Publishers as Retailers?
Posted on Sunday, October 30, 2016 at 11:49 PM
In the news: Magazine publishers continue to test the retail waters.
Events aren't the only alternate revenue stream for struggling publishers. Some publishers are turning to e-commerce to make up advertising and subscription shortfalls. Condé Nast recently launched Style.com, a retail website offering various designer clothing and accessories. Summarizing the overall business concept, Suzanne Bearne of TheGuardian.com writes, "Condé Nast isn't holding any stock though -- the fulfilment is handled by the individual brands -- but they do, of course, take a cut of the transaction."
This is a bold move in an already competitive market, and Condé Nast has already invested roughly £75 million ($91 million USD) in it. Other magazines, such as Marie Claire, have experimented with retailer relationships on a smaller scale. Regardless of scale, these new retailer relationships present ethical challenges for publishers, who must, according to Bearne, "balance the need for building profits whilst also retaining the trust of their valued readers."
Read the full article here.
Also Notable
Audience Building through Events
Magazines are finding new ways to look beyond their loyal subscriber base and pull in revenue from nonsubscribers. Events are proving lucrative for some of them. Earlier this month, The New Yorker hosted The New Yorker Festival, a three-day event planned almost entirely by the magazine's editorial staff. Publisher Lisa Hughes told Folio: magazine: "'It's an editorial outgrowth of what we do.... You gotta believe that the editorial staff of The New Yorker has their hand on the pulse of what's cool. Our writers are out there, they know what's coming up and what's interesting.'" Perhaps most remarkable, roughly 75 percent of the festival's attendees were nonsubscribers. Read more here.
Pulitzer Eligibility for Magazines
After several years of testing the water, the Pulitzer Prize committee has announced that magazines are now eligible in all categories. In recent years, the prize committee had opened up a few test categories to magazines. Read more about the updated prize eligibility guidelines here and here.
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