A forum for the print and
digital publishing industries

• How Publishers Should Tailor Their Marketing to Generational Preferences

I was recently at the Ricoh Marketing Innovator Symposium in Boulder, Colo., which attracted a range of attendees from the print, brand and agency worlds. One of the key takeaways from the event centered around the generational divide — different age demographics don’t just want different messages, they want different messaging platforms and different forms of communication altogether.

• Got A B2B Website? Localize It For Spanish-Speaking Business Owners

Hispanic-owned businesses represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. economy right now. Most Hispanics are fluent in Spanish, and often speak the language with their peers and customers. Yet, B2B web content isn’t translated into Spanish nearly as often as it should be.

• Google rolls out vast pro-publisher initiatives

It’s here. Yesterday Google launched Subscribe with Google – the simple way to subscribe to news publications and maintain access everywhere: websites, apps, even search results.

• How publishers are monetizing their Facebook groups

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that Facebook Groups were a new priority, publishers dutifully created a bunch of them. To monetize them, they have gotten creative, selling sponsorships to brands, using their members for focus groups and eyeing members as potential subscribers.

• Meghan, Harry, and Time’s Silence Breakers Top Best Performing Issues

It’s not always the case that print magazines with the biggest audiences outperform their 12-month readership averages in a given month. But it certainly was in December 2017, when People (adult issue audience: 53,061,000) achieved a maximum score of 140 in GfK MRI’s Issue Specific (IS) Readership Study for its December 11 issue, featuring Prince Harry and future-royal Meghan Markle on the cover—meaning the issue was opened by at least 40 percent more readers than a typical issue of the magazine.

• Bloomberg kicks tires on Fortune magazine

Bloomberg is among potential acquirers who have circled Fortune magazine, The Post has learned.A deal to sell the storied financial title — founded by Henry Luce in 1929 — could come in the next few weeks, according to one source. Others, however, cautioned that a quick sale was not guaranteed, saying the negotiations were fluid

• Why are news publishers pivoting to subscriptions?

Why are so many news publishers pivoting back to subs & paywalls?  After all, they didn’t work for most of them before.  We all know why.

• AN EMERGING CONTENT MONETIZATION MODEL FOR PUBLISHERS

What industry faces a fundamental shift in their business model today more so than publishing? It’s hard to say. The decline of print publishing has been discussed for years, yet the growth in online delivery (and revolution in revenue models) can’t be ignored.

• Apple is buying Texture, the digital magazine distributor

Apple is getting into the magazine business — not by buying magazines, but by buying a digital magazine distributor.

• New York and The New Yorker Dominate Ellie Awards Once Again

NEW YORK—Despite honoring an industry in never-ending flux, much about the 2018 National Magazine Awards (or the Ellies, named for the accompanying elephant-shaped trophy) remained consistent with well-established tradition.

• How Dunkin’ Donuts turns to voice to boost mobile orders

Dunkin’ Donuts is betting big on voice ordering. As of March 14, people can order Dunkin’ Donuts or reorder recent items on their iPhones or Androids using their voice through the Google Assistant.

• How to Launch a Digital Strategy in Less Than 60 Days

When I say “launch a digital strategy” I mean every aspect of digital: online content, social media, e-newsletter, and even text messaging.  A True Digital Transformation. Everything your publication needs to reach an ever-growing digital audience wherever they are across the web, social and on their mobile devices.

• Event Sponsorship Guide (2018 Edition): Quick Tips To Get More Sponsors

How do you attract sponsors looking for the perfect event sponsorship opportunity? Your event needs to offer what sponsors are looking for, and come up with groundbreaking and worthwhile sponsorship packages to attract more sponsorship revenue. You have one chance to impress. Seize the day and get more event sponsors signed up.

• How Publishers Can Use Personalized Print to Better Connect Buyers & Sellers

Personalized print can help customers battle information overload at tradeshows and help spur revenue for publishers – if the supply chain will drive experimentation.

• The New York Times has folded its programmatic sales team into its larger ad sales org

The line between programmatic and other types of advertising has blurred to the point that The New York Times has erased the one between its programmatic and direct sales teams.

• AP to debunk election misinformation on Facebook

As part of its comprehensive fact-checking efforts, The Associated Press announced Wednesday that it will work with Facebook to identify and debunk false and misleading stories related to the U.S. midterm election that are circulating on the platform.

• A Giant, Multi-Dimensional Chess Game: Publishing in the Age of Platforms

Like its inaugural edition last year, speakers at the 2nd annual PubTech Connect conference—as the name implies, focused on the intersection of book publishing and technology—featured a formidable contingent of both new and legacy media representatives eager to share the ways their companies are finding readers and driving new business in an increasingly digitized world.

