INNOVATION IN MAGAZINE MEDIA IN MAGAZINE INNOVATION INNOVATION IN MAGAZINE MEDIA 2016-2017 WORLD REPORT A SURVEY BY INNOVATION MEDIA CONSULTING FOR FIPP – THE NETWORK FOR GLOBAL MEDIA JUAN SEÑOR 2016-2017 WORLD REPORT WORLD 2016-2017 JOHN WILPERS JUAN ANTONIO GINER EDITORS INNOVATION IN MAGAZINE MEDIA 2016-2017 CONTENTS 3 90 WELCOME FROM FIPP’S CHRIS LLEWELLYN: 5 What’s the biggest obstacle to change? EDITORS’ NOTE 6 A how-to guide to innovation CULTURE 10 TREND SPOTTING 90 Innovation starts How to spot (and profit with the leader from) a trend with digital ADVERTISING 18 VIDEO 104 How to solve the How to make great videos ad blocking crisis that do not break the bank SMALL DATA 32 OFFBEAT 116 How to use data to solve How to inspire, entertain, all your problems provoke and surprise DISTRIBUTION MODELS 46 ABOUT INNOVATION 128 How to distribute your content Good journalism is where your readers are good business MICROPAYMENTS 58 ABOUT FIPP 130 10 How micropayments can Join the conversation deliver new revenue, new readers and new insights MOBILE 72 How to make mobile the 72 monster it should be for you NATIVE ADVERTISING 82 How to succeed at native advertising 116 ISBN A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS BY 978-1-872274-81-2 Innovation in Magazine Media 2016-2017 World Report - print edition 978-1-872274-82-9 Innovation in Magazine Media 2016-2017 World Report - digital edition ON BEHALF OF Paper supplied with thanks to UPM First edition published 2010, 7th edition copyright © 2016 Printed on UPM Finesse Gloss 300 g/m² and by INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group and FIPP. UPM Finesse Silk 130 g/m² All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any Proudly printed by Celeritas Solutions form without written permission of the copyright owners. THE INSIDERS ARE TALKING. ARE YOU LISTENING? A must read for publishers looking to capitalise on the latest trends, technologies, strategies and practices in digital publishing. Visit www.pressreader.com or download the PressReader app Brought to you by INNOVATION IN MAGAZINE MEDIA 2016-2017 INTRODUCTION 5 The biggest obstacle to change? Culture “How we had done things before were not likely to work as well in the future” elcome to the 7th edition of our Innovation in Magazine Media World Report At FIPP’s World Congress, held in Toronto in October 2015, there was much talk on how magazine media companies were changing to compete in a W world of profound media transformation. CEO’s from North and South America, Europe, and Asia largely agreed that their company’s culture was the biggest obstacle to hurdle before being able to achieve real change. This was recognition that how we had done things before were not likely to work as well in the future and why fundamental cultural change in areas such as working practices, in the type of talent employed and lines of reporting, and even the complete restructuring of buildings and offices were all being undertaken. What are the goals of such major disruption? One of the chief conclusions was that what all the CEO’s wanted to have is a culture where trends and opportunities could be spotted quickly and where ideas would thrive and develop. In short they wanted more innovation. Which is where our Innovation Report comes in as it has become some- thing of a publication of record on how the demand for innovation is being met. FIPP’s main reason for being is to enable the global magazine media industry to share knowledge and experiences, and in the 132 pages of the Innovation Report, FIPP and our partners, the Innovation Media Consulting Group, can demonstrate that innovation is indeed thriving and develop- ing. Once again we have seen another record year for submissions, more than 200, which has led to many internal arguments about which themes and case studies should be included. Inside you will find some fabulous case-studies that demonstrate the ever more varied ways that we are creating and distributing content that excites the consumer, attracts the advertiser, changes the rules, and, happily, finds financial success. I always refer to the Innovation World Report as a goldmine of ideas – and it appears that the mine is far from exhausted. Putting together the Innovation in Magazine Media World Report rep- resents a year-long task of research and monitoring, and a worryingly short time to write and produce, and would simply not be possible without the drive and effort of my FIPP colleagues Helen Bland and Cobus Heyl, and the indefatigable team at the Innovation Media Consulting Group, Juan Señor, Juan Antonio Giner and author in chief John Wilpers. My grateful thanks goes to them all. Chris Llewellyn President & CEO