Get a sneak peek of what's to come at MediaNext. Check out what our speakers have to say about the hot topics our industry is facing.
Capitalizing on the Convergence of Social Media and Content Curation
Q&A: Glam's CEO Samir Arora on brand building in today’s changing market.
09/30/13
If you can combine your social media networking abilities with quality content, the opportunity to grow your audience is greater than ever. Here, Samir Arora, CEO of Glam Media, a lifestyle company, and keynote speaker at FOLIO:’s MediaNext event, October 28 to 30 in New York, talks all about the changing content aggregation platform, custom advertising models and how to stay competitive.
FOLIO: As more publishers go after the content aggregation model, how do you stay competitive in the verticals you cover?
Samir Arora: A lot of people are trying to emulate parts of Glam Media’s model of aggregation, as well as original content creation—at scale. The biggest differentiator Glam has is that it is number 1 overall in lifestyle globally with over 310 million consumers a month. In the U.S. it’s about 90 to 100 million consumers a month. I think there’s some level of competitive advantage for us when we enter a new vertical. People expect that our model will scale and grow because we’ve done it for so many verticals already.
FOLIO: Explain how important the sense of community has become to your content model and how you foster that community engagement.
Arora: When Glam started, we were the first company to recognize that content is going to get fragmented and that re-aggregation will occur from a social content perspective. Content used to be one-directional prior to Glam and prior to social media. Glam was the first commercial company to recognize that content was becoming social.
For example, we heavily favored fashion bloggers very early on that had an authentic voice and a huge following demonstrated by social interaction around their blogs. That same theme has continued today. We view all content as a two-way conversation between the author, editor or curator and the consumer. We have a very high level of community conversation or what we call “social activation.”
In some cases, we find that community comes first and content comes second. This was the reason we purchased Ning, the largest community-based social networking platform in the world for independent communities. I think Glam is a pretty unique company in which we start with content that is inherently social and community-based with professional authors and content creators as our goal.
More recently we launched Foodie.com, which is our first product built on top of the Ning platform, so we take it to the next level [with] social discovery. It’s more like a Twitter or Facebook social networking model specifically for food content. I think your question is at the heart of almost everything Glam does today.
FOLIO: How are you innovating on your advertising model and formats?
Arora: Glam is an unusual company. We’re a technology company first and media company second. Fundamentally, we innovate through technology and engineering products. Long-term, that is the only model of sustainable innovation in media. If you look at content-only companies like Condé Nast, what you’ll find is that the proportion of engineering of products is very small, maybe 5 or 10 percent of the company. In our case, it’s 61 percent of the total company people headcount. Everything we do comes from technology innovation first.
Most media companies today run their advertising products on existing platforms. All innovation in advertising has to be done on the commonly shared platform that everybody else also has. It’s very difficult for one publisher or magazine to differentiate themselves from others because they’re all using the same platform.
We’re fundamentally different. We’re top 8 in volume of premium display advertising served in the U.S. and 100 percent of our advertising products—display, rich media, mobile, iPad and in video—are delivered using Glam’s own ad technology. We built the base platform to innovate on top of which allows us to be completely different. Most people view us as one of the most innovative companies—the secret is [that] we are a technology company first.
If you're looking to better understand how your brands can thrive in a converged media landscape, register now for FOLIO:'s MediaNext event on October 28-30.
It’s Not Enough to Just Collect Data, You Have to Use it Too
Q&A: NewBay Media’s Meg Estevez talks metrics that matter and how to use them.
09/19/13
We all collect consumer data and monitor social media metrics, but few of us know how or are capable of turning those numbers into real-life actions. Here, Meg Estevez, group director of Audience Development for NewBay Media and noted speaker at FOLIO:’s MediaNext event, October 28-30 in New York, explains the types of data she collects and how she turns that information into an executable strategy for marketing content.
FOLIO: How important has the collection of engagement data become for your brands and why?
Meg Estevez: The collection of data has become very important for all of my brands because we felt we weren’t getting the big picture of who our audience is and how and where they were interacting with our brands.
