February 22, 2016 | Vol. 69 No. 7 Read more at: minonline.com Steve Smith's Steal This [Old] Idea: 2 Playboy's First SFW Issue "Drives" New Advertising Business The Podcast Edition 3 Quartz New App Monetizes Well, Success in on-demand digital media has a familiar feel. But Lacks Indispensability It took a decade, but podcasting finally seems to have found its place in the sun. A true indicator of this may have come when the blockbuster series “Serial” was lampooned 7 Cosby, Trump and Kim K Continue on SNL last season. Even legendary digital laggard Rolling Stone finally caught on to the to Dominate Magazine Readership magic of audio (yep, there is irony there). However, in this next generation of podcast 8 Instagram and Google+: A Tale of innovation, we're also seeing some new ideas worthy of parodying. Two Platforms Continued on page 4 10 How Magazine Brands Are Spending a Night in Hollywood Did Promaulayko Take the Right 'Road'? Shuttered Yahoo Health was no mistake for the WH alumna. Michele Promaulayko was on a career roll in August 2014 when she ended four years as Women's Health editor-in-chief to join the nascent Yahoo Health in the same capacity. Her leadership, along with (now VP, publisher and managing director) Lau- ra Frerer-Schmidt made the Rodale brand hot. It's rate base reached 1.5 million and ad pages grew by 28% in 2013. Despite the company's well-publicized recent corporate problems, including layoffs, WH has stayed the course under Promaulayko successor and protégée Amy Keller Laird. Last week, Frerer-Schmidt told minonline that WH is celebrating its best March in brand history. She also purports that revenue is up across every platform. By going to Yahoo Health, Promaulayko found more success. Women's Wear Daily reported that the site's unique visitors quadrupled to 17.6 million in June 2015 and had maintained a strong average of 9 million since. But Yahoo's financial squeeze is well known (its $29.42 stock price on February 18 was down 36% from its $46.17 fifty-two-week high in April 2015). To ease the pressure from investors, CEO Marissa Mayer closed Yahoo Health and six other digital magazines on February 17. According to WWD, Promaulayko was among the "hundreds of employees" let go in the Yahoo cost-cutting. Nevertheless, she's in good standing with her former WH colleagues, and the digital skills that she honed at Yahoo Health should make her highly desirable to future employers. Even so, there could always be the "What if she had stayed at Women's Health?" question in the back of some minds. But, as we've seen recently in magazine media, Robert Frost's theme in The Road Not Taken (which is marking its centennial in 2016) has resonated with many. Facebook 'Instant Articles' Gains Fans, Opens Platforms Publishers have a lot to gain, and so does Facebook. Either by the evolution of the product itself or sheer acquiescence to the inevitability of the platform distribution model, many publishers no longer see Armageddon in Facebook’s "Instant Articles" project. The almighty social network announced earlier Continued on page 6 © 2016 Access Intelligence, LLC. Federal copyright law prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means and imposes fines of up to $150,000 for violations. minonline.com Playboy Rolls Out Its First (Barely) SFW Issue Trim: 9" Trim: 0.25" Safety: 0.5" Safety: 9" Trim: Media Industry Newsletter No nudity? No problem! Editor-in-Chief: Trim: 10.875" Steven Cohn Safety: 0.25" The March 2016 Playboy made his- ([email protected]) tory in dropping nudity for the first 203/899-8437 Digital Media Editor: time in its 62-year history. That Steve Smith was perhaps expected, given the ([email protected]) 302/691-5331 shift several men's magazines are min undergoing. Editorial Director: Michele Shapiro But what was unexpected was ([email protected]) 646/745-4152 that advertisers played up to it. Stoli Group Editor: Caysey Welton Vodka's back-of-the-book gatefold ([email protected]) 203/899-8431 showed a neckless bottle with the Safety: 0.25" DODGE.COM Editorial Assistant: Jameson Doris Trim: 10.875" caption "The Only Topless Photo in ([email protected]) this Issue." Brand manager RussellTRACKING NUMBER DODVIPM16006 Pareti told Ad Age that the campaign was a perfect fit in JOB DODVIPM16006 CD Micah Walker & Justine Armour AE Stephanie Montoya PUB Playboy TITLE Playboy ACR 4 Pg Gatefold DD Guy Featherstone PM Stacy Grogan ISSUE March 1 CLIENT Dodge AD Robert Kendall AP Amy Berriochoa BLEED 0.125" each side FILE Playboy_Pg1 CW Nick Morrissey PHOTO Various (see usage) TRIM 10.875" x 9" VP Publisher: Amy Jefferies OFFICE W+K Portland SD Denny Robles ILLUS n/a SAFETY 0" each side ECD Mark Fitzloff/Joe Staples SM Joe Favre DESIGN n/a DMAX 280 COLOR Trevor Bittinger and Kyle Pero USAGE VIPER PHOTOGRAPHY: Christian Weber: 1 (one) year, North America, all