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WINNING REVENUE-GENERATING STRATEGIES FOR A NEW ERAWINNING REVENUE-GENERATING STRATEGIES FOR A NEW ERAIn a period of upheaval and financial distress, top executives tell Folio: where they plan to invest in 2018 and beyond.

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WINNING REVENUE-GENERATING STRATEGIES FOR A NEW ERA

There’s a disconnect between the macro perspective on the state of media at the dawn of 2018 and the micro perspective—the outlook of the people on the front lines who are actually driving revenue and building businesses.

On the one hand, the reporting about the overall media scene has been virtually all doom and gloom for at least two years. It corresponds to how Facebook and Google are systematically siphoning off the vast majority of ad-dollar growth, and increasingly, existing share of ad spend (eMarketer forecasted those two companies alone would control 63 percent of total digital spend in 2017). This suggests that media companies that engage on the platforms are mere patsies, providing the content that lets the duopoly dominate and ensuring decline for themselves. It examines the dismal performance of digital advertising, replete with noise and fraud. It explores the now-confirmed cliché of a “pivot to video,” which has turned out to be more like a pivot to oblivion, at least for some companies.

Meanwhile, once-powerful companies have been cashing out, some with a rewarding exit, others perhaps too late. Combine all of this with the bombshell news that Time Inc. was being sold to Meredith Corp., and you have the makings of a very jittery moment.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Time Inc. sale. For 70-plus years, the company represented the pinnacle of American magazine media. In the last 20 years, its star began to fade somewhat, and in the last five years, it’s become a staggering giant, bleeding people and vast amounts of revenue, with some of its top brands seemingly unsuited for the digital age.

The Time Inc. sale represents the existential struggles of the legacy media companies, as though the era of independent magazine-related media brands is now, really, in permanent decline.

THE STATE OF MEDIA IN 2018

63%

according to eMarketer

“”

Source: AxiosData: eMarketer, Zenith, Google, Facebook; Note:’Next in line’ is: Yahoo, Microsoft/LinkedIn, IAC, Verizon, Amazon, Pandora, Twitter, Yelp, Snapchat, Sina, and Sohu. ‘Triopoly’ is Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/ Axios

Global ad spend (USD)

$200B

$150B

$100B

$50B

‘80 ‘90 ‘10 ‘162000

TV

Internet

PrintGoogle

Everyone else

Next in line

RadioFacebookTriopoly

the amount of US digital ad revenue

taken by Google and Facebook in 2017

Global ad spend (USD)

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The problem with this relentless narrative is that it doesn’t account for the waves of innovation sweeping across the industry. It ignores the trees as it obsesses about the forest. Brands with established and growing audiences are indeed pivoting—but they’re not pivoting to video, necessarily or solely, they’re leveraging advertising and strong relationships to build sustainable businesses across a variety of revenue streams. They’re active and busy and experimenting with energy and determination. There’s no lack of effort or smarts in this industry.

Indeed, in a survey of magazine-media executives earlier this fall, nearly 70 percent of respondents said they expect significant growth in 2018, with revenue sources split among events, marketing services, advertising and other initiatives. Just under 20 percent of respondents indicated that their priority is sales of products directly to consumers/readers. When combined with the most common form of reader revenue, subscriptions, that number increases to more than 28 percent.

What will drive growth for you in 2018?

Print Advertising

Events

Digital advertising not including marketing services for advertisers

Marketing services (white papers, special eblasts, Webinars, etc.)

Subscriptions

Sales of other products to readers/consumers (online learning books, videos, etc.)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

46.1%

53.8%

46.1%

35.9%

10.2%

17.9%

Two things were striking as we conducted our interviews. Half of our respondents—seven in all—predicted that their revenue will grow by greater than 10 percent for 2018. And equally significant, the majority of them—actually 10 out of 14—expect that non-advertising sources will drive their growth.

We grouped our interviews into three main clusters: Advertising; subscriptions and paid content; and commerce, lead generation and licensing. While most of these companies have growth strategies that touch on all of these areas and more simultaneously, we grouped them according to how they perceived the main drivers of growth.

In this context, Folio: sought to identify where publishers and digital leaders are investing time, money and people as they look to grow their businesses in 2018 and beyond. We asked 14 executives for their thoughts, and asked for both empirical goals and anecdotal observations about their businesses and priorities.

We cast a wide net, touching on all sectors of the magazine-media space: Included were Condé Nast, National Geographic, Bonnier, U.S. News, ALM, the Society for Human Resource Management, Trusted Media Brands, the American Chemical Society, Hearst Magazines, Atlantic Media, America’s Test Kitchen, F+W Media, Scholastic and the American Society of Association Executives.

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

What will drive growth for you in 2018?