There were brands that I managed that had, for example, a LinkedIn group and they had 6,000 people in the group, so that was an eye opener. We decided to put everything in one report for each brand. After meeting with the publishers to go over goals, we presented this report to them, giving them a big picture. It turned into a monthly report for the circulation department. From there, we were able to realize how important it is. We’ve been collecting all this data, but we weren’t sharing it. We weren’t really talking to people that needed to see these numbers in order to figure out what we needed to do.
FOLIO: What makes data actionable and how do you go about converting the data you collect for those executable reports?
Estevez: Once we started to see our website, newsletter, and social media numbers in one report for the entire year, we noticed that we had some brands where the social media numbers were high while others were not so great. So, we decided to test a social media content-based marketing strategy for two of my brands where we do four content-based posts and tweets and one subscription or newsletter related offer. Since December 2012 when we started the test, we’ve seen the Facebook “likes” increase by 57 percent and our Twitter followers by 60 percent. We are now in the process of incorporating social media into our content marketing mix for all of our brands starting in 2014.
Apart from the website, newsletter and social media numbers, we started collecting and analyzing the level of engagement of our digital subscribers. These reports have helped to show that our online readers are engaged with the digital editions because we can show that they are not just reading or flipping through the first five to 10 pages and losing interest. They are actually reading and experiencing the entire magazine. We show this by collecting the data of the time spent by page by issue. Once we have this type of data, we can share it with the publisher and inform advertisers of how readers are engaging with the digital edition. Plus, we are able to pull this type of data by platform, as well, so we can see how our Web-based, iPad, iPhone and other tablet and smartphone users are reading our issues.
Another piece of data turned actionable was information on what platforms our target audience was using to open our email campaigns. Our Christmas campaign last year had a really good offer for our consumer titles and the response wasn’t as we had expected. As we analyzed the conventional data points—lists, email creative/copy, subject lines, and time of deployment—we were also able to get insightful information from our fulfillment company on the platform being used to open these emails. Many of them were being opened via a smart device. However, the page had not been set up to be user-friendly for these devices and we noticed that although we had a high number of clicks on the email offer, we had a very high number of people abandoning the page without subscribing. This year we are making sure our pages are smart device friendly.
FOLIO: What are the next steps in your data collection strategies? Where are you putting your focus?
Estevez: We’re putting a lot of focus on taking the data we have about engagement and putting them into one monthly report. Right now we have little reports here and there and what we’re trying to do is get one big package report that every three months we analyze with the publisher. There is so much data that we collect that sometimes it seems too overwhelming. However, I think it’s important to share all the data with your team and discuss what the numbers mean and establish goals.
Online Advertising in a Post-Banner Ad World
Q&A: Forbes Media's Mark Howard explains where ads go from here.
09/12/13
The changing banner ad market has brought about the rise of a new breed of digital advertising. Here, Mark Howard, chief revenue officer at Forbes Media and speaker at FOLIO:’s MediaNext Conference, October 28 to 30 in New York, talks about native advertising solutions, building audience engagement and leveraging sponsorships into direct sales.
FOLIO: How have you seen the role and effectiveness of the banner ad change over the last few years?
Mark Howard: There’s been a lot of emphasis on the change mostly driven by the comeuppance of the programmatic world. What we’ve really seen is that there’s been a whole bifurcation of the marketplace where a lot of the advertisers are starting to focus a lot more specifically on direct response versus branding initiatives. While that’s always been the case, I feel like there’s even more focus around that as budgets start to become allocated for a lot of the tactical buying that takes place for their programs.
There’s been a much greater emphasis from a direct sales standpoint to build out programs using different types of units and leveraging sponsorships and custom programs to drive value through that type of relationship and direct sale. We’re finding that for a lot more of that mid- and lower-funnel activity the programmatic channels are able to accomplish what the marketers have been looking to do in a much more efficient and effective way.
Brand marketers want to know how they can use bigger and more interactive units. How can they engage audiences by leveraging these bigger pieces of real estate? Rather than focus on how you drive a click back to the brand site, the emphasis is turning toward how do we make the unit engaging enough so that you can either pull forward content from the advertiser’s landing page and present that in the unit or, if they don’t have that, how can they leverage some of the assets of the publisher to be able to drive that type of engagement?
