Country Media, Inc. Buys Three Newspapers From News Media Corp. (mediapost.com)

Meredith Corporation announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of Time Inc. for $18.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.8 billion. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of Meredith and Time Inc., and is expected to close during the first quarter of calendar 2018. "We are creating a premier media company serving nearly 200 million American consumers across industry-leading digital, television, print, video, mobile, and social platforms positioned for growth," said Meredith Corporation Chairman and CEO Stephen M. Lacy. "We are adding the rich content-creation capabilities of some of the media industry's strongest national brands to a powerful local television business that is generating record earnings, offering advertisers and marketers unparalleled reach to American adults. We are also creating a powerful digital media business with 170 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S. and over 10 billion annual video views, enhancing Meredith's leadership position in reaching Millennials." Click Read More below for additional information.

•Total revenues decreased 5% to $566.7 million. Comparable company sales decreased 9% following a decrease of 8% in the third quarter last year. •J.Crew sales decreased 12% to $430.4 million. J.Crew comparable sales decreased 12% following a decrease of 9% in the third quarter last year. •Madewell sales increased 22% to $107.5 million. Madewell comparable sales increased 13% following an increase of 4% in the third quarter last year. •Gross margin increased to 40.1% from 38.1% in the third quarter last year. Click Read More below for additional information.

Through the first six weeks of the third quarter, the average time for delivery of mail and packages across the postal network remained just 2.4 days. Third quarter service performance scores covering April 1 through May 13 included: *First-Class Mail: 93.4 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 5.6 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter. *Marketing Mail: 95.0 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter. *Periodicals: 86.7 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 5.2 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter.