Meredith Corporation, publisher of Ladies' Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens, has created a unit that will create video content around its magazine brands, and it has hired a syndication veteran - J.R. McCabe, who has worked for Paramount and Universal - to handle sales for the new unit, dubbed Meredith Video Solutions, writes MediaPost (via MediaBuyerPlanner). However, the company says it has no specific plans for the unit at present, though it will function as part of Meredith's broadcasting division.

Some possible uses for the new unit could be to explore opportunities in syndication (Meredith has a built-in platform for this with the 14 television stations it owns), bulk up video offerings on its magazine websites, and develop content for video-on-demand platforms. This will give advertisers more ad inventory to choose from, and will give Meredith more things to sell against, according to Meredith spokesman Art Slusark.

For the first six months of the current fiscal year, the company's interactive division saw an increase of 80 percent in revenues compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.