This week, our interviewee comes from the world of magazines, specifically Hearst Magazines, publisher of 25 US titles and nearly 300 international editions, including Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar.
Earlier this year, Snapchat launched Discover, “a new way to explore Stories from different editorial teams.”
Today, Discover, which counts major publishers like CNN, Hearst, Comedy Central and Vice as content partners, looks like it may be one of Snapchat’s most consequential product offerings.
As Hearst Magazines refines its approach to print and
digital in a quest for more consumer-generated revenue, the publisher has created a new function, creative director of content extensions, and installed veteran David Kang in the role.
Kang is now charged with extending such legendary brands
as Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Good Housekeeping.
The executive was freshly
tapped from Rodale, where as SVP/GM of Rodale.com, he helped turn The Biggest
Loser Club into a $100-million + online diet and health products franchise.
I talked with Kang about his plans for Hearst.
For content publishers to be successful, it’s clear they must learn to monetize their content – not just create it. Nowhere is that more evident than with traditional magazine brands like Time, Inc. For them, the key to success seems to be thinking and acting more like ad agencies than publishers.
And if they can’t think like an agency on their own, they’ll acquire one instead.
Due to the runaway popularity of Hulu, many different publishers are hoping to tap into a similar model for sharing their content online. The latest proposal is a “Hulu for magazines” idea lobbied by Time Inc. The new service would bundle magazine content from various publishers into a storefront that can deliver content to various devices.
Here’s a problem with that. Hulu doesn’t make money right now. And plans to resuscitate the magazine industry by following its business model may be, well, a little premature.
September is forecasted to be a depressing month for magazines this year. Ad pages are down significantly for that month, which is usually the most profitable issue for many magazines. But the economy isn’t the only reason numbers are down. Ad dollars are shifting elsewhere and they aren’t likely to come back any time soon.
Magazine ad revenue is down 21.2% in the first half of 2009,
according to the Publishers Information Bureau, and ad pages at publishers like Conde Nast, Time Inc. and Hearst titles
were down at many publications in September by between 20% and 60%. Usually a rebound from the slow summer months, a slim September issue spells trouble for many publications.
After
releasing September ad numbers (fashion leader Vogue is down over 200
ad pages from September of last year) Conde Nas’t seniro VP Lou
Cona said that: “This is not about magazines, this is about the
recession. Given the media recession and the
overall economic recession, I think we are incredibly proud.”
But there are many factors indicating that magazines won’t be bouncing back when the economy recovers.
That the newspaper business is ailing isn’t exactly news. With some newspapers closing altogether and others doing what they can to deal with still-declining revenue, it’s clear that the newspaper industry needs to adapt.
The internet is increasingly the medium that newspapers are turning to as they try to adapt but it’s not a quick fix.