At Condé Nast, Where Programmatic Means Premium
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March 24, 2014 Media Industry Newsletter Vol. 67 No. 12 New York, N.Y. www.minonline.com BEAUTY ADVERTISING TURNED UGLY IN APRIL. This might be remembered as when the chickens came home to roost at the women's beauty and fashion magazines. This segment was an exception to the downturns felt by others since the 2011 grace period ended in April with woeful performances by Elle (an Accessories-affected -13.93%), InStyle (-12.90%), Vogue (-13.16%) and W (-11.31%). The men's fashion side fared no better: Details, -19.03%, Esquire, -28.62%, GQ, -13.25%. One question is whether April was a sacrificial lamb that enabled the more important March "Spring Preview" numbers to remain respectable. We may find out in May as the crucial second quarter is when the budgets are set and the effects of holiday-season retail sales become known. Then in June results for September's most critical "Fall Pre- view" begin to be revealed. April was good at Town & Country, where the regular issue's +26.45% dif- ferential was boosted by T&C Weddings' 57.13 ad pages that made the month a +114.45% whopper and the year-to-date +22.48%. It more than offset the handicap faced by T&C publisher Jennifer Levene Bruno and her staff by competing against 2013's Weddings in February, and they are on a pace to better T&C's +19.40% last year. The best April differential also came from Hearst Magazines: Elle Decor's +39.79%. Time Inc.'s Travel + Leisure remained strong at +15.00%, but rival Condé Nast Trav- eler slumped to -3.91%. (boxscores are on pages 8 and 9) Steve Smith's Eye on Innovation: WE DON'T SAY "CHEAP" AT CONDÉ NAST, WHERE PROGRAMMATIC MEANS PREMIUM. The rise of automated advertising platforms online in recent years, especially the "real-time bidding” (RTB) technique of buying and selling inventory, often fills pub- lishers with dread. Generally, “programmatic” has been associated with cheap, remnant inventory, usually with direct-marketing key performance indicators from the usual ad network suspects. Publishers seemingly came into this market reluctantly and only after the rise of agency trading desks made the new reality of automation and demand side audience buying appear inevitable. But there has been a necessary correction lately, as it becomes clear that program- matic ad platforms now embrace a range of inventories and are more about streamlining and automating the process at all levels of ad selling. One part of programmatic, the so-called private exchanges, allow major publishers to segment their audiences across online publications, even using an RTB bidding process, and retail more CPM control by setting price floors and minimizing cannibalization. "The machine buy is not happening" at Condé Nast, says Alanna Gombert, general man- ager, CatalystDesk. “Everything we are doing with the technology helps us book the campaign. The sales are still done by people, not machine." (continued on page 4) • DR. OZ THE GOOD LIFE TO GET HEARST LAUNCH OK IN MID-MAY....... Page 2 • FIT PREGNANCY EDITOR LAURA KALEHOFF IS "ENDEMICALLY" PREGNANT. Page 2 • HEARST, CONDÉ NAST EMBRACE MULU; REMEMBERING PAT McGOVERN..... Page 3 • AN AUTOMOTIVE EYE ON AD RECALL; APRIL BOXSCORES.... Pages 7, 8, and 9 • QU'EST-CE QUE C'EST BRANCHÉ? L.A. IS HOT WHILE U.S. IS COLD.. Page 12 www.minonline.com © 2014 Access Intelligence, LLC. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines of up to $100,000 for violations. PAGE 2 MIN 3/24/2014 HEARST MAGAZINES' "DR. OZ THE GOOD LIFE" WILL GET A THUMBS-UP IN MID-MAY. The prediction from HM president of marketing Michael Clinton is no surprise, because the feedback from the February 4 test issue with physician and TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz included impressive sales from an 800,000 print run. Test two will be released in mid- April with what editor-in-chief Alison Brower says will "have more beauty paging and more ideas." Clinton is already calling Dr. Oz... "the newest leg of our 'triple crown'" of partnered launches following Food Network (2010) and HGTV (2012). Once HM president Da- vid Carey makes it official, the Brower- and Kristine Welker (publisher)-led Dr. Oz... may publish as a bimonthly in September and November before expanding frequency and rate base in 2015. That pattern was established by FN and HGTV. ...AND MICHAEL CLINTON'S "GOOD LIFE" ON MARCH 9 WAS IN ANTARCTICA. There he was near the bottom of the world running a marathon. Clinton is now among an elite 436 that have completed marathons on all seven continents (cumulatively about 184 miles), and among the uniqueness of Antarctica was that the "fans" were penguins–meaning that their "claps" were "flaps." More next week. "FIT PREGNANCY" EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LAURA KALEHOFF IS HAVING A FIT PREGNANCY. For the mother of two, becoming the mother of three was not in Kalehoff's game plan last June when the American Baby executive editor succeeded Peg Moline at the bimonthly FP after its relocation from Northridge, Calif., to New York by American Media CEO David Pecker. After nature took its course (husband is marketing executive Max Kalehoff) with a September due date, she is in the unique position of being "both editor and reader in this exciting time of a women's life." None of Kalehoff's predecessors at the 20-year-old FP were pregnant on the job. "We all can relate to personal experience, but I have learned that the psychology and physiology of each pregnancy is different. What I blog and tweet about may be totally unique from how I felt with seven-year-old Julian and five-year-old Celeste." Further, at 39 years old, Kalehoff makes her pregnancy higher risk and the amniocentesis, sonogram and other tests match what many FP readers will face. "Plus, the fitness and beauty advice that we give is, in a sense, from me and for me." In print, Kalehoff will reveal her pregnancy to readers in her June/July editor's letter (the April/May cover is pictured) and she tells min that she could be on the yet-to-be-de- cided August/September cover. If so, "the message is not vanity; it is 'I'm with you.'" Kaheloff is an admirer of 1969-2010 American Baby editor-in-chief Judy Nolte, whose retirement came just before her hire by successor Dana Points (also Parents editor-in- chief). Kaheloff says that Nolte's personal and professional achievements as an editor and parenting expert are "amazing." DAVID GREGORY AS...RICHARD NIXON. The Meet the Press host turned the clock back 52 years on March 9 after criticism from the Conservative Political Action Conference led to his resurrecting a famous quote by Nixon following his losing the 1962 California governor's race to Pat Brown (the late father of current governor Jerry Brown): Thank God the media's still here because what would they talk about at CPAC if we weren't here to kick around? 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Distributed via email and online. For email and postal address changes, allow 2 weeks notice. Send to: Client Services or call 888-707-5814. For advertising info contact 301/ 354-1629. Contents may not be reproduced in any form without written permission. MIN 3/24/2014 PAGE 3 MULU APP AGGREGATES SHOP THIS PAGE PARTNERSHIPS WITH MAGAZINES For the past year or so, content and e-commerce intermediary Mulu has been partnering with such major magazine group publishers as Condé Nast and Hearst to turn products mentioned in editorial content into shoppable moments for their readers, which translates into rev- enue for publishers. Their Shop This Page plug-in extracts products from the editorial content and links the user directly to the brand or third party e-commerce vendor to turn reading into buying. Now the company launched an iOS app that aggregates those part- nerships into a tool that feels a lot like Flipboard for style watchers and shopoholics. In addition to a very stylish, but wonky presentation, the Mulu app excels in its personalization. The app aims to monitor new content related to selected categories, rang- ing from style, beauty and fashion to gadgets and even books. The default setting scrapes the latest relevant content from a range of sources, but it emphasizes its marquee content partners like InStyle, Cosmo, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Runner's World, Real Simple, etc.