Do you anticipate that your revenue will grow in 2018?Answered: 39 Skipped: 0

Yes, by more than 10 percent

Yes, by single digits

We anticipate being roughly flat

in revenue

We anticipate a decline in

revenue

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Do you anticipate that your revenue will grow in 2018?

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double digits in 2017, with licensing increasing by 39 percent and agency services up 29 percent year-over-year. “We expect a similar growth track for these businesses going forward,” she says.

In terms of investment, Burnham Murphy says resources and talent will be shifted to support these growth areas, with the longer-term plan being to find ways to unlock the potential of the company’s brands and people for the creation of additional opportunities outside of its traditional businesses.

Elizabeth Burnham MurphyChief Marketing OfficerBonnier Corporation

Expected Growth: “30% and 40%, depending on business line”

BONNIER MOVES BEYOND ADVERTISING FOR REVENUE GROWTH Bonnier, the large publisher of more than 30 well-known special-interest brands, has a decidedly non-traditional approach to revenue growth this year, according to Chief Marketing Officer Elizabeth Burnham Murphy. None of the company’s most significant revenue-generation efforts will directly involve advertising.

Instead, at the top of the list is licensing. “We've built a strong foundation in licensing for brands such as Outdoor Life and Popular Science through a partnership with a global sourcing company, Li & Fung,” Burnham Murphy says. “We expect to build on this in the coming months as we look to extend our lifestyle brands across products and at retail.”

Marketing services is also a priority. Bonnier has an agency and consulting business, and it’s been refocused for 2018 to deliver more resources. Burnham Murphy says the Bonnier portfolio has seen a steep increase in the number of clients, and the need to deliver custom content and tailored strategies. “We expect this trend to continue, and we're seeing the most demand for the creation of content, video in particular, for social media distribution,” she reports.

Another growth priority—one that’s common for many magazine-media companies—is events. “We will continue to support our experiential events business to deliver unique, hands-on

entertainment at a grassroots level for enthusiast audiences and our sponsor partners in the markets we serve,” Burnham Murphy says.

The payoff for Bonnier has been compelling, and Burnham Murphy expects it to improve into next year. All of the three areas mentioned have grown by

LICENSING MARKETING SERVICES

EVENTS

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Holiber is extraordinarily bullish about the business, which he says is now approaching “nine figures.” “We’ll be in the 20 percent range for topline growth this year, and our margins are significant,” he says. “We don’t know where it will level off, because it hasn’t leveled off.”

The growth goal for next year is 12 percent overall, Holiber says, driven by lead gen, which Holiber characterizes as “skyrocketing.” Advertising is growing at a 20- to 25-percent clip, he adds. Subscriptions, marketing services and licensing are also revenue producers. Content marketing is a small piece of the pie, Holiber says, but “we do a lot of it. There’s a big movement of the industry moving in that direction. The revenue associated with this will grow probably 100 percent next year. It’s still small, but there’s a tremendous amount of activity,” he says.

In the subscription area, U.S. News launched a product called College Compass. It’s an elaborate tool that nurtures families through the college-planning process. It has about 60,000 subscribers. “It’s a decent business for us,” Holiber says, though he adds that he doesn’t see subscription growth as a core business driver.

Driving this performance is an intense attention to the user experience, and that’s where all investment will go in the months ahead. “When someone comes to our site, they’re able to find exactly what they’re looking for,” he says. “The more we improve on the engagement we see on the site, the more traffic grows. That is a big part of what we are working toward.”

Bill HoliberCEOU.S. News

The U.S. News brand is a digital pioneer. Once the third-place competitor among three newsweeklies, whose differentiation strategy was to offer up ‘news-you-can-use’ in personal finance, healthcare and other areas, the brand eliminated print in 2010, and shifted to a pure service orientation. Today, it has well-regarded lists in healthcare, secondary education, automobiles and more.

The brand has a unique business model. It’s part advertising based, but even more, it’s about connecting readers who are active in a decision-making process with sellers in whom the readers have explicitly expressed interest. In short, it’s lead generation enhanced by advertising—readers might be looking for hospitals, universities, doctors, travel or cars. They come to U.S. News, seeking specific information, like a review on the 2018 Escalade and the best prices from dealers within 100 miles. They fill out forms seeking information. They become a lead. These leads are shared with U.S. News partners.

Expected Growth: “63% overall”

‘NEWS-YOU-CAN-USE’ MODEL FOR A NEW ERA

“If you think about what we’ve done, because we are bringing consumers to our site already in the mindset to make a decision, the authority we have with marketers is much deeper,” says CEO Bill Holiber. “Our business is brand credibility. People are coming to us for rich, credible journalism, and a lot of what we do is backed by data. It’s just a matter of getting better at it.”