• Digital With A Chance Of Print, The “Digital-Led” Brand That Still Believes In Print & A Multiplatform Existence

We call ourselves digital-led rather than digital-only because our approach to the brand is, what do we need to do to provide our audience, to provide our readers and viewers and the people who care about us with the products they need that will help them the most? And then the business can sustain.

• Publishers revisit micropayments to build revenue

Micropayments, once heralded as a potential lucrative revenue stream for independent publishers before falling out of favour, are starting to make a comeback.

• To Thrive At Audience Development, Publishers Need to Master Content Marketing

Despite an entire career spent in publishing, I took a brief detour into the agency world, specifically a content marketing agency.

• Google’s New Built-In Ad Blocker Pushes Publishers to Clean Up and Create Better Ad Experiences

At least, in theory: Google Chrome launched its new built-in ad blocker on Feb. 15 in response to the Coalition for Better Ads’ 2017 Ad Experience Report. It’s part of an initiative to improve the user experience and reduce the number of “bad ads” across the web.

• New data shows just how much social sharing has decreased since 2015 (and News Feed tweaks are just one factor)

Publishers may be getting dinged — and in some cases destroyed — by Facebook’s move to decrease the amount of publisher content in the News Feed, but the declines in social sharing have long been in motion.

• ABC Results: publisher reaction

The ABC yesterday released the consumer magazine circulation results for the July – December 2017 period and publishers have responded with their interpretation of the figures.

• The Magic Wand Behind Bonnier’s Secret Of Creating Better Quality Content With Less Workforce… The Mr. Magazine™ Interview With Eric Zinczenko, CEO, Bonnier Corporation…

The notion that print is dead is not accurate. I think print isn’t dead, it’s just different. Gone are the times where you can operate with an inflated rate base or 12 times per year as a standard.

• ABC unveils new reporting standards

Yesterday’s Consumer Magazine report marks a key step change for ABC, revealing new industry agreed Standards that simplify reporting and further support market growth, says the ABC.

• Under the hood: How Chrome’s ad filtering works

While most advertising on the web is respectful of user experience, over the years we’ve increasingly heard from our users that some advertising can be particularly intrusive.

• Axel Springer’s Dr. Wiele on how to win as a digital publisher

Digital media companies may be facing some significant challenges, from taking on the ad blockers through to working out a response to the recalibration of Facebook’s news feeds.

• People Are Finally Paying for Content. Here’s How Publishers Are Capitalizing.

It’s tough sometimes to find the good news stories in the publishing business; more often than not, the pros are outweighed by the cons.

• Print Is Still Big Business in Magazine Media

The last decade has seen massive shifts in magazine media, in part due to digital publishing startups that are competing by creating innovative (and cheap) products that aim to stay a step ahead of ongoing disruptive forces.

• Declining Facebook reach squeezes publishers’ branded-content business

Over the past six months, the amount of money publishers spent to distribute branded content on Facebook has risen dramatically, according to Keywee, a content marketing tool. In the fourth quarter of 2017, spending on branded-content distribution leapt 159 percent year over year.

• Classifieds done right!

Creative Circle and the Newspaper Manager join forces to launch an innovative and affordable classified ad production suite for print and digital media.

• Publishers continue to invest in platforms, but research confirms that platforms give little in return

Digital Content Next (DCN) recently released findings from its second annual DCN Distributed Content Revenue Benchmark Report.

• Time Inc among biggest fallers as women’s weekly mags tumble 11%

Time Inc was the biggest faller out of the major consumer mags despite a promising set of digital subscribers gains, the latest ABC figures show.

• 5 Ways Magazine Publishers Can Maximize Postal Savings

A big party I recently attended illustrates a principle behind what I’ve consistently found to be the greatest source of waste, the greatest source of potential cost savings, and the biggest differentiator between competing printing proposals for all but the smallest-circulation magazines.

• Publishers Continue to Explore Next-Gen Advertising to Support Digital Ventures

If you’ve kept your ear to the ground and monitored news and data about digital news consumption, you’re probably pretty excited about the opportunities up for grabs.

• On the hunt for subscriber growth, US publications look abroad

In 2017, The New York Times’ international digital subscriber base grew to 14 percent of its total 2.2 million digital subscriber base after adding over 100,000 international subscribers.

• Wired halves print output amid growing digital demands

Wired UK has stopped releasing print issues on a monthly basis and will instead to go to press just six times a year, the tech magazine has announced.

• The Sane Way to Manage E-Newsletter Ads

Email newsletters are a big hit amongst publishers. They generate big ad dollars and further engage audiences. While the term “win-win situation” is rather cringe-worthy, writes Mirabel Technologies’ Christie Calahan, it is actually the perfect way to describe them.

