A forum for the print and
digital publishing industries

• Allure editor in chief on diversity and how the title became magazine of the year

Michelle Lee is Allure’s Editor in Chief and a pioneer in many aspects of magazine publishing. Her progressive approach has gained plaudits across a wide spectrum and led to Allure being awarded Magazine of the Year by Adweek last Autumn, with Michelle herself being awarded Editor of the Year..

• Audience Growth Hack

Audience growth is the mile-by-mile marathon that makes all things possible with your business – New Advertisers, New Revenue, New Markets – are all predicated on your ability to grow your audience.

• Tuned out: Publishers aren’t ready for a Spotify for news yet

This article is a free preview of the new issue of Digiday magazine, our quarterly print publication that’s distributed to Digiday+ members. Click here to find out more about Digiday+ and to subscribe now.

• Updated: Texas Monthly and Magazine Manager client, 5280, Clean Up at the City and Regional Magazine Awards

Columbus Monthly, Seattle Met, and Denver’s 5280 earned top prizes for General Excellence at the 33rd annual City & Regional Magazine Awards, administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism and announced Monday at the City & Regional Mag Association’s annual meetup in New Orleans.

• Publishers Can Grab More Programmatic Brand Spend by Focusing on Quality Inventory

After a decade of lagging behind the rise of digital content consumption, the floodgates on digital ad spend opened wide around 2012. Much of this has been due to a tide of brand dollars flowing through automated pipes, with eMarketer estimating that over four in five US digital display dollars will be spent on programmatic channels this year

• Hearst Newspapers Taps Medici As EVP-CMO

Hearst Newspapers has hired Cox Media Group’s Mark Medici as its executive vice president-Chief Marketing Officer. Medici, who will be based in Houston, is the first to hold this newly created position. He will oversee consumer-marketing strategy across all platforms for Hearst’s 24 dailies and 64 weeklies.

• Three Ways to Make Sure Your Newsletters are Read

When preparing to launch a startup, the first essential step entrepreneurs need to take is put a marketing strategy in place. However, for many startups marketing on a limited budget is not as easy as it sounds.

• Branding Is Key in B2B Campaigns, But Data Rules

At this year’s Ops in June, we’re going to be talking a lot about the ways in which advertising in B2B can be similar to B2C (there’s a place for branded content, and for programmatic!), and how it’s dissimilar (scale is always one of the kickers).

• The top five publisher tools for transcribing

A journalist, on average, spends 6 hours a week transcribing audio, which not only slows down the reporting process but also decreases newsroom productivity.

• How publishers get their employees to come up with new product ideas

Last summer, in a hunt for new product ideas, Politico turned to its employees. The publisher held a “Shark Tank”-style competition, a first for the company, where staffers from across the organization pitched ideas for new and improved products.

• Report Finds Publishing Industry Tech Spending Aimed at Bringing Audiences Back Home

Publishing Executive has released the results of its second annual survey on which technologies publishers plan to buy, the objectives behind their investments, and which technologies they expect to drive the most revenue.

• Meeker Presentation Shows Further Drop In Print Ad Spend

Mary Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, gave her annual Internet Trends report presentation at Recode’s Code Conference yesterday, revealing more declines in print ad spending.

• Have You Adjusted To These Three Changes In The B2B Buying Process?

As the co-founder of a business-to-business (B2B) agency, things have become more difficult over the last few years for both our agency and our clients.

• How publishers became lean, mean ecommerce machines

Under pressure from falling ad spend to media businesses and tooth-and-claw competition from rivals for subscription money, publishers are having to scale back both the types of content they cover – and that’s a good thing.

• How Publishers Are Keeping Their Social Strategies As Fresh As Their Feeds

The already fading interest in the “Yanny vs. Laurel” debate to which we were all subjected a week ago lends further credence to the idea that social media’s one universal truth is: “What works today, won’t tomorrow.”

• Take Your Database in a New Direction

Tear down those old, traditional database silos of print and digital. Think instead about an integrated audience database.

• Publishers stop Facebook ad spending over policy that treats publishers as political advertisers

Facebook’s new ad-labeling policy has come under fire from publishers who are concerned that their news articles will be treated as political advocacy ads.

• How Money-Media Converted Free Subscriptions to Paid Newsletters

There are countless free newsletters in B2B publishing, as well there should be. Newsletters do great things.

• 5 Keys to Super-Effective Prospecting

Here’s a fast fact:  50% of sales time is wasted on unproductive prospecting. (The B2B Lead)

• Magazine Manager client, Harris Publishing, now owns the rights to PrintFlic, technology which instantly turns print into video allowing printed pages to come to life.

