Meredith Adds New Shows From Katie Couric And Brandon Maxwell, Doubling Down On #SeeHer Movement

Meredith Corporation doubled down on its support for the Association of National Advertisers‘ (ANA) #SeeHer campaign — which is working to increase the accurate portrayal of females in U.S. advertising — at its second-ever NewFronts presentation this morning.

The publishing giant, whose brands include People, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, and Shape — has tapped news vet Katie Couric, fashion designer Brandon Maxwell, and others to star in new shows that seek to to eliminate unconscious gender bias, and increase gender equality in media. Couric, for instance, will host a weekly digital series titled #SeeHer Story, spotlighting overlooked women, while Maxwell and InStyle editor-in-chief Laura Brown will produce #SeeHer Style, with stories about notable women leading up to New York Fashion Week.

Going forward, Meredith will focus programming around three R’s: ‘red carpet’, ‘reality’, and ‘royals’. Red carpet coverage will triple this year on People TV, Meredith said, while its new Royal Report show will recap British high society. And a new show called Reality Check, hosted by Lyndsey Rodrigues, will feature a panel of reality stars, TV super-fans, and entertainment journalists discussing the day’s biggest moments.

Meredith already has 15 series on Instagram‘s episodic video hub IGTV, with five more to come — among them How I Mom from Parents magazine and Saved By The Bell actress Tiffani Thiessen. And Meredith plans to launch a new YouTube channel for its Parents Latina brand that will offer advice and entertainment geared toward Latina moms.

“We’ve had extraordinary momentum leveraging emerging technologies — from video and voice to AI and commerce — to create powerful connections with engaged audiences wherever they are and to help advertisers integrate authentically and seamlessly into those experiences,” Jon Werther, president of Meredith National Media Group, said in a statement. “Our mission is to anticipate our consumers’ needs — particularly those of the 110 million women we serve — to inspire and fuel their imagination and to empower them to achieve as they make their everyday decisions.”

You can check out our conversation with Andrew Snyder, Meredith’s SVP and head of video, below:

And you can check out the rest of Tubefilter‘s interviews from our ‘Insights from the 2019 Digital Content NewFronts’ video series right here.