August 14, 2017 | Vol. 70 No. 32 Read more at: minonline.com Data Suggest Mobile Useage Patterns Are Settling Industry may be entering a period of more reliable business models. As the Magazine Media 360º Brand Audience Report has shown all year, the migration from desktop to mobile has seen only modest growth rates. That movement, which we’ve tracked for several years, has been significant to major media in a number of ways beyond merely a shrinkage of the dominant screen. Mobility is a different habit, not just a screen. The basic metrics surrounding mobile versus desktop useage remain generally true—shorter session times across a high frequency of visits. Discovery on search becomes more challenging with limited visible results, and (as ’s historic advertising growth attests) the platform favors social distribution. And of course, the monetization model here has been challenging because mobile CPMs historically have been pressed downward by oversupply and lower conversion rates. All of this is worth reviewing because the leveling of mobile migration touches on all of these aspects of mobility. We asked the MPA—the provider of the 360º data—to run a special report for us comparing mobile audience growth for the first half of 2017 against growth in the first half of 2016. That span helps eliminate month-to-month anomalies. What it shows is that across the total magazine brand universe, mobile growth YoY is not just leveling off, but actually totally flat (-.3%), while desktop audience declined -11.3% YoY. Combined with the fact that video audience growth continues at a pace (+40.7%) that mirrors mobile two years ago, this suggests a new maturity for mobile. Especially notable is that video growth shows increased session times and thus a taste for users to spend longer spans on smaller screens. Meanwhile, most industry sur- veys find digital CPMs edging upwards despite mobile migration, which we think reflects increased conversions (especially for m-commerce), greater reliance on pricier native and video formats and a ceiling on quality inventory. Additionally, anecdotal evidence from a number of publishers we spoke to suggests that mobile search is also maturing. All of this is to say the flat mobile growth rate for magazine brands (combined with these other trends) points to a ripeness and even new equilibrium for mobile. We are likely at mobile saturation. But this is the point where usage habits may be settling rather than evolv- ing and where historically more reliable and valuable business models get built. Continued on page 5 Smart Speaker Owners Really Love Hands-Free Media Ambient computing is a trend not a fad. Media creators should avoid smart speakers at their peril. According to Edison Research’s latest survey, only 7% of U.S. households currently own an Amazon Echo (5%) or Google Home (2%) device. But the hands-free and interactive voice interface they represent is already responsible for 20% of mobile searches and will be the defacto interface for in-car and in-home

ambient media. Continued on page 4

In This Issue Magazine Review: Cooking- O, The Innovative Advertising Group Nine Media Takes a Few 2 Light Reveals its New Look 3 Partnership Program 6 Lessons from Legacy Media

© 2017 Access Intelligence, LLC. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines of up to $150,000 for violations. minonline.com CAYSEY WELTON’S MAGAZINE REVIEW

