Is it a true content site or just marketing print subscriptions?
VanityFair.com caught our attention because of a comment by Jason Oliver Nixon on Women’s Wear Daily that VanityFair.com got 1,000 new print subscribers on the first day that the site posted the magazine’s cover. We immediately asked Terri Edmonston to do a website design review of VanityFair.com to ascertain what they were doing so well (or not so well). We were determined to gather some website design tips from these folks.
The most pressing question Terri had was about the strategy of the site. Is it a true content site or just marketing print subscriptions?
Terri concluded that the average consumer isn’t going to VanityFair.com solely to subscribe—that just isn’t their primary goal. The user comes for content, and this site just doesn’t provide enough.
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She summarized her review into VanityFair’s A-list and B-list moments. We think these moments also serve as website design tips that every publisher, regardless of medium or market, could learn from.
- A-List:
- Great subscription marketing strategy: the site increases print subscribers with multiple points of entry to the order form.
- Exclusive multimedia content: getting additional, webified content from existing editorial efforts creates a reason to visit the site and extend the brand reach.
- Community: The chattering classes are given a forum to express their witty opinions.
- B-List:
- Content: a shallow site is too easy to love and leave.
- Website Design: confusing navigation makes what content there is, harder to find.
- Relationships: with no relationship-building devices, readers can’t even pretend they’re in the VIP room.
Terri concludes that VanityFair.com is sooo… almost. The negatives all point to a lack of attention and resources. Then we look at the positives. The excellent writing and photography from the magazine make a great online product. The B-roll is a brilliant use of resources to create additional content. The forums create a fun community space for an intelligent and chatty audience. From a marketing point of view, the intense focus on gathering new print subscriptions is what earned the site a review in the first place.
