Multiplatform publisher Meredith relaunches House & Garden; CNN Politics launches new digital magazine; Whisky Advocate launches new website
A successful multiplatform publisher will consistently look for the next big way to enhance his or her brand, and focusing on digital evolution is one major way to do it.
We begin today’s news with Meredith, which has relaunched House & Garden with a new look and feel. MediaPost reports, “Meredith is bringing back House & Garden in a new incarnation — bookazines — licensing the brand from Condé Nast.”
[text_ad]
“House & Garden launched in 1901 and was shuttered in 2007. Now, Meredith has tapped Better Homes and Gardens editor-in-chief Stephen Orr, who served as garden editor at House & Garden for a decade in the 2000s, to oversee two special issues planned for release in 2017.”
Unlike our next news story for the day, this launch focuses on an enhanced print product, but one that already had brand recognition behind it with an audience accustomed to print. “Orr also noted the trend of high-end niche publications “celebrating the beauty of print.” The longer format of the special issues lets readers unplug and consume editorial in a “leisurely fashion. There are plenty of people who still like the activity of flipping pages through a paper product.””
Next, we take a look at multiplatform publisher Golf Digest and the launch of it’s new vertical ‘The Loop’. AdWeek reports, “April was Golf Digest’s best month of web traffic yet, with more than five million unique visitors hitting the site. The magazine aims to continue that upward swing this month and beyond with the help of The Loop, a new vertical that went live May 9. The mandate of The Loop is to group together what had previously been disparate blog posts and also embrace topics that lie well beyond the sport’s main fairway.”
“Hired to oversee The Loop is Coleman Bentley, who was previously with Hearst and RedRocket. Among the writers contributing to the latest Golf Digest vertical are Grantland alum Shane Ryan and Jeff Vrabel, a regular contributor to Men’s Health and GQ. Last month, the site launched the branded vertical Golf World.”
Lastly, we visit Whisky Advocate, which has relaunched a website for better user experience. MediaPost reports, “Whisky Advocate has uncorked a new website, an overhaul spearheaded by its digital content editor Susannah Skiver Barton.”
“The revamped site has updated its ratings feature, with more than 3,500 searchable ratings and reviews on hundreds of different whisky brands. It now has a text search and allows users to search by category (such as Scotch, Irish Whiskey, American Whiskey) and style (Single Malt Scotch, Blended Scotch, Irish Single Pot Still), as well as by price, score, brand and issue, Barton said.”
It seems part of this redesign focused on connecting with younger demographics, and there are more changes to come. “Barton told Publishers Daily the redesign “is the first step. We can’t share details at the moment, but expect to see much more happening in the digital space going forward.” She added whisky has enjoyed enhanced popularity over the last few years, especially among millennials.”
Are you a multiplatform publisher in the process of launching or relaunching a new website? If you’d like to increase your audience, revenue and profits, we’d love to chat with you about building a state of the art multiplatform publishing system using our Haven Nexus Customer Experience Management System. We’ve helped more than 300 niche publishers grow their business and we would love to help you grow yours.