Editorial VP, Content: Tony Silber CookingLight's Understated New Look ([email protected]) 203/899-8424 A well-executed redesign that might not wow its readers. Group Editor: Caysey Welton ([email protected]) It's tough to stay on top of the number of magazines rede- 203/899-8431 signing their books these days. In fact, just last week we Digital Media Editor: Steve Smith ([email protected]) spoke with Meredith Parent Network's Liz Vaccariello 302/691-5331 about Parent's new look. Redesigns can be done for a num- Editorial Assistant: Jameson Doris ([email protected]) ber of reasons, whether it's modernizing the book to make it Contributing Editor, Analytics: more visually arresting, or improving the reader experience Stacy Hill ([email protected]) or, of course, making it appealing to Millennials. Whatever Business Publisher: Roberta Caploe the impetus behind a redesign, there's one thing they all ([email protected]) seem to have in common these days: they are heavily in- Director of Event Operations & spired by digital media in some way—even if they aren't Logistics: Kate Schaeffer ([email protected]) intending to do it on purpose. Senior Marketing Manager: When I thumbed through CookingLight's refurbished Danielle Sikes ([email protected]) Marketing Coordinator: Zoe Silverman September issue I saw a lot of things I really liked, and ([email protected]) nothing I really didn't like, besides the fact that I wasn't Senior Account Executive: Tania Babiuk ([email protected]) wowed by something new and innovative. But that's okay. Redesigns don't need to make Production some kind of gimmicky splash. In fact, they'd be wise to maintain their brand voice and aes- Production Manager: thetic. The "new" CookingLight does exactly that. Sophie Chan-Wood ([email protected]) Per usual I will start with the entry point. This cover is boring. I'm sorry, it just is. It's yet Graphic Designer: Yelena Shamis another food magazine shooting food with the same bird's-eye view. Yawn. I get it, coming up ([email protected]) with new concepts for a food title is challenging, but as a former professional in the food in- Access Intelligence, LLC President & dustry, I have high expectations and this cover missed the mark and doesn't inspire me to open Chief Executive Officer: Don Pazour SVP, Media Group: Diane Schwartz the magazine. That said, I do really like the way the coverlines are positioned. The simplicity Chief Operating Officer: and organization is just impactful enough without overtaking the image. Heather Farley I'm very impressed with the inside of the book. The TOC has the tiled look that Pinterest Subscriptions/Client Services: 888-707-5814 made famous. The pages themselves are quiet and elegant. It has a very consistent font set List Sales: MeritDirect, 914-368-1090 with beautiful images that are complemented by comfortable white space. And I am aston- ([email protected]) ished by the number of recipes offered up in this issue. That is tangible value for readers and Advertising: 203-899-8498 Reprints: Wright’s Media, makes it worth the $4.99 cover price. I also love the recipe index in the back of the book. 877-652-5295 ([email protected]) The feature well is very visual and also packed with recipes. In many ways, this book re- Editorial Offices: 1761 Main Avenue, Norwalk CT, 06851; minds me of a healthy version of its sister brand Food & Wine. 40 Wall Street, 50th floor, New York, There's probably a good reason for that. The editor-in-chief, Hunter Lewis, is also top editor NY 10005; Faxes: 203-854-6735, 212-621-4879; www.minonline.com at F&W and he tells me that his favorite aspect of the redesign, besides the design itself, is Access Intelligence LLC, 9211 the trove of new content included. The magazine is making an effort to incorporate thought Corporate Blvd, 4th Floor, Rockville, MD 20850; Ph: 301-354-2000 Published leadership into its mission to help readers eat healthier. 2017 © by Access Intelligence LLC. Unfortunately, the advance I received of this issue is sans CookingLight Distributed via email and online. For advertising, which is what I consider to be one of the most email and postal address changes, A- allow 2 weeks notice. Send to: Client important pieces of a magazine in 2017. Now more than ever User Experience Services or call 888-707-5814. For advertising info contact 301/ 354- magazines need to make those pages work hard and have a Overall Design A 1629. Contents may not be reproduced truly endemic feel. To be fair, I will not grade the book in that in any form without written permission. Content Mix B+ Subscription Rate: $1,199.97 category, but I am anxious to see what kind of creative Cook- ingLight integrates into the magazine. Advertising - Overall I think this is a nicely executed redesign that didn't go too far, but also maybe didn't push itself hard enough. Still, Consumer Value A+ it seems very much on brand, and at the end of the day, that's Final Grade A- what really matters.

2 Magazine Media’s Most Trusted Source Since 1947 8/14/2017 minonline.com STEAL THIS IDEA O My Amazon! O Crafts a Novel Partnership Program The September issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, has a special pull-out that features a unique partnership combining Oprah, L’Oreal (the largest U.S. print advertiser) and Ama- zon. Built around the annual O Beauty O-Wards, the section highlights standout products chosen by the editors and for the first time fully shoppable at Amazon. Over 50 items are called out for special notice in the pull-out, on other Hearst sites and at Amazon.com. This is the first time that the O-Wards drove people to a specific Amazon landing page for such a short inspiration-to-fulfillment flow. We’re guessing there’s a fairly strong overlap between O’s readers and Amazon Prime members. An Amazon media buy in the issue was also part of the partnership. In its award choices and the editorial thrust of this series of O-Wards, O emphasized the diversity of its audience and highlighted product winners for a range of hair and skin types. L’Oreal teamed up with O editors to produce five how-to videos that also live on the Amazon micro-site. Publisher Jayne Jamison tells min, “Having teamed with Amazon on our Favorite Things franchise for the past two years, we have a hugely successful model in place. The consumer trust and engage- ment in our brand, combined with Amazon’s one-click-away purchase power, makes for a winning program.” The program also underscores how Amazon is becoming ambitious in all of its business lines about recruiting more content as it evolves into a quasi-media company. Manufacturing brands have long understood that the Amazon shopping platform welcomes their content marketing assets. Consumer brands in the electronics and beauty categories have been pouring supplementary content into their product pages on Amazon for years. According to BloomReach, 55% of shoppers start at Amazon. Yes, that means Amazon beats Google as a shopping search engine. Thus, there is a great opportunity here for editorial content to find a place within the Amazon eco-system.

