A forum for the print and
digital publishing industries

• Facebook’s Traffic to Top Publishers Fell 32 Percent Since January
  While Facebook makes headlines for cooking up new initiatives with publishers, the actual traffic it’s sending those publishers has fallen sharply.
• Grantland and The (Surprising) Future of Publishing
  It’s dangerous, I suspect, to draw too many lessons from the ignominious end of Grantland, the high-brow sports and culture site that ESPN shuttered this weekend, several months after parting ways with Bill Simmons, the site’s founder and editor-in-chief.
• Lucky Magazine Shuts Down Once and for All, Here’s why it Failed
  On Friday, the handful of remaining staffers at The Lucky Group’s editorial side were dismissed, the final gasp of a publication that once held sway over 1 million readers, many of them young women and avid online shoppers.
• Axel Springer Raises Outlook, Citing Strength of Ad Sales
  Axel Springer, the German publishing and digital media group, on Wednesday raised its forecast for 2015 revenue as increasing sales of digital classified advertising offset continued declines in print circulation and other revenue.
• Google, Apple & Texture Trigger Latest Trend in Digital Publishing — Disaggregated Content
  Every six months, we at Next Steps Marketing put together a Digital Magazine Dashboard to bring you the latest trends in digital publishing from an audience perspective.
• Jane Pratt Shares Her Thoughts on The Future Of Xojane at Time Inc.
  In recent months, Time Inc. has been scooping up digital brands in an effort to reach a millennial audience, including Zooey Deschanel’s Hello Giggles and sports blog network FanSided.
• Tribune Publishing Claims Finances Improving But Records 9.6 Percent Ad Revenue Decline and Slight Loss for 3rd Quarter
  The drama surrounding Tribune Publishing Company management was largely absent as the company reported third quarter results and discussed them with analysts.
• Sage Advice from Publishing Pros!
  The recent fall issue of FOLIO magazine profiled top editors, publishers and influencers in the magazine business.
• New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Announces Succession Plan
  At a staff meeting Monday morning, New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. announced that the company has initiated a succession process, and that a deputy publisher will be named within two years, according to a source.

• Why Publishers Are Using Instagram to Connect With Their Communities
  BBC News, CNN International and La Cronaca Italiana give insights into their use of Instagram to reach new and existing audiences and how they approach news formats on the platform.
• Pulitzer Prizes Open Three More Categories to Magazines
  International Reporting, Criticism and Editorial Cartooning will be expanded to accept print and online magazine entries for the 2016 prizes.
• The Week Launches Junior Edition as First Brand Extension
  Dennis Publishing is launching The Week Junior, The Week’s first paid-for print brand extension, next month.
• The Return to Focus: Publishers Wake Up to the Limitations of Growing Too Much Too Soon
  Pressures to scale are creating a sameness on the Web, where publishers are increasingly covering the same set of general-interest news stories in an effort to capture readers.
• Six Insights Into Future Trends In Digital Publishing
  Nobody knows what the future of the media industry will look like – we can only extrapolate from its current state and hope nothing too disruptive ruins our bets in the meantime.
• Tribune Publishing Introduces Tribune Content Solutions, an In-House Agency Delivering Custom Content Solutions for Local, National Marketers
  Tribune Publishing today announced that it has launched an in-house agency called Tribune Content Solutions designed to deliver custom-content solutions for Tribune Publishing marketing partners.
• Can’t Finish A New Yorker Story Online? The Magazine Will Now Send You an Email Reminder to Come Back
  For as long as The New Yorker has existed, its readers have lamented not being able to get through everything in the magazine.
• Chute’s New All-In-One Visual Marketing Suite Lets Brands Search, Analyze, Publish Social Content
  Visual marketing service Chute has created a suite of tools developed for the enterprise to help brands harness user-generated content for their social campaigns.
• The Newest Key Person at Publishers: Platform Wranglers
  The rise of the distributed publisher has given rise to a new role at media companies: the platform ambassador.

