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Innovation

Yes, CTV is complex. But it is worth your time and investment

On the surface, building for the connected living room looks rather daunting. The ecosystem of devices collectively referred to as “Connected TV” has an impressive amount of creative potential. But it’s also notably fragmented in terms of device hardware and software capabilities  – not to mention the array of subscription services available. 

Fully embracing all these new creative tools involves a willingness to take on a lot of complexity. This is particularly true since the output has more in common with rich entertainment media like video games than traditional video media. Driving these experiences out to viewers needs to be done in a way that’s fast, massively scalable, and highly streamlined. 

So, from a creative standpoint, where do you start? In this two-part series, we’ll first zoom in to better understand the space. Then, in part two, we’ll tackle best practices for addressing the CTV opportunity. 

Three platforms

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about CTV is that creators and marketers are building for three relatively distinct platforms. On the device end, the CTV space roughly consists of three “clusters.” 

First and foremost, there’s Roku, whose devices have been around since 2008. More than any other company, Roku defined the space that we now know as CTV. Then there’s Apple TV, a hardware and operating system combination that has more in common with Apple’s more modern iOS than its legacy MacOS architecture. Finally, there’s a whole collection of game consoles (Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch), smart TVs (Samsung Tizen, LG WebOS, Vizio SmartCast) and other connected devices (Amazon Fire TV, Android TV). These all share the ability to run HTML5, the web’s longtime connective tissue. 

The capabilities of these devices varies considerably. Some, like the Xbox One, PS4 and Apple TV, have powerful hardware that can handle high-end animation and 3D graphics, much like a pricey gaming PC. But other devices are considerably lower-end, often designed with affordability in mind. The analogy here would be that of a budget-priced consumer laptop. 

Complexity and connectivity

What’s more, CTV devices’ remote controls are often vastly different from one another. Some feature voice input or gyroscopic sensors that can detect gestures, position, and movement. And to top all this, all CTV devices are, well… connected. They can tap into web services for dynamic behavior, personalized experiences, and rich data. Collectively, this can be dizzying to reconcile and maximize. 

I don’t need to remind anyone that performance matters, too. Targeting and engagement are among buyers’ key expectations. Unfortunately, these are also tough to address on CTV. 

On the targeting side, a large portion of the device ecosystem  – for example, Apple TV and Roku  – does not support cookies at all. Even among devices with HTML5 capability, manufacturers maintain separate storage and cookie contexts for individual apps. This further silos applications and limits the effectiveness of Data Management Platforms (DMP) and the reach of device graphs and targeting audiences they sell.

Critical questions

Those of us who are building advertising for the connected TV environment have three fundamental questions we need to answer before we commit to the medium and consider ourselves prepared to address its complexity:

  • What capabilities of CTV platforms actually work to drive a viewer’s impact and brand lift? 
  • How does one effectively map an advanced CTV experience across all platforms, acknowledging each one’s strengths and shortfalls? 
  • How can one do this at scale?

All of this probably sounds a bit daunting. From both a creative and planning standpoint, CTV takes the challenges and advantages from both digital video and traditional television and adds a twist in the form of CTV’s complex fragmentation of devices. Some marketers may shy away from the current complexity and hope that things get a bit “cleaner” in a  few years. 

However, smart marketers will want to tackle this challenging environment head-on so they can help actively shape its future. Connected TV is the future, and that future is coming faster than we expected. The Leichtman Research Group estimates that 80% of American households have a CTV device or smart TV in their homes. It was just 24% in 2010. And ad spend, at $7 billion in 2019, is expected to reach nearly $11 billion next year.

Consumers’ definition of “TV” increasingly means long-form, streaming, on-demand content in the living room. And the time to build brand experiences for it is now. In part two, we’ll be looking at some strategies for tackling these challenges.

Featured Post | Innovation | Revenue

How three media companies are approaching virtual events and monetization

Many media companies have turned to virtual events as a way to engage audiences on a personal level during the pandemic. From webinars to virtual festivals, teams have worked to evolve their offerings as the long-term outlook for physical events remains uncertain.

The Financial Times, The Atlantic, and Bloomberg, are among media companies that produce events as one of their diversified revenue streams. They are also among those that have had to evolve their revenue strategy as their teams hit their stride with virtual events.

Maturing virtual events strategies

In March, FT Live went from being completely focused on physical events to virtual in just days. As a test, they launched The Global Economic Emergency webinar. And with just three days of promotion, they racked up over 7,000 attendees who logged in to watch.

“We had these huge numbers, and it was a bit of a lightbulb moment for us,” explained Orson Francescone, the Managing Director of FT Live. “We quickly realized that we could do something bigger and bolder.”

Weeks later, the company launched The Global Boardroom. The three-day event featured 110 remote speakers and boasted 52,000 registrations. The event focused on the impact of coronavirus on policy, business, and finance. And it was so popular that a second edition is scheduled for November.

The Atlantic has seen similar success with online registrants, with over 20,000 attendees attending their 28 virtual events. “It’s a larger audience than we would have been able to convene in person,” said Aretae Wyler, COO of The Atlantic. “It’s more international, and we’re seeing the same caliber of attendees.”

Bloomberg faced a different challenge with virtual events, as they already had an established Bloomberg TV offering. For them, it wasn’t a matter of a pivot to video. Rather, it was creating a distinct experience and value proposition for a new offering. This meant the focus for its virtual events had to be on the level of interaction attendees could have, and what the value would be for sponsors.

“Once we got crisp on these elements…what we needed from a platform, resource, and process perspective became self-evident,” Bloomberg Live’s Global Head Patrick Garrigan explained. “Not only are our audiences tuning in, they’re staying with us and engaging.”

The value for sponsors

For Bloomberg Live, attracting sponsors came down to the basics of why clients support events in-person. “We distil it down to three core attributes: thought leadership, brand awareness, and content creation and amplification,” said Garrigan. “Similar to in-person, it then becomes a matter of identifying how our platform can deliver on these metrics.”

Bloomberg delivers this by creating sponsor “moments” throughout its virtual programs, as well as allowing sponsors to share the perspectives of their senior leaders. They then share segments from the events widely across Bloomberg channels.

For the FT, it is their technology stack – as well as their access to large global audiences – that has been a key selling point for sponsors. Early on, the team focused on ensuring they had a strong analytics functionality in place. 

“We can analyze who is attending, what stage of the event, how they are engaging, and serve this intelligence to our sponsors,” Francescone outlined. “Sponsors really enjoy our platform because it’s giving them, from an ROI point of view, much bigger and more detailed numbers than in a physical environment.”

Big numbers are also a draw for The Atlantic’s sponsors. The publisher is gearing up for The Atlantic Festival in September which will be entirely virtual, and free to attend. Whereas they would normally have 3,000 in-person attendees, the team is targeting between one and 2 million registrants for the virtual version. 

