Digital publishing news for September 10, 2013
The New York Times is reporting that People is changing its subscription model. Christine Haughney reports,”On Monday, the magazine is introducing four new subscription packages. It is trying to attract younger, tech-savvy celebrity fans with a $10 annual subscription to its new CelebFood and CelebWatch apps. Its current fan base, whose members pay about $112 for an annual print subscription, can pay the same amount for either a print or digital subscription or they can upgrade to a $132 package for both.”
“For its most devoted celebrity watchers, People is introducing a $200-a-year package that includes both print and digital subscriptions, access to new online material, a six-month gift subscription for a friend and intermittent gift boxes designed by the editors. The kickoff gift box includes designer note cards inspired by this season’s shirt dresses, an animal-print scarf influenced by the styles worn by Heidi Klum and vinyl nail wraps that give subscribers a glimpse at Rihanna’s style.” This is the perfect combination of published content and physical goods. I bet they sell “advertising” to brands to get placements within those boxes. This is one to watch.
The New Yorker Plays with Natives
The New Yorker has started running content on behalf of its advertisers. Digiday has all the details of this fabled publishers dive into native ads. Josh Sternberg reports, “Sponsored content is being created by The New Yorker’s business side of the house. For example, in August, the publication ran a native ad from IBM about five steps to building a better cloud written by Frank De Gilio, an IBM engineer and the chief cloud architect for IBM Systems and Technology Group. The content is labeled as “Sponsor Content” in a yellowish-orangish box, with another box next to it explaining what sponsored content is. The box reads: “Sponsor content is created by, or on behalf of, our advertising partners and not by The New Yorker’s editorial staff.”
Is sponsored content here to stay?
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Magazine Publishers Love e-Book Singles
Thin Reads is reporting on how a number of magazine publishers have taken to publishing works as e-book singles. Howard Polskin writes, “Since Aug. 16, Discover, Fast Company and Philadelphia Magazine have published significant works of nonfiction that have been released as e-book singles. These developments should be watched closely in the community of print content creators. Any sales success will ignite hopes among magazine and newspaper publishers about tapping into an important new revenue stream based entirely on consumer demand.” E-Book singles aren’t new to publishers but it’s interesting to see the number increase in the number of publishers utilizing this medium.
Allure Pop-Up Shop Upgrades
Ad Week is reporting on Allure’s new upgrades to their Pop-Up Shop. Emma Bazilian writes, “Through a partnership with Quidsi, which owns BeautyBar and Soap.com, shoppers will be able to buy items on an Allure and Quidsi co-branded site rather than having to return to the product’s page on Allure.com. (Allure Best of Beauty branded pages also will appear on Soap.com and BeautyBar.com.) The pop-up shop goes live today and will remain open until the end of October. The site is sponsored by P&G for the third time and carries P&G’s winning products exclusively.”
What’s even more interesting is what they learned about products that were awarded with the Allure “Best of Beauty” seal. Bazilian writes, a “Allure-commissioned study found that products carrying the seal experienced an average sales lift of 9 percent. In a separate study, Allure also found that 86 percent of women described the award-winning products as more effective, while 66 percent were likelier to buy a product with the Allure seal than without one. (Brands don’t have to advertise in the magazine to be considered for an award.)”