With that, a whole other level of accountability and analytics has arrived where not only are we focused on impressions and click-through rates, but there’s this other set of analytics in the middle around exposures and engagement. How long were the ads in view? How are you able to prove that somebody interacted with the unit and, if they did, for how long?
FOLIO: How should publishers investigate new opportunities for ad sales other than traditional displays?
Howard: The main focus in the market right now has really been establishing some sort of native advertising solution. It’s clear that marketers are really looking for ways in which they can find an audience for the content they’re producing. From our perspective, native advertising represents the ability to promote and distribute content marketing. Content comes in all sorts of different shapes and forms. Native ad has really created a marketplace where you now start to see these paid ads in the editorial streams and content wells that were previously off-limits to paid advertising. As these new placements are being created, it represents a new pool of inventory that publishers are able to monetize that never existed before.
FOLIO: What are the current big trends in digital advertising and how do you see the marketplace evolving over, let’s say, the next two years?
Howard: The two most dominant forces in the market right now are programmatic and native. In the past, they had been viewed as being at odds with each other. It’s really the technologies that drive the exchange businesses and their ability to be part of the standard planning process, as well as, the ways in which the distribution of native ads and the automation of converting content into these native ads that we’re starting to see a convergence. While they each individually represent their own market opportunity for any publisher, it’s the efficiencies and the effectiveness of the programmatic technologies that can help drive your display business on a guaranteed basis. That’s where the real opportunity exists to create a whole new set of revenue streams.
To learn more about the rise of effective online advertising, join Mark Howard on October 28 in our MediaNext session: Agree or Disagree: The Death of the Banner Ad and the Rise of Effective Online Advertising.
Q&A: Advancing the Digital Publishing Model
CEO Elisabeth DeMarse offers insight into TheStreet, Inc.'s evolution.
09/10/13
As the online publishing market continues to grow and change, making smart and cost-effective adjustments are the key to success—it’s not all about ad sales. Here, Elisabeth DeMarse, chair, president and CEO of TheStreet, Inc. and keynote speaker at FOLIO:’s MediaNext Conference, October 28 to 30 in New York, talks about TheStreet’s subscription model, a new extended contributor network and revenue diversity.
FOLIO: Describe why the content subscription model is so important to TheStreet’s revenue mix.
Elisabeth DeMarse: When I arrived at TheStreet over a year ago, my thesis was to grow lucrative high-margin subscription businesses and expand our customer base to include institutions. We’ve made significant progress transforming our retail investing newsletter business. Our core strategy is to put the right customer into the right product while improving overall user experience, which leads to higher renewal rates and longer lifetime value of the customer. Our acquisition of The Deal, an institutional subscription business, in September 2012 gives us an excellent platform for serving institutional-grade content around M&A and restructuring to the valuable customer cohort of lawyers, bankers and buy-side. We are fortunate to have a dual monetization model, where 80 percent of our revenue is derived from subscriptions through The Deal, along with our retail investing newsletters and our Rate-Watch division. Subscription businesses are difficult to build and yet very valuable at scale, providing a durable source of revenue and a natural hedge against the volatile nature of ad-supported revenue.
FOLIO: You’ve started using an extended contributor network. How is this an effective content model for digital publishers?
DeMarse: Building out TheStreet’s contributor network allows us to continue fulfilling Jim Cramer’s founding vision of bringing high quality coverage of stocks and market issues to retail investors. We want to make it easier for the best and most influential voices to publish on TheStreet and have their insights widely distributed to our audience across all channels, including content partners and social media. We are rebuilding our content management system using a WordPress solution to include a robust contributor platform, which will allow us to quickly scale the number of voices on our sites and provide better all-around coverage.
FOLIO: Going forward, what’s next for TheStreet in terms of diversifying revenues?
DeMarse: We are driving revenue growth by investing in our institutional and retail subscription platforms, focusing on operational excellence and smart acquisitions.
Within our subscription businesses, The Deal acquired small cap equity content from DealFlow Media earlier this year, which expands The Deal Pipeline’s coverage. We are also adding a couple of new products within Pipeline, including Connections, a LinkedIn for dealmakers, which leverages over 10 years of our M&A coverage to identify connections among deal making professionals.