IDAHO FALLS, IDAHO—Cloud-born media content may be all the rage these days, but if you’re looking for substance, it’s hard to beat the purely organic experience of thumbing through a quality full-glossy magazine.

• 10 QUALITIES TO SEEK IN A PUBLISHING CRM

If you are working in today’s challenging publishing industry, chances are you could use a few shortcuts for boosting profitability. After all, publishers are masters of creating high-quality content, but great products do not always equate to making more money.

• The rise of independent magazines: ‘It’s never been easier’

It may seem strange that we are seeing a resurgence in independent magazines in an era where traditional print has never been more unstable.

• In a tough ad climate, small publishers are finding success in small donations

Digital advertising is competitive and the subscription business is tough, but digital publishers are finding hope in small-dollar donations.

• How Tom Wolfe Changed Magazines

In the summer of 1973, as I was preparing to enter my junior year in college, Harper & Row published “The New Journalism,” an anthology of articles and book excerpts by the likes of Truman Capote, Norman Mailer and Hunter Thompson.

• The duopoly still dominates, but it’s facing its limits

For years, there seemed to be no end to Google and Facebook’s growing dominance in the digital ad market. Now, there are flickers of light at the end of the tunnel.

• FT launches FT Marketing Services

The Financial Times yesterday announced the launch of FT Marketing Services, a new end-to-end commercial offering from the FT Group.

• The 10 Best Landing Page Builders to Make One Page Websites

You’ve built something new. After planning and polishing, you’re ready to share it with the world. A tweet or Facebook post is not enough. That might get clicks but scarcely the attention your product deserves.

• New York Times Announces Plans to Launch 30-Minute Weekly TV Show

CNN recently reported that the New York Times is planning to run a weekly television series for 30 minutes that “will feature Times journalists at work in the field.”

• Email Subject Lines Cited In Lawsuit Against Publishers Clearing House

Publishers Clearing House, the legendary direct marketing company known for its line “You may have already won,” has been hit with a class-action lawsuit, alleging, among things, that its email messages mislead people into thinking they have a better chance of winning prizes if they have purchased from the firm.

• Voice Interfaces: a complete publisher’s guide

When it comes to new publishing opportunities, voice interfaces are right up there alongside AI, augmented reality and blockchain. But voice interfaces come with their own set of unique challenges and more than just a few concerns.

• Artificial intelligence – an opportunity for publishers?

The rise of artificial intelligence in general, and machine learning in particular, has been an emerging theme at DIS for several years now.

• Can Publishers Monetize Their Digital Technology Expertise?

Recently I sat down with Thorin McGee, editor-in-chief of sister publication Target Marketing, to discuss the technologies publishers are adopting – and in some cases have mastered – to consider how this impacts the marketing ecosystem.

• Joanna Coles on Magazines, Her New Book and the Digital Age

There’s isn’t much left to say about Joanna Coles that hasn’t already been said. Her celebrity within the magazine industry ballooned during her six year stint as editor-in-chief of Marie Claire and then arguably more so during her four-year tenure at Cosmopolitan.

• Late payment in the programmatic industry is hurting publishers

Despite the exponential rise in programmatic advertising, late payment has become an area of increasing concern.

• Hearst Magazines Buys Minority Stake in Gear Patrol to Ramp Up E-Commerce

Hearst Magazines is acquiring a minority stake in Gear Patrol, a digital and print publication focused on products and enthusiast communities, to help the company branch out into more e-commerce efforts to diversify revenue..

• Two years after adopting slower publishing, The Times of London sees 15 percent subscriber jump

The Times of London, which shifted two years ago to a publishing schedule of three daily digital editions, is seeing a payoff in one critical area: attracting and keeping subscribers.

• Apple to launch magazine subscription service

If reports originating from Bloomberg are true, Apple is making a renewed foray into the world of publishing with the launch of a news and magazine subscription service.

• Facebook struggles to promote ‘meaningful interactions’ for local publishers, data shows

INTERACTIONS ON SOME LOCAL PUBLISHERS’ Facebook posts are down by as much as 56 percent compared to the two years prior, despite an algorithm change that Mark Zuckerberg says was deliberately designed to promote news from local sources on the platform.

• National Geographic Unveils Redesigned Print Edition

Maintaining a 130-year-old publication’s place among the world’s most relevant and widely read print magazines means getting a lot of things right

• Instagram Stories have become traffic drivers for publishers and influencers

Facebook’s algorithm change earlier this year highlighted that the audiences that publishers and influencers cultivated in these walled-garden platforms are not their own.