consumer + trade print mediums, newspaper, brochure, textbook, crm, retail, pop/pos, pr/events, collateral, industrial and Worldwide, all digital a "collector's edition." mediums including social media, internet, mobile, online, email, digital video, etc - for library of images. Usage expires February 16, 2017. ([email protected]) VINTAGE PLAYBOY IMAGES: Various photographer + models: model and photographer rights secured by PLAYBOY directly for 1 time placement in PLAYBOY magazine only. Usage expires February 16, 2017. SIGN DATE SIGN DATE SIGN DATE SIGN DATE Studio Designer Creative Director Account Exec Copyeditor DATE Studio Manager Creative Director Project Manager Art Producer Time Director of Market Development: More historic was the DodgeArt Director Designfront-of-the-book Director Print Producer Client Mechanical # gatefold that made it the first domestic car Laurie M. Hofmann Copywriter Studio Design Retoucher Business Affairs Output % ([email protected]) manufacturer to appear in Playboy since at least 1986. The Meese Commission declared Play- Senior Marketing Manger: boy and Penthouse pornographic then, after pressure from the Religious Right. Danielle Sikes ([email protected]) But the Dodge campaign would have riled the Right a generation ago. This is one indicator Marketing Manager: Rachel Feldman that we're now in a more permissible time. ([email protected]) Senior Account Executive: Tania Babiuk Welcome, Editorial Director Michele Shapiro ([email protected]) Production Manager: In the words of Tom Wolfe, she has the "right stuff" to oversee min's editorial team. Not Sophie Chan-Wood ([email protected]) only has Michele held senior level positions at such publications as Time Out New York, Graphic Designer: Yelena Shamis Self, Seventeen, Glamour, Weight Watchers and First for Women, but her expertise also ([email protected]) extends to consulting with brands on how to create a singular voice for their various plat- Data and Analytics Manager: Stacy Hill forms and spearheading content-marketing projects for corporate clients. ([email protected]) Her min mission will be to champion the industry by ensuring that all of our products Access Intelligence, LLC President & provide critical insight to give you —the industry's leaders—a competitive edge. Chief Executive Officer: Don Pazour SVP, Media Group: Diane Schwartz Chief Operating Officer: A Misdirected Social Focus? Heather Farley Subscriptions/Client Services: The general consensus within magazine media is that the BY THE NUMBERS 888-707-5814 future on Google+ is bleak. Many regional and smaller List Sales: MeritDirect, 914-368-1090 Google+ Engagement ([email protected]) brands have naturally decreased output on the social site. Advertising: 203-899-8498 What's surprising is that, according to our Social Media Box- Reprints: Wright’s Media, scores, many larger brands such as Time and GQ are doing 51% 877-652-5295 ([email protected]) the opposite. Editorial Offices: 10 Norden Place, Time increased Norwalk, CT 06855; 40 Wall Street, In January, these two brands increased their number of favorites with consider- 50th floor, New York, NY 10005; posts on Google+ and saw an increase in engagement of Faxes: 203-854-6735, 212-621-4879; ably more YoY posts www.minonline.com 51% and 1,980%, respectively. (GQ increased its number of Access Intelligence LLC, 9211 posts to the social site by 600% YoY.) Corporate Blvd, 4th Floor, Rockville, MD 20850; Ph: 301-354-2000 Published Parents has increased posts on Instagram and has seen 2016 © by Access Intelligence LLC. Distributed via email and online. For much more engagement as a result, increasing year-over- 22.9% email and postal address changes, allow 2 weeks notice. Send to: Client year favorites by 68.8%. The brand also modestly increased Parents posted more Services or call 888-707-5814. For Google+ posts and received considerably less favorites YoY. advertising info contact 301/ 354- but wasn't rewarded 1629. Contents may not be reproduced But with just 10 posts in the entire month, it seems as though in any form without written permission. Subscription Rate: $1,199.97 the brand is maintaining a minimized presence on the plat- form, and may be balking at a more aggressive strategy. See more on page 8 2 Magazine Media’s Most Trusted Source Since 1947 2/22/2016 minonline.com Steve Smith's App Review Did Quartz Try to Get Too Cute With Its Latest App? Mobility and the app platforms have sparked a small creative renaissance among con- tent providers…or at least among those that grasp the importance of these devices. The mode of content consumption has now so fully distanced itself from print, radio and TV (even desktop Web), that publishers merely port old formats to mobile at their own peril. It's time to reimagine what news really means to people, how it's engaged, discovered and processed.