In our retail newsletter subscription business, we launched two new gateway products in 2013, Quant Ratings and Dividend Stock Advisor. Our success in launching these new products is important not only because we filled major product gaps for which there is significant market demand, but we've been able to show that we can successfully launch new products and grow revenue organically. We are now in the process of launching three premium-priced newsletters before yearend, so please stay tuned for more information on Action Alerts Options, Trifecta Stocks and Reality Check with Herb Greenberg.
On the ad-supported side, we re-launched MainStreet, our personal finance site that speaks to a wider audience. MainStreet provides personal finance tips and advice, helping consumers save and grow their wealth. By combining lifestyle news, life stage planning and financial resources, MainStreet is an engaging and fun site where finance gets personal.
Media companies have been struggling with the ongoing changes in online advertising. To combat this, we have refined the free site as an acquisition funnel for subscription newsletters. We are very fortunate to have an asymmetrical competitive advantage because we have dual monetization opportunities of the audience that comes to TheStreet.com. One of the biggest recent achievements has been to generate leads for our subscription business from TheStreet.com. In 2011, 8 percent of our subscribers were acquired via the free site. In Q1 2013, 20 percent of subscriptions were sourced from the free site and during Q2 2013 that percentage increased to 32 percent.
Finally, while I cannot discuss our M&A pipeline, we do maintain an active M&A program.
Don't miss opening keynoter Elisabeth DeMarse discuss how TheStreet, Inc has evolved the online advertising model on Monday, October 28 at MediaNext.
Multi-Platform Strategies for Mid-Market Publishers
Afar Media co-founder Joseph Diaz talks fostering growth across platforms.
09/03/13
Media brands, big and small, exist in an ever-changing marketplace. Despite size, fundamental business strategies for success remain universal. Here, Joseph Diaz, co-founder and chief product officer for Afar Media, the independent publisher of high-end travel and lifestyle magazine Afar, talks about the importance of print, managing digital growth and what’s next in media.
FOLIO: You guys took an iterative approach to launching the Afar platform. You focused on the magazine first and then, over the years, rolled out new platforms. Why did that make sense for you then and would you still recommend that approach today?
Joseph Diaz: Yes, it struck people as unconventional that AFAR used the conventional platform of print to launch. It was 2009 and everywhere you turned people were saying, "print was dead." This was an overreaction and we knew that. AFAR leveraged print's ability to tell a powerful and visually rich story, establish credibility in the travel space, and attract a powerful audience of discerning experience seekers. We could not have done this by just simply putting up a website, especially in today's world.
The barriers to entry for digital are low. Anyone that knows how to program can put up a website and make it look pretty. If you look at the last 12 months there are literally hundreds of start-ups in the travel space that have done just that. The advantages print gives AFAR are extremely high-quality curated content, a powerful and relatively unduplicated audience, and credibility. That is a powerful combination and we're experiencing the benefits of it. So would we do that again? Yes. It's a capital-intensive strategy, but we're seeing the rewards.
FOLIO: For a brand the size of Afar, what's important in terms of managing growth across the platforms you're on? How are you managing priorities in terms of investment and resource allocation?
Diaz: AFAR's mission is to inspire and enable deeper, richer and more authentic experiences. That is where it all starts and as we continue to develop new platforms and grow existing ones our mission directs our thinking.
As we continue to invest, it is important that we continue speaking to our core audience of discerning travelers who yearn to get beneath the skin of a destination. Investing in growth just for the sake of scale is not important to us. Anyone can buy traffic. We are investing in print and digital specifically because we know there are tons travelers out there who want better travel experiences. Our strategy is to ensure that each platform can achieve its goals independently of the others, but also works interdependently with the other platforms to increase efficiency.
FOLIO: Going forward what's next in media? What's the 'next big thing' you're planning for?
Diaz: We hear all the buzzwords, "digital," "mobile," "video," "integration," "branded content" and it's easy to try and chase the shiny new toy. That's not to say AFAR doesn't utilize these platforms. We do. It's more about the approach. We start with what we do well—creating really good content and then think about how to package that content in ways that makes it easy for our audience—and like-minded audiences—to access it.
