street at 1615 Locust, integrating it with the Western Gateway development. That same year, the BH & G Test Garden was added. The 5.2 mile Meredith Trail was dedicated in 2005

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Let the Good Times Roll

By the time I arrived to work at Meredith, few people recognized that Successful Farming was Meredith's founding publication. For over two decades, BH & G boasted a circulation of about eight million.

I was the first woman hired by Successful Farming to write about business. The magazine had leaned on its sister publication to feature a couple of pages of craft and recipes aimed at women for many years.

It was a wonderful place to work. The company recently had launched an $18 million remodeling project, showcasing its original wood paneling, and furnishing the interior in a style that better reflected the image of a successful publisher of home improvement and decor magazines: light courts, artwork, and new test kitchens. The campaign was called "A Better Home for Meredith."

Meredith had opened a book publishing division, led by the success of its famous red-and-white checkerboard-covered Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, launched in 1930. It held an annual book sales event for employees in the cavernous basement, before opening sales to the public. It was such fun to find bargain do-it-yourself and home decorating books.

Prop sales in the basement of the building offered an amazing collection of furniture, drapes, place settings, lamps, and other decor used as backdrops in magazine photographs.

Meredith employees' children enjoyed the annual Christmas party, as well as tickets to Adventureland Park, with an employees-only morning opening and a noon meal.

We used Meredith's matching grant program to give to our choice of educational institution and turned in our volunteer hours to earn matching funds for our favorite organizations. (Meredith's civic philanthropy is well-known, including The Science Center, the Des Moines Civic Center, Des Moines Arts Center, and Blank Park Zoo.)

Meredith's Centennial celebration in 2001 was huge. Ted Meredith saw to it that each employee received 100 $1 coins in recognition of the historic occasion.

We enjoyed a wonderful cafeteria, and in later years, a fitness center. Meredith, however, turned down our requests for on-site child care.

Meredith also was generous to retirees, who ate at the cafeteria for free, and some regulars loaded their plates and saved food "to go". Nothing ever was said. Holiday gift boxes were a given to employees and retirees alike. The company held a 25-Year Club reception each December for long-time employees and retirees. My last invite was in 2019, just prior to Covid-19.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Through the years, New York management had brought a different vibe to the company, with company stock prices posted in the cafeteria and lobby. Lay-offs became more common. All of this was happening against the backdrop of a shake-out threatening print magazines.

Then came the purchase of Time, Inc., the shedding of many of its titles, a proposed sale to Media General in 2015, the sale of Meredith TV stations, and finally the Dotdash acquisition in 2021. It was sad to see Meredith sell the 1615 building, and become a shadow of its former self.

Yet Dotdash Meredith has retooled Better Homes & Gardens, transforming it into a showy 9" x 11" magazine. The company has 697 employees in Des Moines, and an overall total of 3,700. Successful Farming still is part of the mix. Dotdash Meredith has reported six straight quarters of growth.

In a 2003 Business Record article, Jim Autry, a former Meredith group vice president said, "He [Ted Meredith] took seriously the fact that the Meredith name was on that company."

Now the company will be rebranded. Nothing lasts forever. Maybe the name Meredith Corporation no longer resonates. In explaining the decision, chief executive Neil Vogel described the name Dotdash-Meredith as clunky. Do you think?

Now Dotdash Meredith will become People, Inc. Naming a stable of publications after a single magazine acquired as recently as 2018 seems a dubious move. What happens when People no longer is its most popular magazine title?

Maintaining the company in Des Moines, Iowa, where its pulse has been on Middle America has been a key to its success. Another key was that Meredith founded his publishing empire on the principle of service journalism, the "how to" content with a personal connection. None of its magazines flaunted fashion, fiction, or sex. I'm not sure what type of service People offers, but other titles like Travel & Leisure, Allrecipes, Successful Farming, and Magnolia come closer to connecting with this service ideal.

Bob Burnett, who served as the Meredith CEO and board chair for more than 30 years, described Ted Meredith as "very supportive of a people-oriented organization".

So, perhaps this rebranding is not so far off. So long, Meredith. Here's to People, Inc. – wishing you the best!

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