In the news: Staffers throughout the Hearst organization have voted, by a landslide, to unionize.

This week, Hearst staffers voted to unionize. Kerry Flynn of CNN Business reports that the motion won handily in a 241-83 vote. Flynn writes: “Hearst Magazines’ union drive was a massive effort, encompassing 28 digital and print brands, including Cosmopolitan, Delish and Esquire, and it has about 500 members. It's one of the largest unions in the media industry.”

The move comes at a critical time for Hearst, just one week after magazine division president Troy Young resigned after the New York Times reported on his alleged bullying and sexual harassment of colleagues. Read more here.

Also Notable

Programmatic Revenues on the Rise

The Covid-19 pandemic is creating turmoil across the publishing industry, but the news isn’t all bleak. Max Willens of Digiday.com reports that programmatic revenues have increased for some publishers. For instance, he writes, “through the first 23 days of July, Salon’s programmatic revenues are up 25% year over year over the same period,” according to Salon’s chief revenue officer. But publishers should remain cautious because “the recent good times may not last forever: some of the spending is coming in from sources such as NBC Universal ... and sell-side sources worry that lawmakers’ failure to approve a new economic relief package to replace the one that expired this week could undo a lot of the progress the economy has made.” Read the full article here.

O Print Magazine’s Uncertain Future

This week, there were reports that Hearst would shutter O magazine’s print edition at the end of the year. But Jonathan Berr of Forbes.com is now reporting that this isn’t entirely the case: “According to the title’s publisher Hearst Magazines, O's 'print expression' will continue although the company is 'evaluating what that will look like beyond the December 2020 issue.'” Some are speculating that the print edition will go quarterly, but nothing concrete has been announced. The move comes with reports that although the print magazine had as many as two million readers, the O website attracts upwards of 8 million readers per month -- a number that has climbed steeply this year. Read more here.

Print Declining at Hearst

O magazine isn’t the only title at Hearst whose print identity is changing. Kathryn Hopkins of WWD.com discusses how other Hearst magazines -- including Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, and Women’s Health are printing fewer issues -- given significant ad declines during the Covid-19 era. Read more here.

Magazine Newsletter Strategies

“‘The inbox is the new doorstep,’” says New Yorker newsletter editor Jessie Li in a recent Foliomag.com piece. Some magazines are trying to capitalize on this concept, says Greg Dool of Folio:. “Offering publishers direct relationships with their readers, on their own terms, email newsletters remain as vital as ever in the platform age,” he says. “Publishers are increasingly viewing email as more than just an engine for driving traffic to their sites.” Some are doing headline-and-summary newsletters, while others are experimenting with narrative formats. Read more here.

Global Decline in 2020 Ad Revenues

The advertising picture is pretty bleak for the rest of the year. This week, Mike Vorhaus of Forbes.com reported on the worldwide slide in advertising since the Covid-19 pandemic hit earlier this year. Citing numbers from a recent Zenith report, he says that “total global advertising expenditures will decline just over 9% for all of 2020. In the U.S. they see the 2020 decline as being down 7%.” However, those losses will be offset somewhat in 2021 by the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, he says. Read the full article here.

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