February 8, 2016 | Vol. 69 No. 5 Read more at: minonline.com Steve Smith's Eye on Innovation: 3 Three Reasons to Think About Mobile News Apps Differently The Simple Success of Slate Plus 5 Meet This Week's 'New Recruits' The real 'plus' in offering added value for loyal readers. at Time Inc., Condé Nast and More After over two decades of searching for non-advertising revenue streams, almost all digital publishers consider a membership model at some point. The advantages 6 Guns & Ammo Shoots for More are clear, or at least until executed. Adding special content and services, perks Video Revenue and privileges for paying customers piggybacks a paid model onto the free model 7 Coach Scores a Big Win During without the chilling traffic and ad scale impact of a paywall. And yet, most of these Fashion's Biggest Month projects I’ve seen hit the market with some fanfare and promise, but tend to fade away and disappear without mention. 8 Woman's Day Raises Awareness Not so with Slate “Plus,” which launched just under two years ago. Any site at the Red Dress Awards visitor today can’t miss its persistent presence. Continued on page 4 WSJ. And New York Times T Fashion Ad Juggernauts Continue Spring has sprung nicely for the newspaper magazines' previews. Like Punxsutawney Phil and his fellow groundhogs, the women's fashion spring previews in WSJ. and The New York Times T are not seeing their shadows. WSJ. publisher Anthony Cenname tells min that the March issue to be inserted in the February 13 Wall Street Journal carries 100 advertising pages. They're not only up sharply from the 82 in 2015 and 69 in 2014, but are also fraction- ally above the 100 from the September 2015 Fall Preview, setting an all-time record for the eight-year-old brand. At the NYT, magazine director Karen Farina says that the 156 ad pages in the February 14 T Women's Fashion are the edi- tion's largest since the 172 carried in the pre-recessionary February 2008. Besides the sum being up from last February's 143 and 2014's 136, it was not that far from the 165 in T Women's Fashion's Fall Preview last August. Continued on page 2 David Granger Put the Emotion Back into Esquire The departing editor-in-chief was innovative, irreverent and nearly iconic. Last Monday, when Granger accepted Esquire's 17th National Magazine Award during his 19-year tenure as editor-in-chief for Matthew Teague's poignant "The Friend" essay, he quipped: “I’m so happy about this I’m just gonna quit." The self-depre- cation came three days after the Hearst hierarchy announced that Granger will be succeeded at Esquire by Town & Country editor-in-chief Jay Fielden effective March 31. Editorially, Fielden will be entering a more stable atmosphere at Esquire than what Granger faced in June 1997 when the GQ executive editor was hired to succeed Ed Kosner by former Hearst Magazines president Cathie Black. "It was a confused, muddled publication, unsteady on its feet, unsure of its role," wrote the late Ad Age columnist James Brady at the time. Continued on page 2 © 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 WSJ. and T Ad Juggernauts (continued from page 1) Media Industry Newsletter A reason for the advertising success—which counters the ongoing slide prints slide—is what Editor-in-Chief: Cenname calls the "strength of our product and quality of our audience. Wall Street Journal Steven Cohn ([email protected]) readers like having a glossy on a week- 203/899-8437 end, and in her three years, editor-in-chief Digital Media Editor: Kristina O'Neill has made WSJ. a core Steve Smith ([email protected]) fashion title. It's going full-run to our [1.4 302/691-5331 million] circulation is to our advantage." min It's all echoed at T, where editor Debo- Group Editor: Caysey Welton ([email protected]) rah Needleman, formerly of WSJ., led to 203/899-8431 O'Neill's recruitment from Harper's Bazaar. Editorial Intern: Jameson Doris Per GfK MRI, the NYT's $110,000 and the ([email protected]) WSJ's $127,000 median household incomes VP Publisher: Amy Jefferies ([email protected]) in Spring 2015 topped all the women's fashion magazines, with W being closest at $93,000. Director of Market Development: The most notable campaign in the upcoming WSJ. is the eight-page insert from Barneys Laurie M. Hofmann ([email protected]) New York to mark the retailer's return to the same Chelsea address on Seventh Avenue be- Senior Marketing Manger: tween West 16th and 17th streets that it occupied from 1923-1997. There are also four-page Danielle Sikes units from Hermés, Ralph Lauren, and Stuart Weitzman, and jewelry business (normally ([email protected]) not that big