Sponsor interest has grown as The Atlantic’s confidence in their model and ability to pull in high-caliber attendees. “Most of the sponsors that we have worked with in-person have been interested in trying this model with us,” said Wyler. “Part of that is the belief they have in our power to convene and engage audiences. We’ve maintained a 75% average watch time for our audience, which is pretty incredible.”

Reader revenue and data

When it comes to audience revenue, the FT is now charging delegates for all its events from autumn onwards. But for the second edition of its Global Boardroom event in November, FT Live is taking a freemium approach. 

The event has three tiers of ticketing. First, they’ll offer a free pass which gives live access to talks, Q&As and polls. A  $65 pass provides on-demand access to all talks and summary reports. The professional pass, at $385, adds 1-1 networking, exclusive access to extra sessions, and a business community area.

Beyond ticket sales, the FT sees long-term opportunities for the newly engaged data. “Of the 52,000 people we had attending The Global Boardroom, about 75% were completely new to us,” said Francescone. These attendees can be monetized not just through the event, but as part of the FT’s core subscription strategy. 

The Atlantic also sees opportunity in bringing in new subscribers. “We are constantly thinking about how this can be a driver of subscription growth,” Wyler emphasized. “The benefit of virtual events is that it’s an opportunity to convene both the superfans, but also to introduce The Atlantic to new audiences.”

In previous years, tickets to the in-person Atlantic Festival have ranged from $50 to $975. However, registration to the virtual Festival in September this year is free. That said, there will be subscriber-only benefits like exclusive sessions and Q&A opportunities to bring value to existing subscribers and entice new joiners.

Bloomberg has historically not charged for its events. However, the exception is their Bloomberg Breakaway CEO membership community, where virtual events have been leveraged as part of the membership package.

“We’ve created content that is exclusively for members. It gives them the tools, best practices, and essential feedback to grapple with the issues that are impacting business,” said Garrigan, highlighting the opportunity to provide another touchpoint to members through virtual events.

The future of virtual business events

Garrigan sees virtual events being a part of Bloomberg Live’s programming for the foreseeable future. “Given Bloomberg Media’s global footprint, virtual events are such a natural fit,” he said. “While we are incredibly eager to get back to in-person events as soon as it’s safe to do so…[virtual events] serve as a way to connect broad geographies in real-time that may not be able to join us in-room.”

For FT Live, their early success gave the team the confidence to run events for the rest of the year in a digital form. But for 2021, they are being cautious. Francescone suspects that they will iterate towards a hybrid event model. However, details (such as access and pricing) are still to be determined.

“We’ve set up a small internal task force within FT Live which is examining what the future is going to look like,” he explained. “What people’s preferences might be today might not be the same not only in five  years’ time, but in months or even weeks.”

These publishers may have the scale that makes it easier to convince top-tier sponsors to get on board, but there are lessons for publishers of all sizes. Virtual events offer a wider audience and higher engagement than in-person events, whether that be hundreds or thousands of attendees. 

As for reader revenue, features like on-demand viewing or virtual networking can be sold as an add-on, or as a subscriber-only benefit. The key is being flexible in your offerings and understanding what your audience will respond to as the situation evolves.

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives

As identity solutions evolve, smart publishers see an opportunity

As Chief Revenue Officer of BritePool, I am on the front lines every day talking with publishers, agencies, SSPs, DSPs, and advertisers about our identity resolution service. As you can imagine, Chrome’s announcement that it will end support for third-party cookies comes up in every one of those conversations.

My non-scientific sample of these conversations finds publishers fall into three distinct groups. The first group talks about “Chromageddon,” and the “identity crisis.” The second group is preoccupied with managing the current business during this pandemic and tells me “we will deal with the issue in 2021.” The final group sees this shift as the “identity opportunity.”

As a salesperson, it’s my nature to be optimistic. It’s also my nature to make things happen, with determination. My goal is to shape the future, by identifying problems and offering the best possible solutions. Of course, my position also makes me inherently biased. Nonetheless, I believe the future belongs to those who accept the dimensions of the new cookieless world and shape their business to grasp this opportunity. Where some see lemons, they see lemonade.

Those who see an “identity opportunity” seem to share five beliefs or approaches:

1. They have a strategy and they are not complacent.

At this moment, there are many reasons digital publishers are putting off addressing the identity issue. The most common reasons I hear for “call me next year,” are: (1) The IAB will develop an industry response, (2) The Google Sandbox will solve our problems, (3) Google won’t really do it, or (4) My plate is full as I try to remotely manage a business that should be run in-person.

On the other hand, publishers who see opportunity recognize that all solutions will require a long-term effort, which must start now. I have met with publishers who tell me, “no matter what happens with the IAB or Google Sandbox we have an internal goal of increasing self-identified visitors,” often “by 5X or 10X in the next 18 months.” The phrase that most sticks in my mind was from the publishing executive who said, “If we know our visitors, everything else will fall into place.”

As part of their strategy, this group also has a clear sense of how identity targeting with their properties fits into the marketing needs of clients, and the distinct benefits these publisher offer as compared to CTV services, mobile apps, social media, and a myriad other digital alternatives. This guiding purpose informs the questions executives at these publishers ask me, and ultimately their choices for solution providers.

2. They plan to grab share from Google and Facebook.

In an earlier article for DCN, BritePool’s CEO, David J. Moore, argued that Google and Facebook dominate digital advertising for a simple reason: They know the identities of their users, who log-in to use their services. In contrast, most web publishers know the identities of a fraction of their visitors.

Inaccurate and inefficient third-party cookies created the illusion of effective identity targeting. Now, publishers have realized that accurate, 1:1 identity verification leads to far higher CPM’s, a better experience for consumers (through true ad frequency caps) and the opportunity to compete effectively with the walled gardens. They also believe that advertisers want to reduce their dependence on Google and Facebook.

These digital publishers are actively looking for providers of identity resolution services that will help to fulfill this promise.

Many advertisers believe the walled Gardens are far too opaque in their reporting. Thus, in addition to precise 1:1 ad delivery, digital publishers are looking to solve the problem of attribution,

3. They are strategically skeptical.

The many issues associated with brand safety, transparency in the supply chain, inaccurate delivery of cookie-based campaigns, and bidding issues in programmatic buys have justifiably led publishers to ask that vendors demonstrate they can deliver on their promises.

Moreover, I have yet to meet a publisher who plans to rely on a single identity resolution vendor. As a strategy, digital publishers who plan to win will ensure they have multiple options for ad delivery in a cookieless world.

4. They want simplicity.

The potential complexity involved in identity targeting is high. PII (personally identifiable information) may need to be securely and safely exchanged. Data sharing agreements may need to be negotiated. And, the list goes on.