The partnership with Westin that kicked off this summer is a good example. Westin Finds from AFAR was created because Westin had an insight and a challenge. They understood the power of content to drive decision-making and they also wanted to encourage their business travelers to stay the weekend to explore the fabulous cities they were traveling to. We worked together on this initiative to inspire and enable Westin's audience to better immerse in the destinations they were traveling to. This platform accomplishes that. Going forward, we'll continue to focus on content initiatives for ourselves and our partners that help inspire and enable travelers to have deeper, richer and more authentic experiences around the globe as well as in their own backyards.
Learn more from Joe Diaz about the growth of Afar Media in the MediaNext Session: How an Indy Media Company Builds a 360-Degree, Market-Dominating Empire.
The Changing B-to-B Media Model
In a Q&A, Virgo CEO John Siefert addresses an industry at a crossroads.
By ARTI PATEL
08/29/13
B-to-B companies have been making news recently as changing market trends shift aging business models. Here, John Siefert, CEO of Virgo Publishing talks about the changing b-to-b market, industry trends and how Virgo has managed it all.
FOLIO: Over the last few years, in what ways are you seeing the broader b-to-b media market changing?
John Siefert: I think the b-to-b market has lost its way in many respects—it is trying to be something it is not, and longing to find a life preserver since the loss of print, and the sagging nature of CPM. The category has considered technology and delivery as its form of innovation as opposed to content that actually helps the user/reader/attendee do their job better. More investments in delivery and less investments in the content itself is what has plagued the market.
I also believe that the b-to-b space is constantly trying to dig itself out of a hole. How do I make up for the loss in revenue in X by doubling down on Y, but not totally leaving X so I can get whatever money is left? I think that is the wrong approach and screams of the lack of agility in business modeling that traditional b-to-b players have.
FOLIO: What are the trends that are driving these changes?
Siefert: Many publishers are still trying to make up lost print dollars—which is scary—while they have driven ridiculous amounts of one-and-done traffic on websites to capture CPM revenue, all whilst having a minimal focus on retaining audience. Further, too much lead gen was accepted by b-to-b companies and hence they over saturated databases and drive a ton of opt-outs. I also feel there has been too much syndicated content and not enough original programming, along with poor monetization of video-based programming, lazy use of social outlets and too much reliance on search to drive traffic.
FOLIO: How has Virgo specifically been responding to these changes in the context of its own market?
Siefert: It is pretty simple, we take the complexity out of market adaptation and listen to our users, readers and attendees—we have found that money follows this approach. For example, in our Cloud and Communications Network, we saw our audience of IT VARs, Telecom Agents and other solution providers requesting more tools-based resources to help them sell technology and service solutions to their end user business customers; we took our foot off of the “traffic peddle” last year, and created a new video, slide show, infographic and analyst report based destination site called “Business Value Toolbox” where the audience could take our content and apply it directly to the customers they were selling to.
We did not wait for the market to demand it, we adapted to the trend we saw emerging and have seen some pretty incredible growth because of it—while others are still posting video interviews, blogs and press releases on the industry. The list goes on here with our video documentary strategy, thematically based digital summits, video news desk, content libraries and much, much more.
Loking to build your B-to-B media brand a company of the future? Seek advice from John Siefert and other top-notch CEOs at the MediaNext Session: Rethinking B-to-B Media: What the Company of the Future Must Become
Wrangling ‘Big Data’ for B-to-B
Why smaller media companies need to join the data party.
By ARTI PATEL
8/23/13
With big data comes big responsibility and as newer technology further enables information gathering, companies will need to utilize data-management techniques to grow their brands and extract streams of revenue.
Here, Nick Cavnar [pictured], audience consultant for Nick Cavnar LLC talks big data’s advantages and drawbacks and how b-to-b publishers can leverage collected data to drive content.
FOLIO: There’s an enormous amount of data available to publishers, but is there too much?
Nick Cavnar: I don’t think it’s a question of too much or too little data. From what I see, most small to medium-size b-to-b publishers simply aren’t making effective use of whatever amount of data they have. Practically no one even has the ability to tie their web traffic data back to their registered subscriber database, to get a full picture of how individuals interact with all their content and advertising. At best, we’re tying together our various lists to get a little better audience profile. But we’re not using data to truly drive our content delivery or produce better leads for our advertisers.