• Google Launches €150m Fund for Publishers’ Digital News Projects
  Google has launched its €150m (£109m) fund for European publishers to tap to develop new digital news projects, with large-scale grants needing approval from a council including Telegraph chief Murdoch MacLennan.
• Hearst to Target Online Shoppers with New Digital-Only Site
  Hearst Magazines has been adapting its traditional magazines to match the speed of the Web, and now it’s starting to apply what it’s learned to new launches.
• The Guardian Tells Brands it Can Drive their Business Goals Further with ‘Fewer But Better’ Ads
  The Guardian claims its future commercial model will be powered by “fewer, better” ads across all of its platforms, telling advertisers it can “do more with less” to achieve their long-term business goals.
• Twitter Announces New Tools, Partnerships for Finding and Publishing Embedded Tweets
  Online publishers are about to get a lot more options for embedding tweets in their stories, with Twitter announcing a new “ecosystem” of products around embedded tweets today at its Flight developer conference.
• Niche Publishing Management: 6 Top Tips for Revenue Diversity!
  With the transformation of magazines into multi-channel media brands, there is greater opportunity for new kinds of revenue.
• What’s Actually Working in Digital Advertising? 8 Publishers on How They’re Bringing in Money
  Many publishers’ digital revenues have been on an upward swing in recent years — but it’s not enough to fill the gaps left by print.
• TNG Shakes Up Magazine Retail Sales
  Shoes continue to drop as the newsstand industry moves, step by step, into the future, led by the giant TNG.
• Bot Fraud Seizes One-Third of Publisher Revenues
  Online publishing is growing fast, and fraudulent advertising schemes are growing right along with it.
• What 3 Publishers Have Learned From their Approach to Paywalls
  The Toronto Star, Bild and The Times and Sunday Times give insights into their take on subscription-based models, mulling over their successes and failures

• Publishers Are Finally Getting The Hang of Mobile Ads, Close The Gap With Desktop
  Publishers’ mobile efforts are starting to pay off with higher prices for their ads, according to new data from PubMatic.
• Publishing Management: The Rich Media Gold Mine
  In the past, rich media advertising has been viewed as too complicated and too expensive.
• How The Digital Revolution Has Been Disruptive For Publishers’ Major Vendors
  Paper, Print, Retail & the USPS have felt the impact of digital migration.
• Imagine Announces Launch of New Technology Magazine, Gadget
  Fans of gadgets, innovations and ground breaking technology have been given an exciting new fix to feed all their tech needs, with the arrival of Gadget magazine – Imagine Publishing’s latest technology title.
• Five Predictions for The Future Of Publishing
  Apple’s battle with Facebook and deals with tech companies will shape the face of the publishing industry in the coming years.
• Bloomberg Markets Reduces Print Frequency
  Bloomberg Markets, the monthly magazine distributed to all Bloomberg Terminal subscribers, will re-launch in 2016 with a reduced number of issues, says editor-in-chief John Micklethwait in an announcement to Bloomberg’s American-based staff.
• Gannett to Buy Journal Media Group for $280 Million
  Gannett, the publishing company that owns USA TODAY and media businesses in 92 local markets, said late Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Journal Media Group for about $280 million, following through on a strategy of acquiring additional local news outlets after it was spun off from its former parent in June.
• Publishers Embrace Social Platforms, Mobile
  In line with the classic advice to “fish where the fish are,” publishers are embracing social platforms and mobile media along with their audiences, but remain wary of some potential pitfalls associated with these channels, fast on their way to dominating media consumption.
• Government May Not Enforce Plan to Make Publishers Pay Both Sides’ Libel And Privacy Costs
  Culture Secretary John Whittingdale has said he is “not persuaded” by a law forcing publishers pay both sides’ legal costs in libel and privacy cases.

• Twitter Opens Pre-Roll Video Ad Marketplace
  Twitter is bolstering its video ad capabilities with a new feature enabling marketers to easily place pre-roll ads in professionally-produced video content across its platform, the company announced Thursday.
• How to Sell Online Paid Content Successfully
  You are trying to sell Sponsored, Paid, Native, Special Promotion–it’s all the same thing.
• Imagine Announces Launch of New Technology Magazine, Gadget
  Fans of gadgets, innovations and ground breaking technology have been given an exciting new fix to feed all their tech needs, with the arrival of Gadget magazine – Imagine Publishing’s latest technology title.
• Punching Up: How Smaller Publishers can Compete with The Condés
  Great audience data is the key to the marketing kingdom. Big publishers have oceans of the stuff.
• Magzter Drops Price of Netflix-Like ‘All-You-Can-Read’ Magazine Service to $7.99 Per Month
  The digital newsstand service Magzter announced today that it is reducing the price of its all-you-can-read magazine service to $7.99.
• All UK Red-Top Tabloids Lost Sales by 10 Per Cent or More Year on Year Last Month Ahead of Star Price Cut
  Every UK national newspaper lost print sales in September with red-top tabloids falling the fastest.
• The Aftermath of a Post-Print World
  Speculation about print’s demise began more than a decade earlier, but in 2009, publications started to make news of their own when their printing presses fell silent.
• Publishers, Amazon Not to Blame for Author Poverty Wages
  After polling 1,674 Guild members, Mary Rasenberger, executive editor at the Authors Guild, created a splash a few weeks ago by claiming that most of its members’ annual earnings were below the federal poverty level of $11,670.
• Medium Opens up Publishing API, Adds WordPress Plugin, and Adds New Content Partners
  SAN FRANCISCO — Publishing site Medium has unveiled a slew of updates today for its iOS and Android app at an event focused on showcasing how to build a sustainable platform.