Web publishers seek solutions that make their lives easy, simple, secure, and safe, as they approach and realize the cookieless future.

5. They look for indications of credibility.

Recently, Adweek noted that “Identity is one of the fastest-changing and most competitive spaces in digital advertising.” For this essential but highly competitive space, publishing executives know that many solutions will be marketed, but few will survive. Moreover, these executives recognize that their time is a precious resource and allocate it thoughtfully.

As a result, as I work to schedule initial meetings, many publishing executives effectively ask: “Why is meeting with you a good use of my time?” This is a critical component and we need to have good answers. (I have several, but most compelling is the fact that two of the nation’s largest advertisers are testing BritePool’s service.)

Conclusion

I have always believed that in business, and in life, we create our own opportunities. Luck is a factor. But luck will not decide whether the demise of the third-party cookies leads to success or failure among digital publishers. In this case, I’d say luck favors the strategic optimists: those who recognize that success will require a long-term effort, one that cannot wait.

Featured Post | Innovation

How CUNY’s Anita Zielina cultivates change leaders in the media business

The outbreak of Covid-19 and the growing realization that systemic racism is a “pandemic within a pandemic” highlight the critical need for trustworthy news and information. Yet it comes at a time when the media business is fighting a major battle of its own. Disrupted by the deterioration of revenue streams and business models, and devastated by what Reuters Institute estimates could be a $20 billion drop in income available to media worldwide, news media businesses face what has been described as an “extinction event.”

At this transformative moment for news media, executives must cultivate the skills to take charge of change. Otherwise they risk being crushed by it. Planning and priorities must focus on the approaches that make journalism viable and sustainable. Which raises the question: What are the new paths to excellence and profitability? The answers revolve around retooling teams to drive culture change and manage transformation in their news organizations.

Continuing our series of DCN video interviews, I talk to Anita Zielina, Director of Innovation and Leadership at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Zielina, who shapes CUNY’s executive education and leadership initiatives, draws from her own change-making career in several media organizations. Her experience includes stints at Switzerland’s NZZ Media group, Germany’s Stern and Austria’s Der Standard, to provide insights on what’s needed to run an innovative, customer-centric, and sustainable news media business.

Here are three key takeaways from our talk: 

Open career paths for digital natives

News media organizations have to improve ongoing training and overcome their own digital divides. “We are running into a terrible talent crisis in journalism,” Zielina says. Many young people entering the profession are not getting what they want most. They want the freedom to reimagine news and explore the digital storytelling technologies and models that can make it possible – and even profitable.

Be representative of the audiences you serve

Local newsrooms, which provide community coverage at a time when audiences are eager to know what is going on in their city or district, are well-positioned to come out of the pandemic strong, Zielina says. But the sustainable edge comes when news organizations listen to underrepresented communities and make a greater effort to include them as part of their newsrooms.

Revenue models are ready for a rethink

Media organizations get high marks for efforts to grasp analytics. The next step is to combine data points to arrive at a more holistic view of the consumer and what they are willing to pay for. This will require media leaders to open the aperture of how they view audiences and the value they can offer. Events, membership, exclusive content, and subscriptions can all be part of the mix. But no matter the revenue model, the requirement for a deeper understanding of “what people expect from you and why they are passionate about you” is a universal constant, Anita says.

Zielina also offers insights around the future prospects for news media and the key skills and capabilities needed to weather the post-pandemic storm.

Watch the full interview:

Advertising | Innovation | Revenue

How to build the house of addressable TV

Houses are built differently across the globe, designed to local customs and to suit individual owners. But the basic structural elements are the same. Every house needs a foundation, a floor, walls and a roof. The same is true of addressable TV. It requires four essential building blocks, ideally assembled by the people with the knowledge and toolkit to create a sustainable structure.     

By making linear TV addressable, advertisers can enjoy the best of both the TV and digital worlds. They can combine the reach and high engagement levels of TV with the in-depth insights and targeting capabilities of digital. This enables them to deliver a relevant and engaging experience tailored to individual households. A five-year Sky Media study reveals the impact and resonance of addressable, finding it boosts TV ad engagement by more than a third and cuts channel switching by half.

But as these two worlds come together – the complex world of digital and the long-established world of TV – there will inevitably be challenges and complications to overcome. These challenges aren’t just technical, in fact ongoing technological innovation is continually making addressable inventory quicker and simpler to buy. Building the house of addressable TV requires something more sophisticated than a technical solution, it requires the following four building blocks, each with a theme of unification.      

Block one: Unified ecosystem

Collaboration across the entire ecosystem is vital to provide a sustainable structure for addressable TV. And everyone has their individual part to play. Broadcasters are the keepers of the user experience and the holders of the premium content brands are advertising around, while operators are the ones with the customer data to create and empower relevant targeting. Broadcasters and operators are already working together and getting ready for addressable. In the UK, for instance, Sky and Channel 4 formed a partnership last year enabling Channel 4 to use Sky’s AdSmart technology to deliver fully-targeted, addressable ads across its linear channels.

But broadcasters and operators on their own aren’t enough. Tech partners are crucial, from data management partners and measurement providers to ad servers. No amount of endpoints will bring the sophistication needed in ad decisioning without the right technology to underpin the process. To build a solid structure for addressable all parties must commit to relevant partnerships and share knowledge, rather than prioritizing competitive advantage.

Measurement is undoubtedly a big challenge when it comes to the broader adoption of addressable solutions by the TV networks. Addressable impressions are allocated from TV’s overall audience and additional value derived from selling an addressable campaign is linked to the ability to “adjust” the underlying linear rating.

To solve this, third-party measurement firms will be needed to build fair methodology for addressable endpoints. They will also need the operators and technology firms that enable these ad insertions to provide them access to addressable ad impressions.

Block two: Unified view

The second building block in the house of addressable TV is a unified audience view. Addressable allows transactions to cross the border between linear and digital with ease. Ultimately advertisers won’t buy linear or digital inventory, they’ll just buy great TV content across a single, converged and integrated platform. And it doesn’t stop at TV; insight across TV, mobile, and all connected devices will help advertisers gain a more granular and strategic understanding when reaching audiences. 

This sounds like an idyllic situation, with a single view meaning unified audiences and easier decision-making that will improve campaign performance and simplify everyday processes. But changing the model in this way is a big shift for the entire industry, and agencies, advertisers, broadcasters and operators each need time to prepare for this currency change. The industry will need to establish standardized values for touchpoints across digital and TV, meaning that everyone needs to be onboard to make a unified view successful.

Block three: Unified reach

The next component of a successful addressable TV framework is unified reach. Targeting linear TV audiences today is well-refined guesswork, but with addressable there is no need to guess anymore, and probabilities become a thing of the past. Data-led decisioning ensures ads are delivered to the right audiences while they are watching the TV screen, regardless of programming or time of day. Addressable will become a powerful complement to the existing mass distribution approach of linear TV, as it can be delivered alongside traditional ads within the multiple slots of each commercial break.

