"We've used Mequoda's strategies and techniques to sell thousands of books, videos, and subscriptions."
- Charlie Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society
The digital magazine landscape continues to grow as more brands turn focus toward digital magazines. Today we’re looking at Apple, which is taking efforts to engage with digital magazine content more, and Robb Report, which has launched a new digital magazine.
Digital publishers have had a busy year and it has been one for the record books. There have been a variety of acquisitions and mergers, even beyond the major deals of Meredith Corp. buying Time Inc. and Disney acquiring Fox’s assets.
We’ve covered the question “What is native advertising?” several times, stressing that it’s not a new component of publishing revenue, but rather a fresh take on advertorial for the digital age. Another term for it? Sponsored content. In other words, content that brands craft themselves to resemble surrounding magazine content and then pay for placement, or content that brands pay the magazine’s in-house studio to create plus place. This includes article-like text, video, infographics, and more. One important caveat here is that brands – or the publishers they’re paying, for that matter – cannot, by law, mislead consumers. That line has been bent, stretched, blurred, and seemingly redrawn over the years, with various parties weighing in. But rarely have we had the opportunity to hear what readers actually think about the native ads they’re expected to digest. MinOnline reports on a recent study that provides just such an opportunity. Let’s start there today!
Every month, we check in with Folio:’s sister magazine, min, to monitor big comings, goings, and doings in the magazine publishing industry. This roundup features plenty of executive personnel changes, plus a couple of major purchases and one major redesign.
Life is good for Robert Parker. The famous wine aficionado is diving into Robb Report territory. S. Irene Virbila from La Times is reporting that, “The Wine Advocate has signed a deal with publishers Hubert Burda Media to publish the new international lifestyle magazine quarterly. It launches June 6 in London when Parker will appear at a consumer tasting at the wine merchant Hedonism Wines.”
"We've used Mequoda's strategies and techniques to sell thousands of books, videos, and subscriptions."
- Charlie Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society
"We have used the Mequoda Method to deliver a real-time online magazine that features individual issues and our amazing archive of premium content."
- Paul Belliveau, Vice President New Media and Production, Yankee Publishing
“We’ve used these techniques to boost sales of our higher-priced products, and dramatically increase our multiplatform subscription revenues.”
- Susan Laden, Publisher, Biblical Archaeology Society
"Adoption of the Mequoda Method has produced three benefits for us. First, we are seeing sustained growth in subscription revenue. Second, we monetized a content archive with two decades of news and information. Three, our new customers have immediate access to the content they seek."
- Robert Michel, Founder, The Dark Intelligence Group
"We have used the Mequoda Method to increase our revenue by more than 60% while completely eliminating direct mail from our marketing mix. Unsurprisingly, this has allowed us to dramatically increase profitability and our ability to fund our mission-driven programs."
- Gail Odeneal, Director of Marketing, Program on Negotiation Harvard Law School
"We have used the Mequoda Method to create two successful online magazines that generate subscription revenues that are completely independent of our advertising driven legacy business model."
- Stuart Hochwert, Founder and CEO, Prime Publishing
"We know there’s demand for individual subscriptions based on our limited marketing efforts, but we needed the resources of a top-tier marketing organization to effectively and aggressively scale our individual subscriptions business. Mequoda has the best business processes we’ve seen for getting the job done."
- Hampton Stephens, Publisher, World Politics Review
"Mequoda’s knowledge of the fundamental practices and technologies at the core of the media business is unsurpassed by any other group of consultants I know. If you’re in the media industry, Mequoda would be a valuable ally."
- Bryan Welch, Publisher
“The team I worked with at Interweave successfully transitioned a leading print enthusiast media business into the digital age. The folks at Mequoda were an important part of this team and the company’s most valued strategic advisor. We could not have done it without them.”
- Clay Hall, Former CEO, Interweave
"With more than 3.2 million monthly unique visitors, Mother Earth News has increased its revenues 39X over the past 10 years, using these strategies.”
- Bill Uhler, Publisher, Ogden Publications