Essentially, U.S. News looks for large audiences searching for information on a particular topic and asks if there’s a business to be built around it. The basic threshold is that it has to generate revenue in two ways: lead generation and advertising. Two new areas for the brand, Holiber says, are credit cards and loans. The focus is not on the quantity that so many digital-media brands (including those described at

the top of this report) chase. Instead, the model emphasizes engaged, qualified prospects. That said, U.S. News has about 40 million monthly visitors, Holiber says, about 10 million in each of its verticals.

LEADGEN

DIGITAL ADVERTISING SUBSCRIPTIONS

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Media consumption has evolved to become an “always on” activity – and technology is the driving force behind the massive cultural shift. With more curated, personalized, and dynamic content comes innovative ways to distribute it - requiring media companies to leverage more modern, adaptive content management platforms.

Traditional revenue models like advertising and subscriptions still have a home in the digital space. But the value of delivering high-quality content, coupled with consumers becoming less receptive to traditional advertising techniques, has created a need for more creativity and disruption of legacy strategies.

New strategies include:• If Content is King, Context is Queen: The importance of where you distribute your

content is almost as important as the content itself. With new devices being introduced every year, it’simportant to rely on technology that can adapt quickly and easily.

• The Best Tasting Alphabet Soup: AR, VR, OTT, AI...these new content types will define how you stand out amongst competition and deliver personalized experiences your audiences want.

• It’s All About the Benjamins: Revenue continues to be the driving force behind your company’s future. Developing new revenue-generating digital experiences, advertising packages, offline events and affiliate programs will allow your company to achieve two important growth factors; bottom-line growth and brand loyalty.

Sandeep HulsandraVice President, Media PracticePerfect Sense

DRIVING REVENUE GROWTH WITH AN AGILE DIGITAL PLATFORM

To implement these new models and stay ahead of the competition, media companies need agile technology solutions that empower them to be just that. Driving revenue and customer loyalty means having the ability to rapidly respond to changing demands, competitive pressures, and new business strategies. Since our launch nearly 10 years ago, media companies have turned to Brightspot to help get content to market faster using an adaptable, extensible digital platform. Here are 4 examples of how some of the top media companies have used Brightspot to fuel their business and keep it thriving:

Source Media [Subscriptions/Events] - SourceMedia wanted to improve its subscription and offline monetization efforts. Leveraging Brightspot, SourceMedia has not only achieved its engagement and revenue goals, but it also won 6 industry awards for its digital innovation.

Time Inc [Video CMS/OTT] - Brightspot OTT redefined the over-the-top digital experience for Time Inc’s People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, enabling them to efficiently create and manage PeopleTV, a lean-back video experience enhanced with the delivery of personalized and synchronized content. Politico [Real-Time Publishing] - With granular roles and permissions, customizable editorial workflows, content collaboration and a live blogging feature, Brightspot helps Politico’s large editorial team distribute content to over 40M monthly website visitors.

Hanley Wood [Multi-Site Publishing] - Brightspot’s multisite functionality allows nearly 100 editors at Hanley Wood to manage its 22 sites, all from a single integrated editorial interface. Each editor saves around 3 hours of publishing work per day due to the technology platform efficiencies.

Built for media, Brightspot helps companies stay adaptable, flexible, and scalable as they meet the ever-changing demands of today's media consumers. The platform was purposefully built to put sanity back into the lives of media companies who are fed up with rigid and inflexible CMS architectures. Brightspot’s foundation enables content teams to quickly embrace new publishing trends and tools, driving continuous improvement of their digital properties and customer experiences.

PARTNER CONTENT BY:

Revenue Strategy:

SUBSCRIPTIONS EVENTS VIDEO

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The second growth area F+W is targeting is subscriptions. Readers, he notes, are more readily willing to pay for content in the enthusiast space—both in print and online. Also playing a role here are non-traditional partnerships, like one that Goldmine, a brand for music collectors, did with independently-owned record shops.

A third focus for growth is one that many—if not all—media companies are devoting attention to: Content marketing and marketing services. “We are underway with a handful of advertisers about the ability to license content in a manner that gives them more firepower in the marketplace,” Chelstowski says. “Our trusted collectible valuations are a great example of an asset that can augment an advertiser’s offerings in way that provides them with a powerful competitive advantage.”

And where will F+W invest for 2018? People? Tech? New skills? “All of the above,” Chelstowski says. “The technology to compete in today’s fast moving marketplace, the people who understand how to unleash the power of this technology in the moment, and lastly the promotion to make marketers aware of the solutions we now have at hand.”

Ray ChelstowskiGeneral ManagerF+W Media

Ray Chelstowski, general manager at F+W Media, starts a conversation about revenue-growth strategies with a declaration: The enthusiast-media market doesn’t have the same dynamics as general-interest media.