Advertisers who do embrace addressable should apply caution around over targeting. Just because brands know who they’re advertising to doesn’t mean they should target that individual with the same ad over and over again. Advertisers must be shrewd with addressability. They need to go beyond a generic message with nationwide appeal but avoid the over targeting trap digital display occasionally falls into. Brands should use unified reach with creativity, becoming storytellers to their audiences.        

Block four: Unified reporting

Last but not least, the house of addressable TV needs unified reporting. From broadcasters and operators to agencies and advertisers, all parties need to be saying the same thing and singing from the same song sheet. The other building blocks are less effective if the ecosystem doesn’t report in a standardised and transparent format. 

Reporting has been one of the biggest successes of linear TV. Ratings provide a gold standard that everyone understands, so addressable advertising needs to embrace that standard, marrying the qualities of linear and digital and the granularity of data from both worlds. There will inevitably be debate around collection methods but the most important thing is everyone reports in the same way. Standardised, transparent post-campaign reporting for each audience segment will help to drive adoption of addressable.

Addressable TV advertising has many benefits. But making it work for everyone – regardless of the design of their house – requires more than just a technical solution. By putting in place the four vital building blocks of unified ecosystem, unified view, unified reach and unified reporting, the industry can embrace the best of linear and digital, and assemble a strong, sustainable structure for addressable TV.     

Featured Post | Innovation

Why HBR’s Maureen Hoch is focused on high-touch content right now

Media consumption in the Covid-19 era is hitting record levels as captivated audiences try to stay on top of non-stop news headlines and updates. It’s an upward spiral that is causing a massive shift in consumer behavior. But new research from J.P. Morgan shows that audiences are specifically gravitating to established media outlets that make sense out of news developments – not just report them. 

Harvard Business Review (HBR), is finding new success – and subscribers – with a lively mix of content. Their strategy combines in-depth analysis, podcasts, and social media experiments to put all aspects of our “new normal” into perspective. From how to maintain a work-life balance to how to cope with grief and loss, HBR is increasing reach and revenues by providing audiences analysis and answers.

To kick off our new series of DCN video interviews, I talk to Maureen Hoch, Editor of  HBR.org and Managing Director, Digital Content of Harvard Business Publishing. Hoch leads Harvard Business Review’s digital newsroom and the HBP Content Lab. She joined HBR as Senior Editor in 2013. And she played an instrumental role in the redesign of HBR.org, which has since garnered three Webby awards. We discuss how HBR is harnessing podcasts and narration, as well as a growing portfolio of new audience projects, to keep audiences informed and connected. 

Here are three key takeaways from our talk:

Speed matters, but advice triumphs

At first, Hoch says, HBR switched gears to publish information and insights at a “newsroom pace.” This cemented HBR’s position as a prime destination for hard analysis, around the business impact of the crisis. But the incredible success (“millions of page views”) of high-touch articles is shaping a new approach to storytelling that focuses on people first.

Audiences have a sizeable appetite for digestible content

Longer-form content is a hit with audiences, but audio versions of magazine articles knock the ball out of the park. HBR relies on a mix of narration and curation to engage audiences online and in-app. But this is just the start as HBR continues to look for more audience-first ways to make content accessible and forge the relationships that make it happen.

Audio content strikes a chord

Podcasts are driving audience engagement and subscriber numbers. But where is the money? Hoch discusses the models working for them to power monetization and increase retention. These include selling sponsorship on a CPM basis as well as more inventive models (“exclusive audio features”).

Hoch also offers some practical tips on how to emulate HBR’s success.

Watch the full interview: 

Featured Post | Innovation

Food brands deliver a hearty response to changing consumption habits

As we begin to adapt to new routines amidst the coronavirus crisis, food publishers have seen a large rise in audience numbers and engagement. People facing weeks at home with limited take-out options (and even limited cooking skills) have turned to food sites and networks in droves. They’re looking for inspiration and guidance about everything from baking to budget meal planning.

However, these publishers have had to deal with challenges of their own. Production teams, editorial staff and studio stars have all had to adapt to remote working and changing audience demands.  

Record-breaking ratings

One food publisher rising to the challenge is Condé Nast’s digital consumer-focused food brand Epicurious. The site has seen a surge in overall traffic of 69% year over year, according to Digital Director David Tamarkin. For the five years he has been at Epicurious, he says the title has focused on “realistic cooking: the kind of cooking that happens when you’re juggling childcare, or got home late from work, or the kind of cooking you do on the weekends when you have more time.” And that, it seems, aligns with the times.

Epicurius’ focus has pushed daily average traffic up +88% as audiences search for accessible recipes. The publisher is also seeing unexpected success with its eCommerce revenue. It’s seen a “huge increase” in sales of baking-related products, such as kitchen scales, which have seen a 1,000% year over year increase. Meal delivery services sold through Epicurious were another stand-out–up an astonishing 388% in March. And even individual grocery items, which are typically not high performers for the site, were up 59%.

“Because we’ve been operating with what we call a ‘home cook realness’ always in mind, it feels like we’ve been preparing for a moment like this – a moment where people suddenly find themselves cooking more than they ever have before,” Tamarkin explained. “Our content is all about helping people be smarter, more nimble, more joyful cooks, so it makes sense to me that it is resonating at the moment.”

It’s not just food-focused websites seeing growth. In April, Discovery Network’s Food Network channel saw record-breaking ratings over the weekends, as audiences tuned in looking for entertainment, community and recipe inspiration. The network reached more than 46 million viewers, which is a 6% year over year increase, and also delivered its best month ever in Weekday Daytime ratings. Early figures for May have yet to be finalized. But a Food Network representative confirmed that it is showing a similar pattern to April.

Adapting content strategies

Epicurious was quick to fine tune its editorial strategy as stay-at-home measures kicked in. “We pivoted to pantry-building content almost immediately, creating a two-week meal plan that exclusively uses shelf-stable ingredients,” said Tamarkin. “Then we launched Cooking Through It – a series of 10-day meal plans that used hyper-flexible recipes.”

This approach allowed people to do one big shop that would last for ten days or more, in order to minimize trips out. Epicurious has also seen success with its recipe-finding tool that allows readers to search recipes based on the ingredients they have on hand. They are also preparing to launch a series of articles about affordable cooking, which will continue for the foreseeable future.

Food Network on the other hand has made only slight changes to its programming. “There is a slight additional focus on pantry staples and making sure to discuss substitutions should anyone at home not have specific ingredients. But we haven’t been hyper focused on changing the shows too much,” said President Courtney White. Their focus now is on keeping their scheduling flush with premier episodes, rather than relying on repeats.