in February) came from David Yurman, Tiffany and Bulgari. Marketing Manager: Rachel Feldman ([email protected]) Farina says that "T Women's Fashion is strong in international fashion, beauty, jewelry Senior Account Executive: home, travel and luxury furnishings." First-time advertisers include The Kooples, eyewear Tania Babiuk specialist Oliver Peoples, Escada and jeweler Nirav Modi. ([email protected]) Production Manager: Farina is second-in-command to NYT magazine publisher Andy Wright and to the new T Sophie Chan-Wood publisher, who is expected to be announced shortly after NYT senior VP, advertising Lisa Ryan ([email protected]) Howard starts on February 22. The job has been vacant since Brendan Monaghan's December Graphic Designer: Yelena Shamis ([email protected]) move to Condé Nast Traveler publisher and chief revenue officer. Data and Analytics Manager: Stacy Hill ([email protected]) David Granger's 19 Years at Esquire (continued from page 1) Access Intelligence, LLC President & The Granger formula that followed combined the wit made famous by Esquire in the 1960s Chief Executive Officer: Don Pazour SVP, Media Group: Diane Schwartz with topicality and technology. Consider the digitally enhanced 75th-anniversary issue in Oc- Chief Operating Officer: tober 2008 that contained the ancient Chinese symbol for beauty because, Granger said at the Heather Farley time, of China being in the forefront of the Subscriptions/Client Services: early 21st century. 888-707-5814 Among our recent Esquire favorites were List Sales: Statlistics, 203-778-8700 the March 2013 revelation that "The Man Advertising: 203-899-8498 Who Killed Osama bin Laden...Is Screwed," Reprints: Wright’s Media, 877-652-5295 ([email protected]) "Sexiest Woman Alive" Penélope Cruz with Editorial Offices: 10 Norden Place, a "God Bless Magazines" button in Novem- Norwalk, CT 06855; 40 Wall Street, 50th floor, New York, NY 10005; ber 2014 and the February 2016 designa- tion of Donald Trump as "Hater-in-Chief." Faxes: 203-854-6735, 212-621-4879; www.minonline.com Editorially, Granger's Esquire is on top of its Access Intelligence LLC, 9211 game, and brand extensions include spinoffs (Big Black Book, etc.), digital, events ("Esquire Corporate Blvd, 4th Floor, Rockville, MD 20850; Ph: 301-354-2000 Published Apartment," etc.) and cable's Esquire Network. 2016 © by Access Intelligence LLC. Distributed via email and online. For Whatever the conjecture over Granger's leaving–notably that the Fielden-led Esquire will have email and postal address changes, allow 2 weeks notice. Send to: Client more fashion that'll enable publisher and chief revenue officer Jack Essig to grow the category–it's Services or call 888-707-5814. For classy by Hearst that he'll be able to take a bow and receive accolades for nearly two months. advertising info contact 301/ 354- 1629. Contents may not be reproduced Compare that with Condé Nast's pre-Thanksgiving ouster of Allure founding editor-in- in any form without written permission. Subscription Rate: $1,199.97 chief Linda Wells that prevented her from getting the 25th-anniversary accolades in March. Successor Michelle Lee's masthead debut was February. 2 Magazine Media’s Most Trusted Source Since 1947 2/8/2016 minonline.com Steve Smith's App Review Three News App Concepts Leverage Mobile's Strength NewsGif, BriefMe and Rivet offer readers and publishers new concepts for mobile news. There is an irreverent interactivity baked into the novel NewsGIF app. It presents news headlines and bullet points as a cascade of animated GIFs that are determined in some part by other users. The main feed lets you choose among trend- ing tags like #Election2016 or #WeedWatcher and #WTFChina?. When you tap an animated GIF, usually a lighthearted visual pun on the headline, you get real news but in the form of three bullet-pointed sentences. You can click to the original story source, or post the GIF to Fa- cebook, Instagram or Twitter. The cool interactivity comes in when you tap a button that lets you add a different GIF option, or even your own image or upvote the content. You can also set alerts from the app when someone else edits the GIF. While some of the interactivity could be more clearly explained, I like the winsome nature of the app’s approach to news. In the new world of news driven by audiences rather than editors, it is not surprising to see an app like BriefMe use social signals to rank a feed of the ten most popular stories from around the Web. It scores each item with an equation that includes virality, Facebook and Twitter activity, which it breaks down for you at the tap of a button.