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8/14/2017 Magazine Media’s Most Trusted Source Since 1947 3 minonline.com STEVE SMITH’S DIGITAL REVIEWS Smart Speaker Owners Really Love Hands-Free Media (Continued from page 1) More to the point, current owners love these devices and have woven them into their everyday lives very quickly. Edison’s survey of over 800 users finds 42% actually own two or more smart speakers, with 45% planning to buy another. Most are in the room or kitchen. Almost half are using them more now than the first month they owned them. This technology is not a gimmick. Proof of that is that nearly two-thirds (65%) of the respondents indicate they wouldn’t want to go back to life without one. And more than two-thirds (69%) have recommended them to friends. Playing music is the most common activity (68%) but general questions (52%) and news (45%) are also among the top four uses. In fact, news listeners average 75 minutes of news listening on their speaker each week. Perhaps most important for media brands, 29% of owners are already listening to the Flash News Briefing feature regu- larly. Only introduced in recent months by Amazon, this lets a user call up a pre-programmed queue of short audio updates from any participating provider. The regularity and automated nature of Flash Briefings makes it an exceptionally promising channel for media brands to speak (literally) with consumers on a daily basis. It’s time to start thinking beyond specific experimental channel testing and towards a more comprehensive audio strategy. A Unique Application: Dunkirk for Echo To illustrate how the smart-speaker channel can be leveraged effectively I looked to gamification—where mobile established its legs as well. A branded content audio game only scratches the surface of a smart speaker’s richer media possibilities, but this first try at interactive audio is impressive. Dunkirk is a choose-your-path adventure where you play one of the three nar- rative strands from the new epic film. I played the infantryman making his way to Dunkirk. With layered background audio of the battlefield and ancillary character voices, the narrator brings you from point to point in your effort to make your way to the Dunkirk beach. He asks you to decide which of two choices to make at frequent interactive points (run for cover, dive in a ditch, go back to the farmhouse, etc.) and then gives you the result. You die a lot. But that is part of the point. Dunkirk succeeds in conveying the role of sheer chance, split-second decisions and persistent peril in the battle experience. The production Dunkirk for Echo values are good enough to avoid any cheesy feel to the choices. The prose and storyline are dense enough to lure us into choosing the alternative “correct” path even when we die. But the User Experience A revelation here is how effective the interactive audio format is as a branded content exercise. Overall Design A It really does convey the core conceits of the film and can be totally absorbing. Social Integration A There is a real opportunity here for publishers to create interactive branded content for clients and make them optional parts of a smart speaker content flow. Mobile Utility - Most important here is interactive voice. Being able to insert commands into an audio flow Monetization A with an ambient computing device allows the user to cue more information from an advertiser, even ultimately direct order an advertised product through Amazon. Say hello to a chattier new Final Grade A chatbot.

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4 Magazine Media’s Most Trusted Source Since 1947 8/14/2017 minonline.com 29876 min Job Board House Ads_Strip.indd 1 4/4/17 10:55 AM THIS WEEK’S FEATURE Data Suggest Mobile Useage Patterns Are Settling (Continued from page 1)

Speed Thrills While many sites crossed the mobile-most Rubicon a And yet as the graphic here shows, double and triple-digit mobile while ago, it was just this year that the needle at Smithson- audience growth continues for a number of magazine brands. ian moved quickly from a 41% mobile share in 2016 to a 54% Interestingly, some publishers credit Facebook and Google’s ac- share now. “One of the key drivers of this growth has been celerant platforms for some of this growth. The Atlantic, which Millennials,” says Chief Digital Officer Bill Allman. Its growth saw its first-half mobile audience grow 40% YoY tells min that in 18-34 year-old visitors is up 45%. Especially strong is its Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles were key drivers of topical Smart News Smithsonian takes on news and trends, this audience expansion. Both platforms promise publishers that as well as its prominent placement on Apple News. their cleaner designs, higher visibility to search, feed algorithms The younger audience that mobile helps capture plays right and faster delivery would increase use. The Atlantic reports not into Smithsonian’s longer-term content strategy of bringing only has it seen “significant growth” from AMP and Instant Ar- both its historical and scientific perspective to everyday life. ticles impact its overall traffic, but that pageviews to the former Allman says the Millennial reader has been especially drawn were up 958% in 1H and 202% to the latter. to its Science section. “Particularly popular is our coverage The other good story is that mobile usage is veering towards on human behavior, animal science, and environmental sto- longer reads. The Atlantic’s widely-read June cover story “My ries. In fact, we have a large content area on climate change, Family's Slave” saw 72% of its traffic coming from mobile devices. species extinction, and other human impacts called ‘Living in Travel+Leisure (+40%) is riding the duopoly platforms as the Age of Humans,’ that grabs mobilized Millennials. well. Time Inc. Director of Digital Research Roger McCleary Steve Smith covers digital trends and innovations as min's digital media editor. says that speed is of the essence on mobile. Instant Articles Send him tips or feedback: [email protected] and AMP have been particularly important—as has a move to Time Inc.’s faster in-house “Element” platform. But T+L content is also inherently mobile, in that its Travel Guides with specific advice and tools to use at travel destinations has been optimized for mobile, map-interface, use. And again, we are seeing video content play a big role in the handheld experience. “T+L made a significant investment in our video output over the past 18 months, and that content seems to perform particularly well on mobile and therefore drives engagement there,” says Mcleary. Mobile’s heavier reliance on social and search discovery is also behind W’s +83% in audience from devices, according to Executive Digital Director, So- cial Desk, Anne Sachs. “W’'s increasing focus on a social-first content strategy has contributed to the brand’s rapid mobile growth,” she says. “As more users read, watch, and share our digital-exclusive content and brand franchises on the native social platforms they’re glued to via mobile, our mobile readership continues to increase. We’ve also seen some strategic search-driven content strategies pay off with mobile growth, both for long-tail con- tent wins and quick-twitch news stories.”