Coping with production challenges

When it comes to planning shows from home, Food Network’s team has been quick to adapt. “Fortunately, many of our talent were fairly easy to get up and running,” White explained. “With production partners also working from home, the creativity and nimbleness to continue to create, edit, and deliver content that audiences enjoy has been an ongoing evolution.”

White explained that Food Network’s programming has been bolstered by self-shot shows such as The Kitchen Quarantine Edition, The Pioneer Woman: Staying Home, and the ‘Guy at Home Watch Party’ edition of Tournament of Champions. “We want to be there for our viewers, and now more than ever as so many find themselves sheltering at home,” White said. “We’ve enhanced the lineup with even more comfort food shows and trusted food personalities.”

For Epicurious, the editorial team is relying on tools like Zoom and Slack to communicate and discuss how to best help their readers through their recipes, menu ideas and videos. “Helpfulness is in Epicurious’ DNA. But it’s rare that we see the impact of the content we put out in such an immediate way,” Tamarkin concluded.

As audiences continue to seek out practical content to help them navigate the everyday challenges of the crisis, these brands have spotted an opportunity. Publishers who can capitalize on this surge in attention and build loyalty now will be in a strong position to maintain this engagement as we settle into the much anticipated “new normal.”

Featured Post | Innovation | Video

With a new live LinkedIn show, HBR connects with readers on coping in the wake of Covid-19

As the world adjusts to the “new normal” of remote working life, forward-thinking publishers have been coming up with new ways to connect with their audiences and help them through the crisis. In a matter of weeks, Harvard Business Review has spun up its own live video offering: HBR Quarantined. 

HBR’s new weekly LinkedIn Live show focuses on how businesses are coping with the consequences of coronavirus. The show, co-hosted by Editor in Chief Adi Ignatius and Chief Product and Innovation Officer Joshua Macht, debuted on April 27 with Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Thomas Friedman as a special guest.

Ignatius, Macht and HBR’s Senior Multimedia Editor Scott LaPierre talked to DCN about what prompted the launch, how the first show went, and where they plan to take it in the future.

Evolving an idea

The initial concept for HBR Quarantined stemmed from Ignatius and Macht wanting to explore their dynamic in different formats. “Adi and I go way back together. We’ve grown accustomed to taking chances together and inventing things,” Macht said, explaining that a podcast was initially on the table. “Within weeks we went from, ‘Maybe we should launch a podcast,’ to ‘We’re going to do a live television show on a platform that’s pretty new.’ Then, all of a sudden, we had a show.” 

Ignatius said that the genesis of the idea came from a desire to connect with the millions of their audience who are now working from home. “They, like us, are wondering, ‘When do we get to go back to work, and what will work look like when we do?’” he explained. “We’re always talking about these issues. So we figured we could do a service delivering insight on COVID-19 and how it affects businesses and the economy.”

But unlike other HBR products, the show is designed to have a very different tone. “Harvard Business Review tends to be a brand that speaks to a very high altitude. That’s our secret sauce: high-level pieces that are based on research,” Ignatius emphasized.

“This show is something different. It’s meant to be warmer, really connecting in the moment. We’re all in the same boat and trying to figure this out together. So, it’s certainly an experimentation with a different kind of voice for us.”

Viability in quarantine

Under normal circumstances, a product like this would be resource-intensive. But LaPierre highlighted that quarantine has actually lowered the bar for everyone in terms of production values and expectations. 

“The way a lot of video producers are seeing the COVID-19 crisis, perversely, is as an opportunity to try new things,” he said. “HBR is not a TV station. We only have a small video team. So it would be hard for us to launch a true broadcast live video series. But now, everyone’s been equalized in terms of what they’re capable of doing. It’s a chance for us to make a viable series that doesn’t look that different from what others are doing.”

LinkedIn’s Live tool is just over a year old, and the platform was relatively late to the video space compared to its competitors. But for HBR, their vast social following on LinkedIn – 10.2 million followers – made it an obvious choice to debut this type of show. 

The team began by testing out a high-level broadcast tool. However, that was proving problematic as it wasn’t suited to their purposes. “We pivoted to something called StreamYard, which is a ‘prosumer’ grade software that allows you to stream live, but is a lot more lightweight,” explained LaPierre.

Live streaming can be risky in terms of technical hitches. But HBR’s first show went smoothly, attracting 35,000 live viewers and thousands of comments during the stream. Ignatius highlighted the long-tail benefits of the video as well, with total views doubling in just a few days.

The biggest surprise for the team was the lack of drop-offs. “Everyone was saying we would have these spikes in viewers. But actually, people showed up for the whole thing, and it just kept growing,” Macht explained. 

HBR Quarantined post-quarantine

When it comes to the future of HBR Quarantined, the team is remaining flexible. They have a total of six episodes planned so far. However, they will be constantly reviewing what the response is to them and what their audience needs going forward.

“I was pleasantly surprised that it went off as well as it did. But it will be interesting to see where it goes,” commented Ignatius. “I think there is something of a service that we can provide for our readers. There’s knowledge and insight about what’s going on, and we want to see what that means post-quarantine.”

HBR is also scouting out potential sponsors. They believe the show offers a timely opportunity for advertisers to reach their audience with messaging related to the moment. “There is not a lot of sponsorship money out there these day. And part of our experiment was to find a new medium that was of the moment,” explained Ignatius. 

But sponsorship aside, future episodes will be focused on trying to engage people with the brand, and with the wider goals of bringing people into HBR’s subscription funnel. “The show is good for getting people to engage with our brand, and we want to continue to grow the number of people visiting the site,” Macht concluded. 

Featured Post | Innovation

The time is right for AR: Inside Axel Springer’s immersive travel experience

Life in unprecedented times is propelling our collective experiences enhanced by Augmented Reality (AR) an unexpected boost. Companies are scrambling to provide audiences with meaningful ways to spend days stuck at home or add value for the over one billion students continuing their education from home, rather than school. People can tour colleges, national parks, and museums online. Google’s AR objects in search—announced last year—are finally getting their due as people bring virtual tigers, leopards and cats into their living rooms to keep a nation full of home-schoolers entertained.

Businesses are also getting in on the action. They are sending a clear signal to publishers that the ability to offer immersive advertising experiences may be their best way to monetize their platforms and properties. From shoe company Asics’ virtual-reality shoe launch to Animmersion’s fast-tracked immersive meeting spaces, AR and VR is crossing the chasm and blending the boundaries between content and advertising.

Smart content companies are moving quickly to take advantage of the burgeoning interest. One of those companies is Axel Springer, which commands one of the biggest media portfolios in Europe. Made up of about 100 print titles, over 70 online sites, and more than 200 digital ventures worldwide, Axel Springer is a venerated German publisher. However Chris Krauss, senior product manager with spring_, a division of Axel Springer, told me that they have more than media ambitions. “We want to become a media tech company,” he said. With 400 employees, spring_ is an “enabler” to help all of Axel Springer’s brands adopt digital technologies to engage audiences and attract advertisers.

