Arguably, the rise in technology print media is starting it's demise. It may take you by surprise if I told you the worst years for most magazine companies weren’t within the past 5 years. In terms of revenue, 2009 was the worst year most magazine companies experienced. However, by 2010, two companies, Advance and Hearst, figured out how to start their comeback. “After four years of declines, three out of the four biggest publishing companies in particular showed signs of recovery in 2010, though revenues have not recuperated to the prior levels of 2008” (Matsa). In the chart below you can see the shift in magazine revenue as it starts to climb up again after a few declining years.
Although most print publication companies are now more stable than in 2009, they have noticeably plateaued and are not seeing much movement in sales. Hearst Magazines, known for its lifestyle/niche magazines and its wide variety of publications, has been on an upward trend since falling in 2009. Two of their most popular magazines are Cosmopolitan and Town & Country. These magazines were not always on top, so the question is…What makes Hearst Magazines so successful? I believe it all started in 2009. Most publishers took their companies towards the growing digital age and started online publications of their magazines. Hearst eventually started an online publication, but it was not their priority. Hearst first trimmed the fat and stopped publishing magazines that weren’t generating sales. They added a new magazine, Food Network, which provided them with a partnership in cable television. Adding this magazine was the perfect launch pad to come out of the 2009 recession for Hearst. “Food Network magazine combines two of the most recession proof categories, cooking and celebrity, emphasizing the work of the network’s star chefs” (Perez-Pena). Do you agree that celebrities and cooking are timeless and people are always going to want to read about them? What other topics are recession proof?
“Size Matters” was Hearst’s next big project. They wanted their magazines to stand out. While other publishers printed smaller magazines to save money, Hearst went in the opposite direction. They printed bigger magazines.“Experts say that the larger size gives pictures an added flair that can appeal to readers and advertisers, and that Hearst has the market clout to gain cooperation from retailers” (Perez-Pena). Does the size of the magazine really matter or Is the content in the magazine more important to you? Why is your favorite magazine your favorite?
The last step that Hearst Corporation took was moving into online publications. Chuck Cordray, the Sr. Vice President and Manager of Hearst Digital Media, said, “ ‘We had the advantage of not having any legacy of old technology, of being able to learn from what others had done’ “ (Perez- Pena). Where Hearst found its success in digital media came from what I will call “teasers.” Most of Hearst Magazines keep their printed material off of their digital magazines; instead they give previews of what can be seen in the printed version. It is working for them. In 2009 a quarter of their new subscriptions came from the online website.
This made sense to me for the earliest years of the digital age, but I am shocked that Hearst has still found success in this method with the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones, but some of the research done by MPA shows why Hearst Corporation may still be finding success. “60% see their overall readership of printed magazines increasing or remaining the same since they began reading digital magazines on their smartphone” (MPA). I agree that magazines are in limbo right now between print and digital media and many consumers are reading both print magazines and digital magazines. Do you find yourself reading mostly digital or print magazines or both? Why?
Hearst magazines give readers what they want, whether it's young adult women and Cosmopolitan or the budding chef with Food Network, Hearst has something of quality for everyone. In most areas of life I find myself spending the little bit extra for quality and this includes magazines. Hearst Magazine is going to continue to succeed because they are engaging people in print magazines by constantly staying ahead and thinking futuristically as to what consumers want to see. Going against the grain, Hearst Magazines was able to set themselves apart from other magazine publishers and will continue to do so. To conclude you will find a video of David Carey the president of Hearst. He talks about the future of Heart Print Magazines and why he thinks the magazine industry is one for young graduates to get involved in. Do you think they will continue to be successful?
Works Cited
Husini, S. (2013, March 14). Mr. Magazine Minute: David Carey, President, Hearst Magazines. Retrieved February 19,2015
Kevorkian,
C. (n.d.). Magazine Media Readers and Smartphones. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
Matsa,
K. (2012). Magazines: By the Numbers. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
Perez-Pena,
R. (2009, May 31). Hearst's Contrarian Strategy Pays Off. The New York Times.
Retrieved February 18, 2015.
Tyler Speed
ReplyDeleteMargret, I loved the post about how Hearst has figured out the way to be a successful magazine company in today’s tech-savvy world. I think that you touched on some key points in that Hearst has grown its digital appeals as well as its television appeal making them more audience friendly and allowing them to hit an even bigger demographic. However, even though you mentioned the fact that this was what Hearst had been doing you didn’t mention the fact that the reason Hearst has managed to be successful as a magazine is because they have figured out the perfect formula for cross-platform integration.
I want to use an example here to prove my point about how smart Hearst has been, so let’s look at one of their more well known magazines Esquire. Esquire is a magazine that has been around since 1933 according to the Hearst Corporation website. It has been one of the top most read men’s magazines out there, but yes it was affected by the growing shift to technology. So, what did Hearst decide to do with it? Well, Hearst realized the potential for this magazine and not only saw the opportunity to connect with viewers from a digital magazine perspective, but they also saw a tremendous opportunity to integrate magazine content into television and therefore they decided to create the Esquire Network. Due to the fact that Hearst never really feels satisfied with their work they didn’t stop there, they continued to enhance their cross-platform integration by creating compelling social media platforms for their fans to engage with. In fact according to one of our articles this could have been one of their smartest moves yet,
“Those who consider themselves “avid magazine readers” are considerably above average in all things social. They also interact to a much higher degree with magazine content and even directly with magazine editors via Twitter exchanges. The majority ‘follow’ a magazine on Twitter or “like” a magazine on Facebook. “(MPA).
Hearst Corporation has been at the forefront of all things in the magazine business and they continue to strive to improve their company through technology. However, if it were up to me I would say that Hearst is particularly missing a huge chance to capture the millennial generation because they are simply not getting on all social media platforms. I look at where the company primarily focuses their attention and I see the typical Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts that almost every other company out there is on. It is my belief that Hearst needs to recognize the growing engagement that their core demographic is having with sites like tumblr and pintrest. As stated in an article written by Ingrid Lunden of Tech Crunch,
“With 1.35 billion active monthly users, Facebook continues to be the world’s largest social network by some margin, but when it comes to picking up new users, it appears to have reached a saturation point. Research out today from the Global Web Index notes that Tumblr’s active user base in the last six months grew by 120%, while Facebook’s grew by only 2%. And in overall member growth, Pinterest took the lead with 57% growth while Facebook’s member base grew by 6%”(Lunden 2014).
So, as this article clearly shows the users on the traditional sites are just not continuing to grow, which means if companies like hearst want to get the engagement and audience that they have been trying to achieve they need to look into the newer social media websites.
In conclusion, I guess I have one question I would like answered, which is; do you think that magazine companies like Hearst are directly affected by the social media trends that our generation continues to grow with?
Work Cited
"Magazine Media Readers Are Social." Mpa, Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Lunden, Ingrid. "Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Platform, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App." Tech Crunch, 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.