As Hurricane Irene churned in the Atlantic with a bulls-eye at New York City’s back, TV stations went into non-stop coverage throughout the weekend.

The category-one storm made her first landfall early Saturday morning in Cape Lookout, North Carolina as stations began their wall-to-wall mode.

Accentuating the serious nature of the story, virtually every anchor was on the air.

WNYW’s Dari Alexander was one of the few anchors not seen during the weekend coverage. She was last seen by viewers on Friday night. Her 10 p.m. colleague Ernie Anastos (above, center) made his first appearance at 3 p.m. Sunday with co-anchor Christina Park, as the storm weakened significantly.

But Channel 5 did have its Good Day team, Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly, in place. However, much of Scotto’s screen time during the weekend was with WNYW’s newest member–Steve Lacy, and not her “TV husband” Kelly.

Kelly and Scotto were together Saturday, helping provide of the special moments.

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WNYW/Channel 5 has hired New England TV news veteran Steve Lacy to join Good Day Wake Up. He’ll team with co-anchor Heather Nauert for the early morning newscast starting the week of August 15.

Lacy comes to New York from WCVB in Boston, where he worked as weekend morning anchor and general assignnment reporter since 2006.

The Bay State native, Lacy also worked in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Bangor, Maine.

Lacy fills the void created by Reid Lamberty who left Channel 5 last  year to be closer to his family in Miami.

Good Day Wake Up airs from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m., ahead of Good Day New York with Greg Kelly and Rosanna Scotto.

FishbowlNY received a tip earlier about this, and now it’s official: ReadyMade, the do-it-yourself magazine from Meredith, is folding. According to Ad Age, the magazine closure is part of cost-cutting measures at the publishing company. As with any magazine shuttering, the magazine will be missed, but the truly sad part is people losing their jobs. This move by Meredith reportedly resulted in 75 people losing employment.

Meredith CEO Steve Lacy issued the following statement:

Positioning Meredith for continued growth requires periodic realignment of resources, including how we deploy our workforce. These actions will enable us to devote additional resources to key strategic growth initiatives, including digital platform expansion.

To those who worked at ReadyMade: Good luck out there.

In an interview with CNBC.com, Steve Lacy, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, said that within a year he expects to add several magazines, and specifically named Rodale’s Men’s Health and Women’s Health as titles Meredith was interested in acquiring. Lacy says that consolidating publications is vital, because the bigger the magazine the larger the advertisers will be.

Obviously the executives at Rodale know what Lacy knows, so we don’t see them giving up two of their most popular publications without a fight. We here at FishbowlNY see it going down much like the process of reading a Men’s Health or Women’s Health.

First there’s the bold proclamation of improving yourself (we’re going to take those from Rodale!), followed by the intense studying of a workout regimen (these numbers say we should get more magazines!), then a few tentative steps to show everyone you meant what you said (we’ve inquired about those titles, just in case), followed lastly by the decision to abandon the whole plan because sitting on your couch and eating Snickers is more fun than exercising (uh, maybe keeping our own magazines afloat in this climate is enough work for now).

Meredith Corp. announced yesterday that its board of directors had nominated CEO Steve Lacy chairman, replacing William T. Kerr, who resigned.

Lacy will remain president and CEO of the Des Moines-based magazine publisher while also overseeing the board. Kerr is remaining on the board, although he stepped aside as chair. Lacy has worked for Meredith since 1998, when he joined as CFO. He was named president and COO in 2004 and appointed CEO in 2006.

Dianna Meredith Frazier was also appointed by the board as vice chair, Meredith said yesterday.

Additionally, Meredith had good news for its shareholders, announcing that it was paying out a dividend of 23 cents a share for the year — making 2009 the seventeenth year in a row that the company has increased its dividend.

Full release after the jump

Previously: Meredith Cuts 45 Jobs, Repositions Special Interest Division

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Thanks to economic pressures, magazine publishers have spent the last year restructuring their business models in order to stay alive.

In the past few months, no publisher has announced as many changes and innovations as Meredith Corp. (MDP), which publishes magazines including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Family Circle.

Today, Meredith announced a strategic video partnership with Interactivation, bringing the media company’s video content to more than 25 million homes starting this fall through Interactivation’s Mag Rack video-on-demand service.

Under the terms of the agreement, Meredith will split advertising and sponsorship revenues from the new venture with Interactivation, while also selling advertising and sponsorships for current Mag Rack video content.

“This partnership represents a unique content and revenue-sharing arrangement in the Video on Demand space,” said Steve Lacy, Meredith’s president and CEO. “We possess tremendous video content creation capabilities across our multiple national and local brands. Interactivation’s Mag Rack network has an impressive national footprint across the major cable and satellite television operators. That’s a powerful combination that will be attractive to viewers and marketers alike.”

Last month, Meredith unveiled a new logo and marketing strategy, in an effort to rebrand itself as a multimedia marketing company rather than just a magazine publisher. Meredith renamed its publishing properties and their related interactive sides the National Media Brands while the broadcasting properties now fall under the Local Media Brand heading, and the company’s cross-platform and custom marketing divisions, including Meredith Integrated Marketing, Meredith 360° and Meredith Video Solutions, are called Marketing Solutions.

Earlier: Meredith Repositions Marketing Approach, Debuts New Logo

Related: Conde Nast Cuts Content Deal With Social Media Center Boxee (WebNewser)

Meredith Corp., which publishes magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Family Circle, has unveiled a new marketing approach that emphasizes the company’s strength as a media and marketing company, not just a magazine publisher.

Starting today, Meredith will call its publishing properties and their related interactive sides the National Media Brands, “to reflect their national scope and multi-platform distribution capabilities,” the company said. Meredith’s broadcasting properties will fall under the Local Media Brand heading, while the company’s cross-platform and custom marketing divisions, including Meredith Integrated Marketing, Meredith 360° and Meredith Video Solutions, will be called Marketing Solutions.

“Through careful execution of our strategic plan, Meredith has evolved into a multi-faceted media and marketing company serving 75 million American women and the marketers that want to reach them,” Steve Lacy, Meredith’s president and CEO said in a statement. “This updated positioning and logo better reflect our ability to engage consumers and marketers in meaningful and mutually beneficial dialogues across multiple platforms.”

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