Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM) was the global content and customer-relationship marketing arm of Meredith Corporation — and for roughly a decade, one of the largest custom-content shops in the United States. Its client roster read like a brand-marketing who's who: Kraft, Volkswagen, State Farm, Wells Fargo, Lowe's, and Publix.
What MXM Did
MXM combined three things most agencies kept separate: editorial-grade print publishing, digital and CRM marketing, and video. The output was the kind of work that defined the content-marketing era — custom magazines mailed directly to a brand's customers, branded e-newsletters, landing pages, and short-form video, all built off Meredith's deep magazine DNA.
Representative work included:
Kraft — Food & Family magazine, one of the largest-circulation custom titles in the U.S.
Lowe's — Creative Ideas magazine, a category leader in home-improvement custom publishing.
Volkswagen — Das Auto magazine and digital, branded video, and CRM e-newsletters.
State Farm — Good Neighbor magazine and feature illustration work.
Publix — Grape and FamilyStyle magazines.
Wells Fargo — branded video and financial-education content.
The Magnum Opus Sweep
In 2012, at the 9th Annual Magnum Opus Awards — the industry's main content-marketing prize, presented by the Content Marketing Institute — MXM took home eleven honors across print, web, and video. Categories included Most Improved Editorial (Volkswagen), Best Web Design – New Publication (Volkswagen), Best Retail Publication (Lowe's), Best Topic Specific Video (Wells Fargo), and Highest Response Generation (Volkswagen).
"Content marketing is a critical focus for many of our clients, and has long been a core area of expertise for MXM," said David Brown, then Executive Vice President of MXM. "We are proud to be recognized for our successes in creating branded and custom content that drives both engagement and results across multiple platforms."
The sweep wasn't a one-off. MXM was repeatedly among the most-decorated shops at the awards through the early-to-mid 2010s.
Where MXM Fit Inside Meredith
Meredith Corporation — best known for Better Homes & Gardens, Parents, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Fitness, and EveryDay with Rachael Ray — had been in the consumer-publishing business since 1902. MXM was its play to translate that magazine craft into work-for-hire content marketing for major brands, with print, digital, mobile, and television capabilities under one roof.
The Dotdash Meredith Era
The Meredith Corporation that MXM grew up inside no longer exists in the same form. In 2018, Meredith acquired Time Inc. — adding People, InStyle, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, and Food & Wine to its portfolio. In 2021, IAC's Dotdash acquired Meredith's National Media Group to form Dotdash Meredith, now one of the largest digital and print publishers in the U.S. Meredith's local television stations were sold to Gray Television in a separate transaction.
The custom and content-marketing side has shifted with the parent. The branded-magazine model MXM helped define — print titles produced by media-company agencies for retail and CPG clients — is far smaller today, while the underlying discipline of branded content has expanded into social, creator, and AI-discovery channels.
Why MXM Still Matters
The MXM playbook — editorial-quality content produced at scale, by a publisher's craftspeople, for a brand's audience — is the direct ancestor of how brands now think about owned media, newsletters, and AI-visibility content. The platforms have changed. The principle hasn't: build something a customer actually wants to read, watch, or save, and the commercial outcome follows.
For more on content marketing strategy, see Everything-PR's coverage of the marketing category.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
