The digital media companies making magazine publishing news include GQ, Slate, Meredith, and more
We monitor magazine publishing news on your behalf because every day brings new big things in the industry, and because it helps us do a better job helping media companies like yours do a better job of producing more high-quality content.
And, hey, for once, we don’t have any ad blocking news for you –we have good tidings on traffic, digital advertising, and newsletters, by way of Digiday. Let’s dig in!
GQ Makes Magazine Publishing News With Website Traffic
How is GQ rejuventating Portal traffic? In many ways, one of which is cranking out quality content, Digiday reports.
“GQ has been publishing 36 percent more posts than it was was a year ago (GQ said the daily figure varies so it couldn’t say how many it posts a day), so when people come to the homepage, they’re more likely to see something new. It’s also been publishing more posts in the evenings and weekends, when people have more time to read,” Lucia Moses writes.
“GQ introduced a new homepage design this week that it hopes will keep the momentum going. Fashion coverage does particularly well for GQ, so the new design showcases is designed to optimize that. The old homepage used to be a river of content, like lots of homepages are these days; the new one has three spots where stories can stay longer: the hero image and “related stories” underneath and the top spot on the right-hand rail.”
Slate Banks on Native Ads for Half of Revenue …
Slate is counting on native advertising to boost revenue, and it’s working, Digiday reports.
“The online politics and culture publication accomplished this with putting native at the center of its sales strategy rather than treating it as an add-on. Advertising supplies 90 percent of revenue, and native is half of that. Display and podcast advertising still accounts for the other half, although Slate expects display dollars to move towards programmatic, following the industry shift. (The remaining 10 percent comes from other sources like the Slate Plus membership program.),” Moses writes.
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“To prioritize native, Slate hired or retrained its 10-person sales team. Slate Custom, the custom ad creation unit, brought in a new staff under Jim Lehnhoff, the former head of Gawker Media’s content strategy. The 13-person custom unit now focuses on making native ads that are closer to Slate’s editorial DNA of smart commentary. Slate also got more aggressive about buying off-site distribution for the ads, for clients like Jaguar and Chase.”
While Meredith Is Going to Bank on Publisher Video
Meredith is focusing on video, Digiday reports.
“But the high cost of video has publishers looking for ways to be more efficient. Meredith has chosen to emphasize a centralized approach. The company has a 30-person centralized video unit out of a total staff of 3,754. It’s made up of producers, shooters, editors and executive producers,” Jemma Brackebush writes.
“Within that group, some executive producers are assigned to create video in certain verticals such as fitness and exercise that can live across multiple titles. There also are executive producers who focus on key titles, such as Martha Stewart Living, Parents and Better Homes and Gardens.”
Email Newsletter Editors in Demand
How is your email marketing? Do you have someone in charge who knows what they’re doing? We’re big fans of email newsletters of part of a multiplatform publishing strategy, and Digiday reports on how having a strong editor is now a must.
“Publishers are rediscovering that email newsletters are a reliable way to reach readers — and serve a critically important direct connection to audiences that serves as a counterweight to the mercurial algorithms of Facebook. The popularity of email digests is giving rise to a new specialty at publishers: the newsletter editor,” Moses writes.
“The title and its role varies somewhat by publisher. Quartz has a small “push team” that oversees its main Daily Brief newsletter and a few others. Organizing the newsletters in this way recognizes they’re a skill set unto themselves, said Zach Seward, Quartz’s vp of product and executive editor. The Daily Brief now has more than 200,000 subscribers and a unique open rate of 40 percent, he said.”
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To read more about magazine publishing news and other industry trends, visit Digiday.
