Weekend Reading: Hearst Steps Up Interactive Strategy
By Staci D. Kramer - Fri 17 Aug 2007 06:35 AM PST
In the first half of 2007, Hearst’s relatively new digital media group launched 19 sites (14 web, 5 mobile)—all part of its post-iVillage super-charge strategy to engage readers across platforms and especially to drive younger readers to print. Chuck Cordray, VP and GM of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, explained to MediaShift’s Mark Glaser in a lengthy interview: “This is about brand reinforcement, not about cannibalization.” Cordray said the likelihood of an online visitor to subscribe to a print magazine has gone up by 50 percent and that some sites have more than doubled subscription interest.
The company is building its online universe in other ways, too—launching online-only sites and spending on acquisitions, including Kaboodle and UGO in recent weeks, eCrush before that. Before the group was created in March 2006, when its investment in iVillage essentially was the online strategy, everything was outsourced and technology was rudimentary, to put it mildly. In the time since, Digital Media has implemented circulation and content management systems that intersect, allowing maximum flexibility for marketing subscriptions. Cordray: “It was eight to 12 offers, and now we’re running at 150 offers per title. Some of it is creative rotation. As you went page to page on iVillage, the creative to sell subscriptions was the same no matter how deeply into the site you went. Now it changes page to page.”
Sales: 80 percent of online sales are go across more than one site; the rest are digital programs sold on the print side across brands. Cordray told Glaser “an online advertiser who just wants one site is quite rare for us.” They want demos; the brands follow.
Build or buy: Hearst is building out its own food resources (a new version of Recipe Finder is due next month) but “would love at some point to do a food acquisition ... In some cases, you’ll see us do both, buy and build. One site’s not going to win everything.”
More over at MediaShift.
Posted in: Advertising, Broadband, Companies, Hearst, Media, Magazines