• Google brings ‘Funding Choices’ ad messaging to more countries & adds subscription offer

Launched last June, Google’s ‘Funding Choices’ platform was designed to help publishers recover lost revenue from ad blockers.

• The New York Times has signed up a lot of subscribers. Here’s how it plans to keep them.

My team believes that by investing in the subscribers we have and making the subscription experience better and better, we’ll be able to help all parts of the subscription business.

• Lessons from three publishers in effective use of newsletters

Over the past two years publishers have realised that they shouldn’t take their audiences for granted. Research around loyalty and brand recognition on social platforms found that consumers were less engaged with publishers on those channels than had been assumed.

• Marijuana publications proving to be a pot of gold

Pot publications are one of the few growth areas in media. High Times Media, which has delayed but not canceled plans to become a publicly listed company, said Thursday it is buying Green Rush Daily for $500,000 cash plus $6.4 million in stock.

• Relieved of Its Print Edition, SELF Experiences Considerable Growth Online

Delivered from behind a transparent podium in an opulent downtown Manhattan ballroom, much to the adoration of New York’s media elite, Carolyn Kylstra’s acceptance speech appeared almost cathartic.

• Publishers pursuing international subscribers face market-specific hurdles

Publishers focused on growing consumer revenue will take opportunities wherever they can find them, even abroad. But international markets come with specific challenges, including a low propensity to subscribe, complicated tax issues and lower awareness of U.S. publishing brands.

• Is It Time to Put Your Magazine Out of Its Misery?

Many U.S. magazines are barely keeping their heads above water. And with further advertising declines, more paper price increases, a newsstand system that’s circling the drain and the prospect of huge postal increases, it’s likely to get uglier in Magazine Land.

• Back in vogue: the return of the digital newsstand

The notion of a digital newsstand is nothing new, but 2018 has seen a revival of the concept following several large shots in the arm, as publishers and platforms continue to seek new ways to engage users and monetise their products.

 

• Display advertising continues to be largest driver of digital publisher revenue

Findings from the latest Digital Publishers Revenue Index (DPRI), a quarterly report on UK publishing from the Association for Online Publishing (AOP) and Deloitte, reveals publishers experienced a 5.6% growth in total digital revenue in 2017 compared to 2016, rising to £365.5m. The increase was fuelled by a 27% annual revenue increase from display advertising.

• Agencies are hopping on the blockchain bandwagon

In March, Horizon Media hosted a blockchain summit and brought together platforms to discuss how they are working with the technology. The conference was meant to educate the agency about blockchain as much as enthuse its publisher clients.

• Google’s Header Bidding-Like Tool Becomes Available To All

Google’s header-bidding platform, which it calls Exchange Bidding, become generally available Wednesday to all publishers using DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP).

• Magazine Covers Sell Your Brand, Not Your Issues

Time recently published a story detailing the inspiration women were taking from the 2018 Women’s March to pursue public office. It looked at how the movement attempts to turn motivated anger into political change and was a no-brainer for serving as the cover story of the January 29 issue.

• Email Marketers Achieve Three-Year High Open And Click Rates: Study

Email open and click-through rates are on are a three-year high, mostly because of better targeting, according to a study by The Relevancy Group, collaborating with OneSpot.

• GDPR: The ultimate resource guide for publishers

With GDPR only a matter of weeks away, the need for publishers to get legally compliant is becoming more urgent than ever. However, on certain issues there is confusion surrounding GDPR and its various ramifications.

• Unlocking the Ad Analytics Ecosystem

When publishers consider the size of the digital audience they can deliver to advertisers, the focus is typically on who is visiting their site. But ultimately, success is going to be based on the percentage of that audience that made it over to the advertiser’s site.

• When should a publisher adopt a membership model?

With many magazines struggling to maintain cash-flow and build a solid business model an ability to develop sustainable income streams is crucial. Mary Hogarth investigates where membership packages are the way forward.

• How 3 Publishers Repurposed Existing Assets for New Success

In a December column for Folio:, Nick Giallourakis described the different ways media companies can repurpose content to create valuable new assets.

• ‘An aggressive ask’: Publishers bristle at agencies’ demands for first-party data

Ad agencies using data to retarget publishers’ audiences is nothing new. But multiple publishers said they’re getting more frequent, onerous demands from ad agencies wanting to get their hands on that audience data.

• Back in vogue: the return of the digital newsstand

The notion of a digital newsstand is nothing new, but 2018 has seen a revival of the concept following several large shots in the arm, as publishers and platforms continue to seek new ways to engage users and monetise their products.

• How Facebook’s shutdown of third-party data affects advertisers

Agencies and marketers are scrambling to make sense of the latest Facebook move to drop third-party data.