But that difference produces opportunity, he says, and for F+W—the New York-based publisher of more than 40 brands, including Writer’s Digest, Old Cars Weekly, and HOW—the revenue-growth strategy centers on the drive that people in the enthusiast market have to learn more about their passions. Expected Growth: ”Double-digit percent

growth” in commerce and education

F+W EYES DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH IN EDUCATION AND COMMERCE

“We are seeing trends that indicate the maker market (a tech-influenced DIY community) is quickly expanding,” Chelstowski says. “This allows for strategic expansion of our online education initiatives, and in turn our ecommerce destinations. The capacity to further develop initiatives in these areas with current ad partners is fairly expansive.”

Chelstowski predicts double-digit percentage growth in these two areas, which notably do not include digital advertising, while also offering a reader-relationship that’s more renewable and recurring than advertising. “Our digital re-imagination of each community has been swift, and focused on creating day-one pathways for these kinds of initiatives to move forward,” he says.

Beyond these areas of focus, F+W is looking at three other avenues to drive growth, Chelstowski says. First is advertising growth, which he believes will increase as engagement and traffic grow from the ecommerce and education initiatives. “On the print front, we expect spending to beat current market trends as non-endemic advertisers begin to recognize the value and high engagement of the enthusiast marketplace,” he says. “Programmatic will augment this across ad types.”

ONLINE EDUCATION ECOMMERCE EDUCATION

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Bill CarterCEOALM

ALM CEO Bill Carter is clear-eyed about the opportunity for his company, which serves the legal, financial services, benefits, consulting, and other industries. “The future for us is going to come from digital subscriptions and events,” he says. “For 2018 and 2019, we have two new online offerings, both in legal. One is with Law.com. I want law firms to be able to access all of ALM’s content from one subscription, not to have to buy from our individual brands, because a lot of our customers are not constrained by those parameters.”

DIGITAL SUBS, EVENTS ARE ALM’S FOCUS

The company has created a single access point at Law.com, where customers have access to all the subspecialties in various sectors of the industry. “For example, intellectual property is a global area,” Carter says. It touches on many subspecialties of law and many geographic areas. “Customers want a site license for all of our sites. In the past, under our brand-oriented structure, you had to subscribe to all of our individual brands. So we’ve brought a lot of different brands brought together under Law.com.”

The stakes are huge. Carter says that about 35 percent of his company’s subscription revenue currently is from site licenses, and that he’d like to get that number to 50 percent in two years. As it is now, he says, about 50

percent of overall company revenue is from subscriptions, with 35 percent coming from advertising and 10 to 15 percent from events. “What’s exciting is that we have had 10 percent growth in subscriptions this year, and we should see the same 10 percent growth next year,” Carter says.

The other major revenue-growth initiative ALM is planning is a research-oriented product called Legal Compass. The concept is to unify all of the company’s data and supercharge the accessibility and functionality for customers—in short, create an indispensible online tool for customized insights and analysis. “We’re most

famous for the AmLaw 200,” Carter says. It’s always allowed companies to produce reports and benchmark against each other, but it fell short in many other ways, including the ability to link datasets and clean up redundancies.

“What we’ve been doing over the last two years is cleaning up those data sets and linking them together,” Carter adds. Now, customers can benchmark to see how a firm is doing against a given set of competitors. And names are corrected and rationalized, so that a firm that changed its name or added partners over the years is still recognized as the same company.

The product is in beta testing now, Carter says, and represents a potential growth area for B2B media broadly. “It’s taken us years to get to this point; to get an organization that’s fundamentally journalistic to think differently about data.”

A third area of focus, Carter says, is in the area of membership programs. For ALM, those are subsets of the served communities. One example, he says, is corporate counsels. “They’re starting to take more control,” Carter says. “Five years, 10 years ago, the corporate counsel’s job was to manage outsourced work to various law firms. Now, they’re deconstructing. They’re saying, ‘We can do X in house. We can give this next part to a firm. And this next part we can give to a research company.’ ”

EVENTS

Expected Growth: “The same 10% growth again in 2018”

SUBSCRIPTIONS

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Fran MiddletonChief Digital OfficerAmerica’s Test Kitchen

One publisher that’s had a traditional emphasis on subscriptions is America’s Test Kitchen, the Boston-based food-media company. “Our focus is on growing our base of paid digital subscriptions,” says Chief Digital Officer Fran Middleton. “This business is very important as it’s a high margin, recurring revenue stream. Our focus centers around optimizing the way we acquire and retain members.” ATK has two distinct approaches. On the acquisition side, it’s extending its CRM to the web through a recommendation engine based on types of content that will convert new customers. “We want to leverage the segmentation and machine-learning capabilities of a recommendation and put relevant content in front of our prospective customers, and roll that out at scale,” Middleton says. “For example, if our clam chowder recipe is converting well to audiences in the Northeast, but not in the Southwest, we will figure out what works for that other audience.”