• AOP Census Reveals New Threats to Digital Publishing Industry
  The latest findings from the AOP’s seventh annual Content and Trends Census reveal ad blocking is seen as a threat to the publishing business model (65%) ­ the first time the danger has appeared since the census began in 2006 with one in five (19%) citing it as the most significant problem.
• Meredith Partners with Beekman 1802 to Launch New Magazine
  Meredith is rolling out another collaborative magazine effort.
• Ad Sales: Selling Print Ads in A Digital World
  Yes, online advertising is gaining traction every year, but that doesn’t mean print can’t still be a strong media channel for your advertising customers.
• Emap Brand to be Scrapped as all Its Titles Move Digital-Only
  Publisher Top Right to move business-to-business brands including Drapers, Retail Week and Nursing Times out of print over the next 12 to 18 months.
• Next Issue Media, The ‘Hulu For Magazines,’ Tries A New Name And A New Idea — Make Your Own Magazine
  Next Issue is a “Hulu for magazines” concept — a service, jointly owned by some of the world’s biggest publishers, that lets you read digital versions of magazines produced by some of the world’s biggest publishers.
• Press Release: Mary G. Berner to Leave MPA After Completing Three-Year Term
  At the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Magazine Media 360° brand audience report, MPA announces that Mary Berner will be leaving her position as CEO with the company.
• Daily News Chief: Paper will Continue in Print Seven Days a Week
  The Daily News has no plans to reduce the frequency of its print edition, according to a top executive at the tabloid.
• Time Inc and Warner Brothers Strike Deal to Create One-Off ‘Broadsheet’ to Promote The Intern
  Time Inc-owned fashion title Look has partnered with Warner Brothers Pictures UK for a one-off broadsheet paper to promote new comedy The Intern.
• Publishers tap Twitter for Snapchat growth
  For the handful of publishers that get top billing on Snapchat Discover, attracting new viewers has been pretty straightforward. Everyone else has had to work a bit harder.

• The Podcast Opportunity for Publishers
  This emerging audio medium may be the next new frontier for the industry.
• Tips for Agencies Thinking of Selling
  Don’t Always Take the Highest Offer, and Don’t Make Big Changes in Year One
• Time Watching Videos Online Will Rise to an Hour a Day – Report
  More than half of viewing is done on mobile devices, says ZenithOptimedia, which also predicts a fall in television viewing next year.
• 12 Hard Truths About Mobile Media
  These are going to sting a little. You ready?
• Publishers Set Up Retail Operations to Diversify Revenue
  Given the challenges of digital media, commerce is a tempting way for publishers to create new revenue streams by extending their brands.
• Ad Sales: Get Organized to Sell!
  Here are 6 handy tips to keep you organized for your ad sales work week, armed with a carefully planned schedule to boost your sales.
• Right Here, Right Now
  With so much energy devoted to discovering the next best revenue generator in the newspaper business, it’s easy for publishers to lose sight of advertising strategies that are working for them right now.
• Mutually Assured Content
  In 2015, the illusion of audience ownership is becoming harder to sustain.
• Your Postal Rates Are Going Down…Eventually
  Exigency rate recovery limit increased, will continue until next spring.