AR for the masses

A key part of executing that strategy is a partnership with HEADGEAR. The mobile-first agency for immersive B2C activations has expertise in building experiences for educational, entertaining, or visualization purposes. To make the experiences accessible to all consumers, not just those with VR goggles or AR glasses, the company has prioritized mobile AR for consumer adoption.

Together, Axel Springer and HEADGEAR are working to bring AR to the masses. Their first effort is a virtual tour of the California coast. It premiered in the print edition of the Welt am Sonntag (a Sunday newspaper belonging to the publisher Die Welt) in March. The tour lets people grounded by coronavirus take in the breathtaking view from Pacific Highway 1 at Carmel-by-the-Sea or check out the California sea lions near San Simeon.

It’s stunning. But, more importantly, it’s seamless. “You touch your screen to place this AR portal,” says Krauss. “Then literally walk through it and you find yourself in another place somewhere in the world.”

Empowering editors

The collaboration with HEADGEAR effectively allows editors to create AR portals – which appear in front of a user – that will transport a reader to a new location. In practice, any content team member with some experience in 3D modeling has the skillset to build a “simple doorway” into an AR world, according to Philip Wogart. He is co-founder of HEADGEAR and Executive Director DACH for the VR AR Association, an international organization designed to foster collaboration between companies and brands in VR and AR. “Once you have the portal, it’s no different than any other kind of filming, except that you need a 360 camera to do it.”

However, HEADGEAR’s tools aren’t just easy for publishers to use, they also simplify the experience for readers. It is built on top of the 8th Wall platform. So, readers don’t need to download an app to access the AR experience. Instead, audiences can access other worlds and rich experiences right through their browser.

This means “publishers can add Augmented Reality to any type of online advertising or any type of content really,” Wogart explains. “In this case, the Travel section of Sunday newspapers got enhanced with our portals. The print and desktop article included QR codes that readers could quickly scan with the smartphone camera app. Then they’d be automatically redirected to the AR browser experience.”

“WebAR is compatible with more devices than standalone apps (IKEA Places) and apps with embedded AR experiences (Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat) because the tech is not dependent upon iOS or Android versions but rather a JavaScript library for Chrome or Safari.” –Philip Wogart

Easy AR for everyone

This web-based experience is not just immersive, it’s also frictionless. Consumers don’t need an app. And brands and publishers don’t need to be convinced that AR is a new tool in their toolkit they can start using now to engage audiences. “A simple experience is the first step to reaching massive audiences,” Krauss explains. “So this first AR experience is kind of a test.

But it’s not a one-off.” He sees this as a tool they can provide to editorial departments across Axel Springer). It will allow them to create and run AR portals and experiences. This, in turn should make it easier for them to start their own series. It will also allow their readers to get immersed within the world of the article (360° video) all using just their smartphone.

In this scenario, the tool is part of a white-label package. “We customize it for the new customer and then they can create their own editorial AR content with 360-degree immersive video,” Krauss explains. The goal is to roll it out within Axel Springer. We’ll make it available to all the publishers and titles within the group.

Significantly, AR, which used to be a hard-sell to publishers, just got easier for Krauss and his team. “Within the first 24 hours of publishing the print and digital editions, we had over 20,000 views of 3 AR experiences,” he explains. “This is an impressive number alone. But we are also calculating a 30% conversion rate for those completing the entire experience. This is amazing as it’s not a tech-savvy audience we’re addressing here. It’s 40 and up. These readers haven’t been experimenting with AR the same ways teenagers have on Snap and other platforms.”

WELT am Sonntag in March 29th edition – p. 62 Travel Section full-page spread

The potential for AR

This pilot, and the positive initial results, give the companies the support they need to pursue a mission that has been top of their agenda for years. It’s all about making AR exciting and inclusive for audiences and removing the friction that has slowed its move to the mainstream.

The implications here aren’t just editorial. Smart publishers can work with advertisers to create immersive experiences that will help keep brands top of mind during the coronavirus outbreak. It will also allow grateful readers to escape reality for a few minutes.

Just imagine if a tourism board or automotive company sponsored Axel Springer’s virtual drive. Well, that opportunity is exactly what Axel Springer’s in-house agency Brand Studio is offering to advertisers and their clients across all their publications using HEADGEAR’s AR tools. It is pretty compelling stuff. In fact, after the AR experience, consumers might find themselves inspired to book the first flight to San Francisco as soon as travel bans are lifted.

Featured Post | Innovation

Pandemic parenting: How Parents.com is pivoting its digital strategy to serve readers in a time of crisis

As schools close around the world and a growing number of people are having to juggle home working and childcare, parents face unique challenges in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the Meredith Corp. brand Parents.com has responded with a radical shift to serve their audience.

Julia Dennison is the Executive Editor at Parents.com. She and her now fully-remote team have pivoted their digital strategy to provide advice and resources to parents during the coronavirus crisis.

The crisis has come on so quickly that just four weeks ago, the team were debating whether to even cover coronavirus. “We try to stay in our beat. We have a sister site Health.com that we syndicate content from,” Dennison explained. But it quickly became apparent that this would need Parents.com’s own input.

“Our initial thinking was that this was going to affect a lot of people. So we looked at search trends to see what terms we could answer from a parenting-resource point of view.”

The content pivot

Looking at search trends and responding is something the Parents.com team are well-practiced in doing. It has helped form a more strategic response to the content they have now produced, which has three primary areas.

The first is a comprehensive guide to coronavirus for parents, covering everything from how the virus is affecting pregnant women, to basic tips around sterilizing thermometers. This was the initial content strategy the editorial team focused on, and have been updating ever since.

“We’ve been really trying to just watch the trends and respond to them with informative content,” Dennison explained. “More than ever, parents need a reliable, trustworthy, and relatable source. We’re really trying to lean into our specialty.”

The second area is creating content that is supportive to parents. “Parents are going through the hardest test of parenthood they’ve probably ever gone through,” said Dennison. “It’s testing everything about parenthood to its limits.” In response, Parents.com have been working to create resources to help parents feel less isolated. This ranges from tips to how to cope with childcare to how to discuss the crisis with younger children.

As part of this, Dennison has been documenting her own experiences as a daily video blog on YouTube. Like many parents today, Dennison is juggling childcare with working from home. “I wanted to document that and show the world that I might be the Executive Editor of Parents.com, but I’m finding this just as hard as everybody else is.”

As video rises in popularity during the pandemic, the Parents.com team are looking out for ways to produce more content remotely, including having Editor in Chief Julia Edelstein read stories over Instagram Live.