LEVERAGING CONTENT TO DRIVE SUBS AT AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN

On the retention side, it’s about reducing churn and making it easy for existing members to renew. “Our strategy here centers around continually evolving digital products by building features that make them more useful to our members,” Middleton says. “Specifically, we’re evolving products to be much more than recipe databases. We’re building features that allow members to connect to the Test Kitchen in a meaningful way, which we feel sets us apart from the competition.”

Another high-priority revenue-producing initiative for ATK is to reach new and younger audiences, Middleton says. The company’s two television shows—America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country—are the highest-rated cooking shows

on PBS and a significant driver to the company’s digital products. Because the PBS audience skews older, so does ATK’s. “But we know that younger audiences, millennials in particular, love to cook at home,” Middleton says. “We want to bring them into the brand.”

The company is organizing this effort around two initiatives. One is Facebook Live. ATK had success reaching new audiences through Facebook Live in 2017, and is ramping up the frequency in the new year. “Our video and marketing teams work together on these broadcasts,” says Middleton. “We plan to continue optimizing the conversion funnel in 2018.”

The second initiative is a food festival, ATK Eats. “We launched a two-day festival in Boston in the fall of 2017, and we plan to expand this franchise to the West Coast in 2018,” Middleton says. “We had more than 3,000 attendees at our first event, and we saw the demographic of attendees skews much younger than our TV viewers. Our plan is to scale this event up in 2018 and beyond.”

Strategy for Growth: “We’re building features that allow members to connect to the Test Kitchen in a meaningful way, which we feel sets us apart from the competition.”

EVENTS SUBSCRIPTIONS

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Dr. Bibiana Campos SeijoEditor in chief of C&ENAmerican Chemical Society

The American Chemical Society is a behemoth, a 141-year-old organization based in Washington, D.C., with 158,000 members. Like most associations, it has a sophisticated media operation, with more than 50 magazines, newsletters, and journals, all of which serve the organization’s broader goals and help drive membership. Also like most associations, access to the media brands—particularly with weekly flagship Chemical & Engineering News—is included in the membership dues.

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY PLANS FOR GROWTH IN NATIVE AND SUBS

Dr. Bibiana Campos Seijo, editor-in-chief of C&EN, discussed her group’s revenue-growth priorities for 2018. The main area of advertising focus, she says, is native. “In May 2017 we launched the C&EN BrandLab—a custom-content studio specifically designed to serve the marketing needs of chemical and pharmaceutical organizations. So far this unit is doing great, well above budget, so the potential is phenomenal. Our target for next year is for eight percent of our advertising revenue coming from native, which I think we’ll blow out of the water.”

Sponsorships and events are also a focus, she said, describing a potential awards-program sponsorship that will include multiple elements

across a variety of platforms and different formats, including social-media campaigns and a video component, as well as a live event.

But the basic plan for the ACS going forward is to move toward a business model focused around users paying for access, Campos Seijo says. A subscription to C&EN is already a benefit for members of the society. (C&EN receives a proportion of membership dues). “We want to transform from being a passive retention tool for ACS—levels of satisfaction with

C&EN by members are very high and we believe this loyalty encourages renewals—to an active recruitment tool,” she says. “The view now is that every reader is a potential member. This focus is likely to increase the membership revenue stream significantly, and we’re going to put a lot of effort behind it. From that perspective, we are really transforming the way we look at things.”

There are new key members of the editorial team, including an audience-engagement editor, and the Society has revamped its production efforts to make the process platform-agnostic. “We’ve automated and outsourced where possible and ended up with a streamlined operation that is agile and super-competitive,” Campos Seijo says. “We also kicked off a web redesign effort that will see the light in Q1 2018. Within this project there are many threads, but two that will be important in realizing our revenue goals and supporting product development are the seamless integration of native and our efforts around data capture and personalization.”

Strategy for Growth: “The view now is that every reader is a potential member.”

DIGITAL ADVERTISING EVENTS

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Matt StarkerGeneral Manager, DigitalCondé Nast

Matt Starker, the general manager of digital at Condé Nast, figures the company’s revenue growth prospects all come down to a core subset of the audience that he refers to as “super users.”

The plan for CN is to grow revenue in both user-paid content and advertising by increasing engagement with this core audience. “The value that our most loyal readers/viewers brings to our brands is material, and this user base drives a significant amount of our overall media consumption across the whole company,” Starker says. “Increasing our super-user base will provide immediate ad revenue capacity, as well as a strong foundation for our direct-to-consumer business lines.”