• The Death of Newsweek

Newsweek is in the news—raided by the police last month as part of a probe into the owners’ shady finances, then subjected to a crude purge on Monday, when the owners sacked the editors and reporters who tried to write about the scandal.

• Google and Facebook make up less than 5 percent of publishers’ digital revenue

Google and Facebook are the biggest tech companies in terms of advertising and biggest traffic sources for publishers, but they still only account for less than 5 percent of publishers’ digital revenue, a new report from publisher trade group Digital Content Next shows.

• Trinity Mirror agrees £127m deal to buy Daily Express and Daily Star newspapers and celeb magazines

Trinity Mirror has agreed a £126.7m deal to buy a portfolio of titles from Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell, including the Daily Express and the Daily Star.

• The New York Times digital paywall business is growing as fast as Facebook and faster than Google

Times’ online subscription sales jumped 46 percent in 2017 to $340 million. Digital ad sales rose 14 percent to $238 million.

• Being Woke Is Profitable: Teen Vogue Made Waves This Year

Amid white, faux-fur beanbag chairs, trays of artisanal ice cream sandwiches and a glowing Teen Vogue logo, 600 girls and women gathered earlier this month to talk about politics, leadership and social change.

• Publishers eye push notifications in aftermath of Facebook news feed changes

If you’re wondering why you got the same Apple News push alert from CNN a half-dozen times Tuesday afternoon, it wasn’t a coincidence. (CNN said it was an Apple News glitch, something Apple confirmed later.)

• Pivot to Digital: How Two Legacy Publishers Are Embracing Their Futures

One needs no further evidence than the horrific connotations associated among media circles with terms like “pivot” and “restructuring” to know that legacy media’s transition to digital publishing has, by and large, been anything but graceful.

• Here’s how Arc’s cautious quest to become the go-to publishing system for news organizations is going

Arc, The Washington Post’s publishing software, continues its slow march towards becoming the go-to content management system for news organizations, from modest alt-weeklies to multi-paper chains.

• A Publisher’s Paywall Strategy Is About More Than The Bottom Line

While it has been part of a successful core strategy for a few major publishers for some time, the publisher paywall became a hot topic for the wider digital media sector last year, and the trend will most likely continue in 2018.

• Machine Learning Can Help B2B Firms Learn More About Their Customers

Much of the strategic focus in the digital economy thus far has revolved around getting better insights into consumers.

• HOW TO MANAGE E-NEWSLETTER INVENTORY WITH SANITY

Email newsletters are a big hit amongst publishers. They generate big ad dollars and further engage audiences.

• The New Publishing Economy: An Optimistic Case For the Industry in 2018

Twenty-one years ago, almost to the day, the New York Times embraced the “World Wide Web” and launched an online version of its daily newspaper, part of its “strategy to extend the readership of The Times and to create opportunities for the company in the electronic media industry.”

• Rupert Murdoch Tells Facebook to Pay ‘Trusted’ Publishers

Rupert Murdoch is calling on Facebook to pay “trusted” publishers if it wants to carry their news stories and videos, much like a cable company pays networks for their channels.

• Pop-Up Magazine Rethinks the Definition of Magazine Media

Tom Freston, television executive and philanthropist, once said “Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.” Pop-Up Magazine is a living expression of that idea.

• Facebook news-feed changes will cut into publishers’ branded-content revenue

Facebook’s news-feed change is likely to cut into the money publishers can make from producing and distributing custom branded and sponsored editorial videos on the platform, their top source of revenue on Facebook.

• ESW Capital Announces Acquisition of Knowledge Marketing

ESW Capital, LLC, today announced that it has acquired privately-held Knowledge Marketing. Based in Plymouth, Minnesota, Knowledge Marketing provides media and publishing companies with an integrated data management platform (DMP).

• It’s All About Data: How Magazine Media Wins the Digital Advertising Challenge

In an ever-competitive landscape, user IDs and cross-platform tracking are the true measures of your brand’s worth.

• Targeting Consent Is a Publisher/Vendor Team Effort

Retargeting companies were in the industry trade headlines last week, as a couple of the leading retargeters had made efforts to allow users to opt into having their data collected.

• The 3 Hard Truths Publishers Must Face in 2018

With monetization pressures mounting, publishers find themselves at an industry-wide crossroads, and the endless predictions about what next year holds reflect as much.

• City and Regional Magazines’ “Darkest Hour” at Retail

Regional pubs need to be visible in the marketplace, but declining margins make it difficult to justify retailers’ fees.

• How Volkswagen is using artificial intelligence for ad buying decisions

The Digiday AI Marketing Summit is coming up in April and will cover how brands can understand and use AI and machine learning in their marketing.