FIPP – the network for global media 6 EDITORS NOTE INNOVATION IN MAGAZINE MEDIA 2016-2017 A how-to guide to innovation This year, we focus on how to actually make innovation happen, starting and ending with your culture n 21st century publishing, there are no easy answers. But there are answers. And we’ve got a lot of them here in this book. I We’ve got proven strategies and tactics for the hottest, more important areas in publishing today: company culture, mobile, video, data, ad blocking, micropayment, distribution plat- forms, and trend spotting. INNOVATION IN MAGAZINE MEDIA 2016-2017 EDITORS NOTE 7 Welcome to our 7th annual Innovation in on today. In the US some titles are already see- Magazine Media World Report. ing 50% of their traffic coming from mobile, We start the book out with a chapter on according to the Association of Magazine Media changing your culture. As we say at the open- (MPA), and in the UK and elsewhere it is even ing of the chapter, change dies at the top. If more. Half of ESPN magazine’s audience in the publishing executives do not commit to and US of 89 million comes from mobile. People model culture change and innovation, no one magazine gets a third of its readers on mobile. will take any of his or her pronouncements Some magazine titles are seeing eye- about innovation seriously. They are DOA (dead popping annual growth on mobile: In 2015 an- on arrival). nualised numbers released in early 2016, many Your staffs are surprisingly ready for change; US magazines saw eye-popping increases in you just have to make it important, essential, mobile traffic, according to the Magazine Media rewarding, and fun. You have to change your 360’s 2015 Brand Audience Report. mission and your culture, and then change job Hearst had a blockbuster year, highlighted descriptions, expectations, workflows and pro- by Veranda magazine’s 568% year over year vide training to give your staff the permission, growth in mobile web visitors. encouragement, and tools to make change and Hearst’s Town & Country magazine notched innovation happen. an almost 300% year over year growth rate, After changing your culture to be innova- while Marie Claire came in at just over 200% tion-friendly, all things are possible. growth and Esquire and Country Living at just And you’d be wise to start with mobile. under 200%. Both Elle and House Beautiful Mobile is undoubtedly the single most im- came in at nearly 160% growth. portant strategy for publishers to get a handle Conde Nast’s Self and W titles recorded al- most 150% increases year over year. Some Rodale titles also had a banner 2015 in terms of mobile traffic. Their Bicycling mag- azine also notched nearly 200% growth and Prevention saw 130% increase. Time’s Fortune magazine had 165% growth. Overall, the MPA calculated US magazine industry’s mobile growth averaged nearly 50% year over year. And yet most publishers are dumping desk- top content onto a screen that is a fraction of the size of the desktop screen and that is used in situations vastly different from the desktop experience. That makes no sense. Publishers don’t need a digital-first strategy for mobile, they need a mobile-only strategy. A digital-first strategy simply means putting content ultimately designed for a desktop on a mobile device first. The entire mobile experi- ence is different from the desktop experience. Expectations are different, available time is different, needs are different, behaviour is different. Build mobile content for the mobile experi- ence. Make planning for mobile the first part of story planning. In our work with magazine companies around the world, we often rec- ommend the creation of a bespoke team to drive mobile-only content until mobile-only 8 EDITORS NOTE INNOVATION IN MAGAZINE MEDIA 2016-2017 thinking becomes second nature, and then Or if they do, they skim the results, nod, and disband the team. delete it. Data is rarely the subject of a news If mobile drives the majority of traffic, video or marketing or digital department planning is by far the dominant content platform. meeting. Data rarely has a champion. And yet few publishers have the people with And that’s exactly what data needs: a the skills or the equipment and software to champion who makes the data analysis and produce video. data-based strategy the first subject of every In working with magazine editors and planning meeting. Hire a chief data scientist authors, we often hear the excuse that “we and make him or her responsible for telling you don’t have time to do video”. That’s because every day how you can choose better stories, they’re too busy doing things based on the old write better headlines, build more success- print-first business model.