CONDÉ NAST ZEROES IN ON THE ‘SUPER USER’

On the paid-content side, Starker notes that most media companies are developing new products to create relationships with their super-user base. “We are no different,” he says. “Across our company, we’ll be introducing a number of different direct-to-consumer products that span commerce, events, paywalls and memberships.”

Still, he ranks advertising as the number-one source of new revenue on a raw dollar basis (not in percentage terms), provided the definition of advertising is broadened to include branded content, data products, social and traditional media.

In terms of implementation approaches, Starker says there’s a core strategic growth plan against all of the super-user initiatives, complete with staffing experts in each area. “Success for our company is when our

experts work with each of our brands to create core, cross-disciplined project teams—e.g. editorial, business, marketing, research, etc.—who are responsible and accountable for the project across all deliverables and KPI milestones.”

Robb LeeChief Marketing and Communications OfficerThe American Society of Association Executives

ASAE has added 16,000 members in the last 18 months, mainly by adjusting the membership terms to allow organizations to more efficiently provide individual membership to their employees. Now ASAE has 39,000 members.

The overall goal for 2018 is to produce new revenue by increasing engagement with the new members (as well as with longer-term members), and continue to grow, says Robb Lee, chief marketing and communications officer for the association.

ASAE LOOKS TO GROW AND INCREASE ENGAGEMENT

“The influx of new members focuses our attention on engaging them in a productive manner,” Lee says. “Associations Now (ASAE’s magazine and media operation) has been a tremendously effective engagement product through print and digital platforms. We believe it is part of the solution to creating membership value for our new members.”

Lee says he’s projecting only marginal revenue growth as ASAE assesses its basic model and continues to focus on increased engagement. “Growth will come from continual development of content management practices and tactics,” he says. “We’ll attempt to serve vertical-subject matter to audiences specifically within organizations to motivate engagement. Our focus will be on specific tactics to serve content productively and cost-effectively. That would include tailored newsletters, and possibly adding some machine learning to support the customization.”

PAID CONTENT

DIGITAL ADVERTISTING

MEMBERSHIPSRevenue Strategy:

Revenue Strategy:

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of evergreen videos as companions to the magazines, which it will sell as licensed video collections in 2018.

The company also plans to offer digital-only access to its magazine content, which is a new line of business. It plans to use artificial intelligence to enhance content, and it is looking for increased sponsorship opportunities from non-profits and corporations that will collaborate in bringing high-interest content to poorer schools.

“It’s not all sunshine,” Roome says. “A couple of years ago we had to shutter two ad-driven magazines, Scholastic Administrator and Parent & Child, because of the decline in the print-ad market. But for our core titles, the focus on content and marketing is repaying us well.”Hugh Roome

President, Consumer and Professional PublishingScholastic

Hugh Roome, president of consumer and professional publishing at Scholastic, says that it is ironic that print media is in a “golden age” in terms of the ability to find and use riveting photography and in the cost and quality of print. Scholastic is approaching its hundred-year anniversary in 2020 and has set growth and profitability targets for that centennial.

The 2020 plan focuses specifically on new levels of efficiency through integrated enterprise-wide software solutions, Roome says, and during the three-year run up, the company will focus on editorial content and continuous improvement in marketing/CRM systems. Revenue Strategy: "For our core titles,

the focus on content and marketing is repaying us well.”

‘GOLDEN ERA’ AS SCHOLASTIC PUSHES INTO DIGITAL

For its fiscal year ended May 31, 2017, Scholastic had revenue of $1.74 billion and operating income of $109 million. Children’s books are the company’s big business, Roome says, but the original Scholastic business is magazines for kids, the best known of which is Scholastic News. This magazine business has set records for circulation and revenue growth in each of the last five years, and this year will have over 15 million paid subscriptions. The titles include Storyworks, Science World and a teen newsmagazine, New York Times Upfront.

“We had planned to have fully migrated these magazines to digital-only by 2016, but we found that our customers valued the hybrid experience of print and digital,” Roome says. “By working closely with our printing partner, Quad Graphics, we are

harvesting important economies of scale in manufacturing and distribution, while improving reproduction quality.”

On the digital side, Roome says, there are new-business opportunities in extensions of the magazines. For example, Scholastic is producing hundreds

VIDEO

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Jessica PerrySVP of Publishing and MediaThe Society for Human Resource Management

SHRM is one of the largest associations in the country, with more than 285,000 members. Like the American Chemical Society and many other non-profits/associations, it has a large and influential media division. Its revenue-generating strategy for 2018 involves what SVP of Publishing and Media Jessica Perry calls a ‘Member Forward’ tack. “We’ve done a great job of introducing more free users to SHRM.org over the last couple of years, and our traffic is at record levels,” she says. “But our most profitable and engaged visitors remain our paid SHRM members. So in 2018, we’re raising the volume on initiatives that will speak to their loyalty and their propensity to buy from us.”