8/14/2017 Magazine Media’s Most Trusted Source Since 1947 5 minonline.com BEHIND THE STRATEGY Group Nine Proves Scale and Personalization Can Coexist A burgeoning digital-only conglomerate has an envious engagement model. Group Nine Media—and other digital-only publishers like it—have become the ire of many major legacy publishers. They swallow up massive amounts of video views and shares on social media, but still struggle with branding and maintaining a loyal audience. Group Nine is taking a page out of magazine media’s engagement playbook by exploring events and launching its own a creative agency. But magazine media should consider taking a page out of Group Nine’s for its ability to distribute shareable media at scale. Group Nine has a portfolio of four brands: NowThis (news), Thrillist (food, drink and travel), The Dodo (animal lovers) and Seeker (science and tech), thus giving it a nice buffet of audiences for advertisers. And its full- service internal creative agency—Alchemy—is responsible for creating custom content for each of these properties. "We're advertiser-supported and our basic business model is about telling stories for brands," Group Nine President Eric Ashman, tells min. "We created Alchemy so we could make branded video, big experiential of- fline events and, we don’t do this as much, but we can even create custom products for sale." Still, this is a digital-only company, so exactly how suc- cessful this endeavor is remains in question. Ashman declined to comment whether the company is profitable. "We're in growth mode right now,” he says. The company formed last December following a $100 million investment from Discovery. "We don't talk about profit- ability at this point." In nine months, Group Nine has become a top 10 Tubular publisher, delivering nearly five billion videos views every month. And the company is seeing over 115 million social engagements every month (up from 70 million in January). Ashman, who was president of Thrillist prior to the brand’s acquisition by Group Nine, says, "what I'm focused on right now is building bigger and bigger engaged audiences and creating more extensions within those brands." At this point, very little of Group Nine's content is syndicated. Ashman says that his brands have mastered the ability to find audiences across the platforms, leveraging the social “pipes” (Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.) to achieve massive reach and engagement. "For us, most important is creating great content, building brands that matter and then doing it at scale," Ashman stumps. "Then, what Alchemy can do is meet with advertisers, learn their goals and then help them tell stories that'll achieve their messaging goals." And although many digital-only brands are still on their way to profitability, they're already taking a massive bite out of the attention economy. Legacy publishers should rightfully be aware of the engagement numbers brands like The Dodo and NowThis rack up. Where companies like Group Nine thrive is in the attention they pay to their audiences. "Last month, for example, we launched NowThis Money in response to a need we observed from our audience for informative content specifically targeted towards young people and their finances," Ashman says. Soon, The Dodo will also be launching a sub-brand for kids called Little Dodo. In addition to new content categories, Group Nine is also delving into new formats. For example, Thrillist just launched its first longer-form YouTube series Food/Groups and Seeker will soon be partnering with Everest VR to launch “Seeker Mode” within the experience. SOUND BITE NEXT WEEK READ MORE “The industry is still growing, in part by finding new ways to create revenue." 'Gimme Shelter:' How One Category Time Inc. Teases More Cost-Cutting -Madeleine Frank Reeves, Senior Editor is Reinventing Itself for Big Gains Amid Revenue Stumble Country Living

6 Magazine Media’s Most Trusted Source Since 1947 8/14/2017 minonline.com