FOLIO: What’s driving the data craze and why has it become so important?
Cavnar: Part of the craze comes from seeing how powerful data-driven communication can be. We all read accounts of how data was used to target voters in the last presidential election; we see Google using data to deliver targeted advertising; we know retailers are using data to determine which customers get which discounts and promotions. We can all see that this is the future. But we’re struggling to find “big data” strategies that fit the reality of our small niche b-to-b markets.
FOLIO: Where do you feel mid-market b-to-b publishers should focus their data collection and analysis efforts?
Cavnar: Absolutely, b-to-b companies need to focus on identifying their web traffic. We have good data on our audience when it comes to registrations—for magazines, email, events, or whatever. And we know how much traffic we drive to our sites through our email and other push communication to those registered users. But we lose sight of our audience once they get online.
I also think we need to do a much better job of linking and identifying b-to-b audiences by company, and not just by broad industry demographics. Today’s business marketers want to target much more precisely—by specific companies or specific influencers within those companies. This requires tying more research and industry data directly to our audience databases.
You don't need an invite to attend the big data party. Just show up! Join Nick Cavnar in the MediaNext Session: Agree or Disagree: Is There Too Much Data?
5 Ways to Harness the Power of Pinterest
From pin lifespans to brand placements, how to supercharge your social strategy.
By Stephanie Paige Miller
8/20/13
Given the changing landscape of content publishing, it's no surprise that a social media community like Pinterest has emerged as a power player for driving traffic, growing communities and fostering reader engagement. For some, Pinterest drives more than 20 percent of website traffic, topping legacy referrers such as Google and Yahoo. Others are seeing follower acquisition on Pinterest increase at a strong-and-steady 15 percent month-over-month. Recently I participated in a Pinterest webinar with social editors from Martha Stewart Living, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and media agency Huge. Here are the five common themes that emerged.
1. Pin During Active Times
Rather than dumping 30 pins into Pinterest’s news feed a couple times a day, use a tool such as Piqora or Curalate to schedule 10 to 12 pins across several time zones. This way, content is surfacing when users are most engaged. For example, when I shifted pin times for SELF, we were able to increase re-pins and click-through rates by nearly 30 percent.
2. Collaborate and Co-pin
Connect with on-brand partners, whether a celebrity cover star, a contributing blogger, a chef or an entertaining expert, on a co-branded board. You’ll leverage the built-in followers from their Pinterest footprint and expand both profiles. Also consider organic co-pin opportunities with advertisers and brand sponsors. While “pin it to win it” contests are popular, look for meaningful ways to activate your most influential or active pinners. The goal is always more re-pins—they’re like a simple yet powerful social “thumbs up.”
3. Realize the Lifespan of a Pin
A pin lives longer than any other piece of social content. A Tweet can disappear within minutes, and thanks to Facebook’s algorithms, a post might not even be seen by 70 percent of your audience. But with Pinterest, a site might experience a spike in traffic from content pinned 30 days ago.
4. Pinning Indicates Purchase Intent
In a recent survey, about 35 percent of users under 35 said that pinning led to a purchase and 24 percent said they found the item they eventually purchased on a stranger’s board, not a brand or retailer. This suggests the power of a brand placement on an editorial board or, better yet, a Pinterest user’s board. Your editors also play a role here when recommending a product on their personal boards. And it’s worth thinking about what Pinterest can do for ad partnerships or value adds.
5. Leverage Insights to Inform Editorial Content
Take a cue from top-performing pins and incorporate them on your site, either within a newsletter or as a slideshow (with proper crediting back to the original source). You can also think of Pinterest as another avenue for A/B testing. Trying to decide whether to lead with a food or a fashion image? Look at the native Pinterest analytics or those within your third-party tools to help you make that choice.
Here more from Stephanie Paige Miller at the October 29 MediaNext Session: The Science of Sharing What Makes Content Viral.
Once again, I left MediaNext renewed and inspired to return to my editorial team. This year's event was another for the books.