SHRM LOOKS FOR MORE MEMBER REVENUE

To do that, she says, the plan is to restrict more editorial content as ‘Member Exclusives,’ and move most of the HR Magazine features back behind a firewall.

To enhance that strategy, she says, the media group also recently introduced a member-discounts program, and weaved in an ad-buy qualification for endemic advertisers to participate as well.

In addition, the HR Jobs classifieds platform is going to a freemium model, giving SHRM members one job post for free. “This allows us to increase the postings pool while upselling these same folks to higher-visibility listings,” Perry says.

On a more non-traditional front, Perry says, SHRM is seeking additional traction from white-label HR tools, partnering with some best-in-class providers to offer their paid platforms to members in exchange for referral revenues.

Underlying this though, is the same “Member Forward” strategy. “All of these things raise the member value proposition, while retaining the strong SHRM.org traffic funnel that has been so appealing to advertisers,” Perry says. “With the right balance, I’m confident we can do both.”

So, how bullish is Perry on what this strategic initiative will produce in revenue growth? “There’s not a single silver-bullet growth number we’ve set,” she says. “Some programs will have upstream gains for member acquisition and renewal, some will pop referral revenues from marketing partners, and others are aimed at premium pricing. In the case of HR Jobs, we hope it will stem the secular decline we’ve seen in this legacy business. Overall, though, the strategy is to enhance the value offered to our audience, while ensuring high access to that audience for valued partners.”

“Healthy double-digit online growth will be partly offset by ongoing declines in legacy lines such as HR Magazine, resulting in expected single-digit revenue growth overall,” Perry says. “So for us, it’s key to stay focused—on our members, on our roadmap and on ROI.”

PAID CONTENT

Expected Growth: “Healthy double-digit online growth”

"For us, it's key to stay focused – on our members, on our roadmap and on ROI."

MEMBERSHIP

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Michael ClintonPresident, Marketing and Publishing DirectorHearst Magazines

Hearst has a full plate of revenue-growth plans for 2018, but the most important is the integration of its latest acquisition—Rodale—into the fold, according to Michael Clinton, the company’s president, marketing and publishing director. The deal for Rodale—publisher of Men’s Health, Runner’s World, Women’s Health, Bicycling, and Prevention, among others—is Hearst’s biggest since it acquired Hachette Filipacchi six years ago. Beyond Rodale, Clinton says, the company has a multipronged approach that touches on video, digital, print and voice-based media, such as Siri and Amazon’s Alexa.

HEARST INTEGRATES RODALE

Clinton says the company is anticipating growth in subscriptions, advertising, and content marketing, plus voice platforms, sponsorships and affiliate fees. The company recently made a major investment in video, opening a new 26,000-square-foot video and multimedia production studio in a building near the Hearst Tower in New York City.

And then there are at least two new print brands to look after, both of which launched early in 2017: Airbnbmag Magazine, which published its first issue in May, and The Pioneer Woman Magazine, which published its first of two 2017 issues last June.

Bob CohnPresidentAtlantic Media

Atlantic is looking for robust growth in advertising in 2018, and healthy growth in events, audio, consulting and other areas, but it’s looking for eye-popping growth of 300 percent in subscriptions to digital content.

The company is projecting 15 percent advertising growth next year, and 18 percent overall revenue growth. Atlantic Media President Bob Cohn ranked his projected revenue sources and sketched out his roadmap for getting to those growth numbers.

Advertising growth, including content marketing, is first, followed by subscriptions and memberships (projected for that major 300 percent increase), events (AtlanticLive) and consulting via Atlantic Media Strategies.

ATLANTIC MEDIA’S GOAL: 300% GROWTH IN PAID DIGITAL CONTENT

In terms of implementation strategies, Cohn said, first is beefing up the consumer marketing and engineering teams in order to fill the paid-content funnel. Then, the company is investing in data science, both people and software, to support advertising, consumer revenue, and editorial goals. It’s also adding to its programmatic revenue team and optimizing the website for programmatic growth.

And finally, it’s doubling down on content. “We’re hiring more journalists—writers, editors, producers,

and expanding our editorial ambitions in key verticals—tech, entertainment, politics, and global affairs, as well as in podcasting,” Cohn says. “And we’re adding even more heft and impact to our biggest events, with a special focus on our annual Washington Ideas.”

