Past the Disruption and on to the Money

Magazine media brands have the wind back in their sails, and it’s driving a renewed focus on print ads.

“Traditional magazine companies believe they have weathered the storm of disruption over their business,” writes Sarah Sluis in Ad Exchanger.  “They’re now ready to look ahead and use their subscription data to drive results for advertisers.”

Sluis reported on the recent AMA conference in NYC, noting the comments of some of the panelists.

“I think the businesses that got disrupted first are in a good position,” said David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines. Carey’s referring to the fact that publishers now understand how to leverage all their digital data, using it make advertising irresistible for their partners.

“When consumers check AllRecipes while buying ingredients at the store, for example, that offers an opportunity for food companies to suggest their product in a way that’s helpful for the consumer,” Sluis reports.

This isn’t just happening in the digital space. In fact, it works best when brands have a primary product in print, Carey explains. “We carry higher CPMs for our brands that are first in print and then go to digital versus those that are only digital,” Hearst’s Carey said. “The print product makes it more premium in digital.”

Print is the premium ad channel over digital, and rightly so. As Raeanne Meyer writes in RJA News, the evergreen nature of a print ad combined with highly selective targeting offers real advantages for advertisers.

“Even some seemly obscure topics have editions that are dedicated just to them,” Meyer explains. “Most often audiences of niche publications are loyal readers who are eagerly looking for news and information about activities and subjects that they care about and have a vested interest in.”

It’s refreshing to see the industry coming together and seeing a future in which print continues to remain the core of the magazine business.