The final strategic area involves creating entertaining content for both parents and children. “We’re trying to focus on heartwarming stories to lift people’s mood, and to keep them positive,” Dennison said. From a neighborhood drive-by to celebrate a birthday, to more practical resources around the best educational apps for children, the aim is to both help parents keep their children entertained, and also uplift the parents themselves.

Driving online growth

The swift digital pivot is paying off. By the end of March, views of articles in Parents.com’s ‘Fun’ section were up 40% week on week. There was particular growth within the section of articles on activities and printables (up 89% and 88% respectively). And entertainment content has seen a massive 110% spike in views.

The video blog has also had a “tremendous response, according to Dennison. “People are just grateful to see that other people are going through what they’re going through. I’m a mom, and we have a few moms on our team. I know how hard it is.”

This relatability, coupled with keeping a close eye on search terms has helped the digital team avoid some obvious topic traps. “We could easily have leaned into creating elaborate schedules for parents to put their kids on, and that homeschool setup,” she said. But that wasn’t the right approach for their audience.

This has resulted in a surge in positive responses to the brand on social media. “People appreciate just being told that they’re doing the best job they ca. And we’re here to help them do that,” said Dennison. “Parents are having to step up and perform the impossible. And so how, as a brand, can we be there for them?”

A post-pandemic lens

Many of Parents.com’s plans for upcoming content have had to be adjusted. They are shifting perspectives on a planned spotlight digital issue for the International Day of Maternal Health and Rights in April, looking at how America can improve birthing.

“We’ve been planning that for months. All of a sudden we’re having to pivot and see everything through this post-pandemic lens,” Dennison explained. “We’re seeing hospitals banning partners from being in the delivery room due to Covid-19. It’s a really scary time to be giving birth, and in this context it’s only going to get worse, so we have a bigger duty than ever to produce this content.”

In the longer term, Dennison is particularly interested in the crossover between parenting and education. She’s also thinking about what the impact will be for parents who have to continue working full time while also looking after their children. “We’re looking at what we can do in terms of resources to lean into the educational side of things, and how parents can keep their kids going even if they can’t go to school,” she said.

But for now, the team is keeping a sharp eye on the search terms and listening out for what their audience want. “It’s a matter of seeing how this goes, and responding to it,” Dennison concluded. “On the digital side, it’s easy as we can be pretty responsive.”

“Life will be different after this. All these things we thought mattered at one point don’t. And then all of these new topics matter, so it’s recalibrating what we’re covering, and putting it through a post-pandemic lens.”

Featured Post | Innovation | Video

Complex Networks is making the most out of staying at home

These days, the new normal involves a whole lot of not going anywhere, and it’s a situation that’s wreaked havoc on businesses of all kinds. Yes, that includes streaming programming, too, particularly those of the scripted variety. While viewers abound, production shutdowns have placed the future of many programs on uncertain footing. Some shows have decided that they can –and will – go on, COVID-19 be damned. However, the inability to film within a standard studio environment has necessitated some serious outside-the-box thinking and a whole lot of making the most of what one has at hand.

For Complex Networks, this sort of thing is old hat. Some of their most successful series to date have emerged as a result of being scrappy in the face of budgetary and situational constraints.

Wings and chill

Take Hot Ones as one tasty example. It all started when Chris Schoenberger, GM of Complex Networks’ First We Feast, and host Sean Evans were setting up to interview a guest. After spying some hot sauce in the company kitchen, they came up with the idea of interviewing people while serving them hot wings.

“I think the wings have probably improved in quality since the first time around,” says Justin Killion, laughing. “And the sauce has certainly improved! But it came out of being as opportunistic as possible, given the limited resources that the company had at the time.”

If anyone would know, it’s Killion. He’s GM of Complex Networks and EVP of Operations and Content, and he knows everything there is to know about Complex programming. As such, when he suggests that a few semi-new series in Complex’s programming lineup have the potential to be an heir apparent to Hot Ones, you may want to add them to your “what to watch” list.

Fun and franchises

“If you’re talking about new franchises, Tacos Con Todo, which First We Feast just put out, that show is excellent, and we also did another one called Gochi Gang,” said Killion. “I think both of those are franchises that you’re going to see us double-down on and potentially do more of. But if you want to talk about a breakout show, Full Size Run is right on the cusp. It’s a little bit of an in-the-weeds sneaker show, for true sneakerheads. But it’s edited in a fashion not that dissimilar to what you see on Adult Swim. I’ve never really seen anything quite like it. I really don’t think there is anything quite like it!”

Killion knows all too well how much of a whirlwind the business of streaming entertainment has become in the face of the Coronavirus outbreak – and how much of a boost everyone’s numbers have gotten with people being stuck inside.

“Truth be told, we’re up 35 percent in engagement on our YouTube shows over the last two, two-and-a-half weeks,” said Killion. “That’s just incredible. Our dot.com is up over 20 percent. Our social is up significantly. We’ve seen a massive spike in Tik Tok. We’re doing about five times the daily views that we were doing prior to the quarantine.”

Thirst and lemonade

Looking at these numbers is one of the few ways to make lemonade out of the lemons everyone’s being handed lately. (And by “lemons,” of course, we mean “stay-at-home orders.”) But the public’s thirst for entertainment has also resulted in a certain degree of forgiveness from the viewership, which puts Complex in a position to try some things that they might never have risked doing before.

“The quality of the content still needs to be there. But we’re at a moment in time where no one’s getting dragged for putting out content that isn’t exactly up to their usual standards of polish,” said Killion. “That allows us to take chances that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to take. So, there’s been a lot of experimentation.”

Case and point: Life at Complex. In the pre-coronavirus world, the series involved host Tony Mui wandering around the Complex offices, interviewing staff members. Killion describes the show as “a look-how-cool-it-is-to-work-here kind of thing.” However, when everyone is suddenly working at home, you’re looking at some retooling.

Sole-ful solutions

“What Tony’s turned the show into is almost like an incubator each week for a different format that we’re gonna try,” explained Killion. “One episode is him checking in with all of [Complex’s] different deputy editors… Just kind of getting a sense of what their home life is like in general and getting to know them a little. Then, he did something called ‘Sneaker Battles,’ where he took Brendan Dunne, our host of Full Size Run, and paired him with someone from our editing team. They were comparing sneakers from their own personal closet, and had it judged by one of our directors of photography from Sneaker Shopping.”

Killion says that it’s a fun format that they were able to quickly pull together. However, he points out that, if they’d been producing the show prior to their current ad-hoc situation, “the level of polish on it would have to be significantly higher. We would’ve been shooting with a crew at four different locations to make that happen. Instead, it’s just turning on a computer monitor at four different locations!”

