Digital Media Strategies For Special Interest BrandsVince Errico, Chief Digital Officer

TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS IN BRIEF

• US-based company founded in 1922

• Company name changed 2 years ago from Reader’s Digest Association

• Several publishing companies joined together early this century

• Books division

• Publish approximately 12 magazine titles, of which, 4 largest are:

– Taste of Home

– Reader’s Digest

– The Family Handyman

– Birds & Blooms

50+ countries

In the U.S.

•Top 50 ComScore Property

•50+ Million Monthly Unique Visitors

•40+ Million Monthly Print Readership

In Canada

•Reader’s Digest & Sélection #1 read magazine in Canada

•Sélection.ca reaches 15% of all French Canadian adults

TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS IN BRIEF

1. UPDATE & DEFINE YOUR BRAND FOR THE DIGITAL, MULTI-MEDIA ENVIRONMENT

Competitors,

near competitors,

substitutes

Areas of competitive

advantage & differentiation

Revenue sources:

• Magazine subscriptions

• Books sales

• Advertising

• Other?

Audience

• Characteristics

• Segments

• Differences from

print and other

media

Your Brand Here

MAKE A PERCEPTUAL MAP OF YOUR BRAND USING YOUR MOST IMPORTANT BRAND ATTRIBUTES

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BRAND ATTRIBUTE

OPPOSITE BRAND ATTRIBUTE

Your Brand Here

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Blogs

BlogsBlogs

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Competitor

Know the strengths and weaknesses

of the various media

• Most digital media is inherently interactive

and people expect to do more than just

read

Not always easy to make the transition

from print to interactive

• Digital ecosystem is inherently more

complex than print

Digital employees have to have a

broader set of skills

• Editors who are strong analysts and/or

process oriented

• Ad sales people who also understand

technology to drive larger deals with better

margins

• Designers who code and/or understand

Information Architecture

2. Know the medium deeply… & add more people on your team who do

Leapfrog ahead

• Avoid the analog replication trap, don’t replicate what you’re doing offline

LEAPFROG AHEAD

Carriage Horseless Carriage Automobile

• Highly likely that more people

will encounter your brand and

your content in another

environment or on another site

than on your own site

YOU WILL LIKELY HAVE MORE EXPOSURE FOR YOUR CONTENT ON OTHER SITES THAN YOUR OWN

• Requires a shift in industry

thinking from publishing to

distributed audience

aggregation and engagement

through content

• Videos, articles, slideshows, listicles, audio, infographics, UGC, photos, etc.…

• Assign a manager for each traffic driving channel

– Have a channel P&L for each

– Hint: Search is probably your highest margin channel

3. KNOW THE COSTS & REVENUES OF YOUR TRAFFIC DRIVING EFFORTS

SEARCH

TasteOfHome.com

FamilyHandyman.com

ReadersDigest.com

BirdsAndBlooms.com

PARTNERS

MSN

AOL

DailyMotion

AccuWeather

SOCIAL

Facebook

Pinterest

Instagram

NEWSLETTERS

TasteOfHome.com

FamilyHandyman.com

ReadersDigest.com

BirdsAndBlooms.com

PAID TRAFFIC

Don’t go NASCAR

4. MANAGE THE DISINTERMEDIATION OF AD TECHNOLOGY VENDORS AND PARTNERS

• Don’t go NASCAR

• Beware: “it’s just a little java script”

• Fewer well-managed partners drives faster page load

times and more revenue

– Assign a manager for each vendor partner

– Develop a vendor partner P&L

• Drive to overall yield management (of revenue and/or

margins as appropriate) from all revenue sources

4. MANAGE THE DISINTERMEDIATION OF AD TECHNOLOGY VENDORS AND PARTNERS

• You will always have more projects than resources

• Determine priorities based on goals

– Revenue (or Margin or both)

– Dependencies

• Align resources to parallel track where possible

• Identify skills and resources gaps early and start recruiting or licensing tools

• Tell everyone who might need to know

• Tell everyone again

• When they act surprised, patiently, tell them again

• Measure and report…often

5. DEVELOP VERY CLEAR PLANS AND

COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE

• The print publishing business is narrative driven; digital multi-

media business is data driven

• Don’t pretend there won’t be any cultural changes or that they

don’t exist – process changes are cultural too!

• Be prepared by understanding how transformation happens

and what you need to do to support it

• Don’t be surprised if it leads you to different or totally new

businesses

6. FINALLY, TACKLE CULTURAL CHANGES HEAD-ON

Vince Errico | Chief Digital Officer | Trusted Media Brands | vince.errico@TrustedMediaBrands.com