Don’t Always Take the Highest Offer, and Don’t Make Big Changes in Year One

• 16 Super Revenue Ideas for Digital Niche Magazines
  16 smart revenue ideas from Niche Brain Trust to get you going. 
• One Year in, Slate Draws 9,000 Paying Subscribers
  For Slate, getting readers to pay for content was going back to the future.
• 3 Things You Need to Know About Pwc’s Magazine Media Outlook
  Digital growth coming, B2B magazines could strike it big in new markets.
• Meerkat, Periscope and the Video Streaming Opportunity for Publishers
  Periscope and Meerkat apps allow publishers to create intimate and exclusive experiences for their readers.
• Sales Champions – Newspaper Advertising Teams Find Success with Winning Revenue Strategies
  In the hard-hit market of newspaper publishing, it can be difficult to find successful revenue generating sales and advertising solutions.
• Mail on Sunday Overtakes Sun on Sunday
  DMGT-owned title rewarded with 3.5% circulation rise after strong promotions, as most middle-market and tabloid titles suffer sales declines
• Map of UK’s Local Newspapers and Websites Reveals London News Gap
  London is one of the least covered region in the UK by local newspapers according to new research by Press Gazette.
• Mobile Ads Boost Physical Store Visits by 80 Percent in First Day of Viewing
  A new report from San Francisco-based mobile intelligence firm NinthDecimal, released today, shows that mobile ads on smartphones and tablets are having a big effect — and its impact is growing.
• How to Look for Magazine Sales Leads in All the Right Places
  For sales reps it can be that parched time of the sales cycle when your publisher reminds you daily how thirsty they are for new leads AND quality leads.

16 smart revenue ideas from Niche Brain Trust to get you going. 

• What Makes A Good Digital Magazine
  Create something the reader can read: Publishers often skip this important step and create a digital replica, sending the message that they really don’t care if anyone reads the digital edition. 
• Why Publishers Struggle to Monetize their Paywall Data
  Publishers launch paywalls with the primary goal of getting more revenue from consumers.
• The Apple Watch Will Expose How Little Publishers Know About their Readers
  Apple’s new wearable may or may not be a big hit. But either way, it’s a harbinger of a new class of truly personal devices whose users will demand customized experiences.
• Secrets of Selling Social Media to Traditional Advertisers
  How do you overcome the closed minds of these advertisers?
• Adobe Issues Critical Update to Digital Editions App; Apple Said to Add Rewards to Apple Pay
  The update brings the app up to version 4.0.3 and also includes, the app description states, “enhanced support for EPUB3 features.”
• Global Newspaper Readership Falls More than 25% in Four Years
  The average amount of time spent reading newspapers fell more than 25% globally from 2010 to 2014 – but the popularity of newsprint has proved resilient in the UK with just a 3% decline over the same period.
• Ad Blocking Software Has Figured Out Native Content, Threatening the New Media Economy
  On the ad blocking front, the situation keeps getting worse. Until now, the media industry pretended to ignore the problem, perhaps waiting for a miracle cure.
• Magazine Publishers, Are You Ready to Sell Your Baby?
  What are 3 smart steps niche publishers should take before they begin the selling process?
• Budgets Don’t Lie: Content and Native are Becoming Industry Necessities
  For a while, content marketing and native advertising budgets were cobbled together from the leftovers  of more traditional digital allocations, the tactics seen more as auxiliary than central to campaigns.

Create something the reader can read: Publishers often skip this important step and create a digital replica, sending the message that they really don’t care if anyone reads the digital edition. 

• Slow Load Times are Killing Publishers in Mobile
  Publishers are more at home tweaking headlines and ledes than the backend performance of their webpages. But the rise of mobile is forcing them to shuffle their priorities.
• Digital Publishing: Generation Right Now
  What can newsrooms do to capture this huge pool of news consumers?
• The Financial Times bets on new ad format
  Brands pay for time, not pageviews or clicks.
• Children rediscover joy of reading courtesy of digital revolution
  Amidst much fretting over the impact of digital technology on the lives of young children one positive side effect may be an increase in literacy, according to the National Literacy Trust.
• Digital breakthrough: Times advertisers agree to pay same rate for tablet edition as print
  The agreement, reached with a number of key ad agencies, is being seen by insiders as a major breakthrough in terms of making money from digital journalism.
• How digital publishers measure their influence
  In the old days, press mentions and scoops were the currency of publishers.
• ABC: Daily traffic grows for Metro, other nationals struggle
  The commuter title reports an 8.7 per cent growth in daily average web readers, while the Daily Star lost a quarter of its total monthly browsers.
• Ad Sales Pros, Are You Ready to Propose?
  5 Quick Tips to Get a “YES!”
• Email marketing technology is ridiculously complicated
  The plumbing required to make sure your customers get that coupon or white paper to their inbox on time is only growing in complexity.

Publishers are more at home tweaking headlines and ledes than the backend performance of their webpages. But the rise of mobile is forcing them to shuffle their priorities.