Advertising | Featured Post | Innovation | Revenue

Quick reflexes and hard news: The media industry’s new reality

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic has galvanized the media industry into action. Even as audience numbers have “skyrocketed,” the advertising revenue that sustains much of the media ecosystem has taken a sharp hit. And this, even as a new batch of advertisers seek to reach a newly minted niche of stay-at-homers, big spenders in retail and luxury markets are suspending buying activity. According to chief executive of G/O Media Jim Spanfeller, the situation feels similar to that following 9/11.

For some publications that are dependent on local advertising – those in local and regional media and freesheets/ alt weeklies – the situation is acute. There have already been some high-profile newspaper closures. Some publishers are already making cuts, and taking drastic measures to keep costs down, while continuing to pump out the news people need.  

Fiscal responsibility

Even some incredibly well-known media brands are being forced to reappraise models that have seemed sustainable in the past, with the Evening Standard freesheet in London cutting its circulation to manage costs as advertisers pull out. Its chief executive Mike Soutar noted that “in the context of currently lower advertising volumes, it makes good economic sense.”

Unfortunately, overzealous, often blunt, keyword blocking, and avoidance have long been an issue around news content, particularly as automation and advertising exchanges delivering “blind programmatic” have taken off. Of late, the situation has only grown more dire. In response, many have called for brands, agencies, ad verification firms, and other companies in the digital advertising supply chain not to block the news.

However, for every publication like Playboy – which is cancelling all print issues for 2020 – there are other media companies launching endeavors in the light of what seems likely to be “the new normal.” Given the uncertainty about whether the advertisers that have decamped will return, coronavirus has effectively pressed fast-forward on trends that have been ongoing for years, forcing publications to adapt quickly rather than relying on a slow tail of dwindling print advertising, news avoidance, and limited growth in subscription revenue.

Rapid digitalization

Jokes about Zoom being responsible for the outbreak aside, the pandemic has demonstrated the extent to which media businesses with events-based portfolios are exposed to mass shutdowns. Even with government support, some events-oriented media businesses are looking at furloughing employees, making redundancies, or shuttering entirely.

It’s been gratifying, then, to watch the speed which publishers large and small have transitioned to digital-only events. UK-based news start-up Tortoise, for instance, used its ‘ThinkIn’s (intimate events for members) as one of its key selling points in the first few months of its existence. Within a week of the (inadequate) UK government advice, it had transitioned to hosting Digital ThinkIns instead.

By doing so it is continuing to provide for its core audience, delivering on what its cofounder Katie Vanneck-Smith has described as a club-like mentality model of membership: “I think people will pay for what they value, and really brilliant businesses and brands have always built their businesses based on consumer insight, understanding what customers want, and then super-serving it.

“But I think, particularly in my industry, if you’re a newspaper – we’ve always had an arms-length relationship with the consumer, and that physical manifestation of the relationship we had actually became in many ways a cultural manifestation. And I think we lost that relationship. We forgot that ultimately we’re there at the service of our reader.”

Meanwhile, UK magazine The Big Issue is primarily there at the service of the seller. The magazine’s content is excellent. However, it is better known for the revenue-share model it operates with its street vendors, in order to lift them out of poverty. Noting that it – and therefore the vendors – will be hit hardest by a lack of footfall in cities, it has prioritized its digital subscriptions. While it is yet unclear about how the revenue share will work in the meantime, it has brought attention to the existence of the digital subscription offer at a time when readers are becoming habituated to paying in that way.

In the states, Gannett, which publishes about 100 local papers and 1,000 local weeklies, is trying its hand at supporting the local businesses that, in turn, are the lifeblood of its advertising. The media company launched a new website, Support Local, which encourages users to support local businesses in their community by buying gift cards for use at a later time.

Subscription trials

There is a separate debate to be had about whether news publishers should make their coronavirus coverage free to access. Many already have. What is undeniable, however, is that a raft of media companies have loosened or dropped their paywalls for the foreseeable future.

While many are motivated by a mandate to keep the public informed during this pandemic, some are doing so because event cancellations mean that they effectively have no product to sell. As sporting events are postponed or outright deleted from schedules, broadcasters with tentpole sports channels have transitioned to retention strategies. In the US, for instance, both the NFL and the NBA have offered free access to their sporting archives in lieu of new content. What this means for The Athletic, which has recently been on a hiring spree, is less clear.

Some brands have spotted the opportunity of opening the vaults to fitness apps and services. Popsugar bumped up the launch of its fitness service Active. While there are still plans to monetize it further down the line, for now the service will remain free in order to act as a lightning rod for audiences seeking at-home fitness classes. Digiday’s Kayleigh Barber reports that Active’s general manager Angelica Marden said: “We’re happy to introduce the people to this platform in this weird time and hope that they will come back to us.”

By doing so, the hope of many is that a newly captive audience will develop a habit. Whether that’s because of appreciation for a service when they needed it, or because they got a taste of the quality that exists behind the paywall, it doesn’t really matter. Once something approaching normality has resumed, the hope is that those habits linger.

Step up

For newspapers the ambition is greater still. Trust in a title is the measure by which audiences choose which outlets to subscribe to. In an age where perhaps only ten international English-language news brands can sustain themselves through subscriptions, this is a golden opportunity for papers to demonstrate their worth.

Even brands that haven’t historically been known for their hard-hitting coverage are stepping up. LadBible, the youth-oriented social publisher best known for its “lads lads lads” school of content curation, was praised by the World Health Organisation for its ‘Cutting Through’ COVID-19 campaign.

For subscription-focused publications, the coronavirus has acted as a Trump Bump or Brexit Bounce in fast-forward (COVID Crunch?), pushing audiences to well-known brands in order to find out the facts about the spread of the pandemic. Bloomberg and The Atlantic have seen spikes in subscriptions. Given that they are among the titles that have dropped the paywall for coronavirus coverage it suggests that audiences are either altruistically supporting titles they believe are fighting the good fight, or that vital news coverage has a halo effect on subscriptions.

The inevitable tide

That said, some of these moves were not entirely unforeseen. Playboy, for instance, was already several steps down the path to repositioning as a “luxury bookazine,” while membership-based journalism projects like Tortoise were already looking to build digital audiences through online events.

Membership schemes were already on the rise. However, coronavirus is providing publishers with a clarion call to which supporters can rally. Even the sports broadcasters were already looking at their stock of past broadcasts in an effort to set themselves apart from competitors.

While there have been a few entirely novel projects – like a mooted magazine about self-isolation – publishers are still playing catch-up with the pandemic, particularly as they scramble to set up remote working and reel from the health impact on their own staff. There will undoubtedly be new business and journalistic opportunities launched over the coming months as the new reality becomes apparent. For now, however the dreadful treadmill of survival is setting an unforgiving pace, and an industry that was already perilously close to the edge is now forced to sprint to keep up.

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