Subscription publishers The New York Times and The Atlantic launch new content initiatives; STIR magazine launches digital edition and archive
Sometimes we’re amazed by content offerings we see subscription publishers launch. A recent content initiative from The New York Times applies, and it will be the first news story for the day. The New York Times is officially using Twitter content in their print publication. Nieman Lab reports, “The paper’s newly redesigned pages A2 and A3 will highlight some of that content — and the “huge scope of activity that’s going on in the world of The New York Times on any given day,” said Jake Silverstein, the editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine and one of the leaders of the redesign.”
Why has the publication decided to go in this direction? The article continues by addressing that with Jake Silverstein, the editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine and one of the leaders of the redesign. “Much of our innovative energy in recent years has gone into reimagining our digital report, and obviously, that’s where the action is. But in the last year, we’ve been trying to apply some of those energies to the print report as well, and think of ways to innovate that and make it feel new and fresh and newly engaging.”
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“Part of the goal was to create something that was entirely visible in one open spread of the newspaper, that used some of the rhythm and pacing and design of a magazine front-of-book — the difference being that the whole front-of-book is laid out before you turn any pages, so your eyes can wander around small content and small features, latch on to one thing and then drift over to the next thing. There’s something leisurely and pleasurable about that. It’s kind of an appetizer course before you get to the rest of the paper.”
Next, we move to subscription publishers at The Atlantic, which is launching a new archive on its website, and Folio has the story. “The Atlantic isn’t interested in preserving its 160 years worth of content for just posterity’s sake, nor is it interested in keeping it locked up behind a paywall for only subscribers to see if they feel compelled. In fact, the brand has developed a new way to get extra mileage out of its generations of content while also monetizing it and offering readers a new experience in content consumption.”
“The concept is actually pretty simple. Visitors land on the Life Timeline homepage and just enter their dates of birth. From there, readers are served between 10-13 milestones that happened during their lifetime, which The Atlantic was there to cover (unless a reader was born before 1857).”
The project also incorporates a partnership. “Even better, the project is sponsored by National Geographic in order to promote its “Origins: The Journey of Humankind.” The buy includes two pieces of native content for every timeline launched by a user, plus more traditional ad units wrapped around The Atlantic’s adjacent archival content.”
While sticking with the theme of archives, we move to a publisher launching a digital edition and an archive. This comes from STIR magazines, which InPublishing is reporting on. “Partnering with Exact Editions, STIR has introduced an online subscription package for individuals and institutions alike. Digital subscribers will be able to access the complete archive of back issues from the first issue in 2013, as well as each new issue of the magazine, on a range of digital platforms including web, iOS and Android apps.”
“Subscribers, whether an individual or an academic institution, will be able to instantly search a wealth of material with Exact Editions advanced search engine. Full IP authenticated access is available for the complete archive so that each article of every issue can be browsed with unlimited usage.”
Subscription publishers clearly have a lot of opportunity in front of them in the digital age and are taking advantage of those opportunities.