Revenue Strategies:

VIDEO DIGITAL ADVERTISING

PAIDCONTENT

MARKETING SERVICES

Expected Growth: “Low double-digits for the digital business”

DIGITAL ADVERTISING SUBSCRIPTIONS EVENTS

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Rachel WebberExecutive Vice President of Digital ProductNational Geographic

National Geographic has found a neat way to underline the value of its 129-year-old print brand while at the same time telling the story of a modern digital-media company. As it builds out a robust revenue-growth strategy for 2018, it does it based on this concept: “It’s Not a Border, It’s a Portal.” Executive Vice President of Digital Product Rachel Webber explains it this way:

“It means leaning into our DNA as an enabler of exploration through all of our digital storytelling experiences, and product design and functionality,” she says. “By thinking of our iconic yellow border as a portal, we’re working to push the boundaries of what it means to transport audiences to new experiences and to build communities of passionate explorers.”

NATGEO’S ICONIC YELLOW BORDER IS REALLY A ‘PORTAL’

The company is working to significantly increase digital revenue by scaling its brand partnerships business (another company emphasizing marketing services) and diversifying revenue streams. Like Bonnier, NatGeo is seeing its strongest client demand coming from custom content and social sponsorships, which leverage National Geographic’s revered brand and storytelling capability as well as its mass scale.

Top revenue priorities include display and pre-roll video advertising growth, social sponsorships and

custom content, and paid- and recurring-revenue offerings.

Specifically, says Webber, the company is ensuring that the web experience is designed first and foremost for mobile—its largest and most engaged web

audience. That audience, she notes, is accustomed to personalized, feed-based experiences.

As well, the company is organizing digital content and community experiences around verticals that resonate with both audiences and brand partners—verticals such as travel and innovation. And then there’s a focus on expanding owned open-community platforms geared to hyper-passionate groups—one example being the Your Shot product for photo enthusiasts. “We’re growing our investment in digital video-driven storytelling and building experiences that provide utility for our fans and shaping those into offerings worth paying for,” Webber says.

The plans include an investment in new technology infrastructure and product design, as well as the talent to build and activate use of those tools, to create content to bring the brand ethos and value proposition to life, and to nurture involvement of the community, Webber adds.

"We're working to push the boundaries of what it means to transport audiences to new experiences and to build communities of passionate explorers."

Revenue Strategies:

DIGITAL ADVERTISING

MARKETING SERVICES VIDEO SOCIAL

www.foliomag.com16


Bonnie KintzerPresident and CEO Trusted Media Brands

TMBI has one of the most compelling turnaround stories of the current era of magazine media. The company has eliminated its debt, grown digital revenue, grown print audience and has more than six million paying customers, CEO Bonnie Kintzer told Folio: recently. “Six million paying customers is a good place to be.”

One of the critical mistakes of this era, Kintzer wrote in a Folio: blog post , is that media brands put marketers ahead of consumers, which ultimately doesn’t serve either audience. So TMBI’s focus, not surprisingly, is on its readers.

TMBI: A STORIED COMPANY SEEKS NEW CONNECTIONS

“As we continue to invest in growing our business, our main focus will be furthering the engagement for our brands with new audiences,” she says. Her company, formerly known as Reader’s Digest Association, has experienced major growth in engagement from Millennials in its social-media channels, coming to TMBI content for ideas and inspiration for everything from home cooking to holiday entertaining to DIY projects for their homes.

For 2018, TMBI is looking to four critical revenue-growth areas, with advertising being the main source, events/experiential being the second, subscriptions third and marketing services/content marketing the fourth most important.

Overall, the company’s goal for 2018 is to achieve single-digit growth for the organization overall and low double digits for its digital business.

“The key to our success will be ensuring that we are creating premium, trusted content that is specific to our brand audiences across channels and platforms,” Kintzer says. “For example, we know that our social media audiences continue

to exponentially grow on a range of platforms. We also know that these platforms require personalized content that reflects a brand’s DNA but also speaks to those unique audiences. Our investment in resources and technologies such as video to deliver on those platforms will be critical to not only serving those customers but also our marketing partners who want to engage with them.”

In the area of subscriptions, she adds, TMBI will continue to focus on growing new audiences for our brands, but at the same time ensuring that this growth comes from creating quality content that has value consumers are willing to pay for. “We believe that it is essential for media companies to invest in content that has both paid and intrinsic consumer value in order to drive bottom line growth,” she notes.

Expected Growth: ”15% advertising growth in 2018, and 18% overall revenue growth”

DIGITAL ADVERTISING

EVENTS PAID CONTENT

MARKETING SERVICES

Tony Silber@tonysilber

Tony Silber is an entrepreneur, journalist and renowned veteran of the media industry. His insights into the transformation of magazine media have guided many media executives to drive revenue growth for their companies. Silber is an avid musician and history buff.

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