New (well, for some) model, more success: Publishing magazines makes good business sense when you put consumers first
Helping companies maximize the vast potential of publishing magazines is not something we do for fun, although we definitely enjoy our work.
It’s our lifeblood.
When we set out more than a decade ago to construct the most profitable approach for publishing magazines, we took a big risk on how the new media industry would evolve. But it was a calculated risk, literally, as we broke down every aspect of digital publishing and then built it back up based on data analysis, audience behavior and consumer magazine stats, and the market we watched take shape during our combined 130 years’ worth of experience.
Still, no one can predict the future. But now we know with certainty and can say with confidence that the Mequoda Method is the paragon of multiplatform publishing, which is gaining traction every day as the path to victory for magazine publishers across the country and around the world.
Like any business, the customer comes first, and their tastes, preferences, and habits form the foundation of our Mequoda Multiplatform Media Management System, which integrates the four principles of Attract, Capture, Engage, Monetize (ACEM). You can ask our Mequoda Members how it’s working out for them.
Every day, we encounter another article that touts multiplatform publishing strategy as a sustainable business model, which is validating, but recently we came across an early contender for best analysis of the year, by Folio: Vice President Tony Silber. In the piece, Silber shows how the consumer is now the center of the publishing universe. We couldn’t agree more, and can’t recommend Silber’s article highly enough. So, let’s start there this week!
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The Modern Model for Publishing Magazines Is Proving Profitable
With the slow fade of print products into the background of publishing magazines, the need for a new model has emerged, Folio: reports.
“Clearly, new sources of revenue are where the action is. In fact, the MPA, the New York City-based association that produces the AMMC, used to report ad pages for its members, the 250-or-so largest consumer magazines, but that’s no longer the focus. Now, audience engagement is. For decades, the Publisher’s Information Bureau (PIB) numbers of tracked ad pages and estimated rate-card revenue served as the measuring stick for the health of the industry in the aggregate and measured individual magazines against each other and against prior years,” Silber writes.
“PIB went away last year. The industry instead instituted what it calls Magazine Media 360°, which tracks user engagement as measured in print and digital circulation, mobile and web users, and video viewings. It also has a related social-media report, tracking friends, followers and the like. Together, those metrics track user engagement –which, according to the official line – is a better barometer by far than ad-page performance. And naturally, user engagement, as measured by the Magazine Media 360°, is off the charts, with magazine brands reaching a staggering (but frequently double-counted) 1.7 billion people last year.”
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Interview With Time Inc. Digital Editorial Director Will Lee
Folio:’s been on a roll recently, as evidenced by another recommended article: an extensive interview with People.com and EW.com Digital Editorial Director Will Lee.
“For me, it’s fundamentally about new storytelling for new audiences and driving new revenue streams. It’s important for us to figure out how to create great content for brands. We’re great storytellers, and brands should want to align with us because we can do that better than any of our competition. From a new audiences perspective, we need to be ubiquitous. Whether it’s with mobile, whether its Snapchat Discover, and the seven other apps and destinations that we’ve never heard of but are being created somewhere right now, we’ll be there,” Lee told Tom Zind.
“We have to be early adopters and execute well on different platforms. From a new storytelling standpoint it’s important for us to figure out what the atomic unit of content is for audiences today. It’s probably not simply an article with a headline and 300 words of text. It could be video, it could be a Snap. There are many, many ways to tell stories and relay news. Whether its Amazon Echo, or the front of your refrigerator or the bathroom mirror those are all places you’re going to consume content, we have to figure out how to tell our stories on all of those surfaces. I’d like to say I’m able to look into the future, but unfortunately the future is upon us.”
Conde Nast Acquires UK Tech Company
In addition to Time Inc. digital, Conde is keeping up the pressure when it comes to mergers & acquisitions, Folio: reports, purchasing startup Poetica.
“In addition to acquiring the platform, Condé will also inherit Poetica’s leadership and team of engineers, which include co-founder and chief executive officer Anna Maybank (formerly of Bethnal Green Ventures) and co-founder, chief technology officer Blaine Cook (founding engineer of Twitter) and co-founder and chief product officer James Weiner (formerly of the UK’s Government Digital Service),” Caysey Welton writes.
“Building out a robust, proprietary CMS has been a growing trend around publishing over the past few years, with companies like Forbes and Say Media taking it a step further buy monetizing their platforms outside their own companies. But for now, it seems Condé is building up copilot to serve its own needs.”
If you love publishing magazines as much as we love helping companies with publishing magazines, we should talk. Soon. Contact us today!
To read more about the industry trends behind publishing magazines and others news, visit FolioMag.com.
