In the era of experience supremacy, consumers, especially millennials, are willing to pay for valuable product services.
Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “Dewai 5” (ID: dewaiwuhao) .
Source: whatsnewinpublishing, CNBC, mediapost
Author: Faisal Kalim, Barbara Booth, Christopher West Davis, Sara Guaglione
Compile: Guo Qian
The old magazine “Reader’s Digest” was founded in 1922 and was published in 19 languages around the world. It is one of the world’s largest magazines. However, under the impact of digital media, news of the collapse of traditional newspapers in Europe and the United States continued to spread. Reader’s Digest Association, the parent company of Reader’s Digest, also filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and 2013, and fell into 100 million Dollar debt crisis.
After a difficult transition, the group ’s total digital revenue increased by 98% from 2015 to 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 19%, and the number of users who access digital platforms and read printed materials each month reaches 60 million. What can we learn from the rebirth of this old shop that is nearly 100 years old?
1 Rebranding and digital transformation
In 2014, Bonnie Kintzer, who has extensive experience in media management, was appointed in crisis and served as the CEO of Reader ’s Digest Group. In front of her was a difficult task: leading the company to rebrand and digital transformation, to build a digital priority, more Media companies operating on the platform to achieve sustainable development.
The Reader ’s Digest Group owns several iconic brands, such as Reader ’s Digest, “The Taste of Home”, “Village” and “Memories”. These magazines have been published for decades and have a considerable circulation, but have not kept up With the pace of digitization, the company put more emphasis on digital publishing.
Kintzer said: “By developing digital business and expanding new content, we can attract users of different age groups. The results of this strategy have exceeded our expectations.” Under the leadership of Kintzer, the company gradually changed its business model. Establishing contact with readers of different brands through various channels has greatly increased readers’ participation.
Legend: The cover of the first issue of Reader ’s Digest in 1922 (Source: Reader’s Digest)
In response to the digital transformation strategy and at the same time breaking the stereotype of “Reader’s Digest Group’s single content”, Reader’s Digest Group changed its name to “Trusted Media Brands” in 2015 (translation: Trusted Media Brands, TMB for short). “Reader’s Digest” once represented the golden age of magazine publishing, so when its parent company changed its name to TMB, many industry insiders believed that this represented the end of an era.
Kintzer took the opposite view: “We have made some changes and achieved periodic results. The new name includes all of its products, not just” Reader’s Digest “, but also shows that we are a modern , A visionary, cross-platform company, so it ’s time to make a change. “
2 Embrace the digital age
In addition to redefining the brand, the principle of “people do their best” also plays an important role in the transformation of Reader’s Digest. In 2015, Vince Errico served as the Chief Digital Officer of TMB and took more specific digital transformation measures.
Errico conducted a comprehensive and systematic digital evaluation of the front-end content management system, background technology, digital editing experience and evaluation tools of the company ’s website. He found that all of the company’s websites use different front-end and back-end systems. This kind of separate battle is meaningless, because equipping each system with programmers is a waste of resources, and it is not easy to achieve cross-content and program. Platform sharing. Therefore, Errico has carried out large-scale rectification of its websites, so that all websites “speak with one voice”.
In addition, the company is actively expanding its digital editing team. In the past three years, Errico has recruited more than 300 employees who understand search engine optimization and social media, and asked them to create content based on the ecological characteristics of the Internet and social media. Earlier, the content of the website mainly came from magazines, and magazines could only publish 30-75 articles per month. In Errico’s view, this was “far from enough”. New media editors and magazine editors now collaborate each month to write 500 to 800 articles for each website.
It took TMB a year to realize the combination of new technologies and high-quality content, but the results were very encouraging. From September 2017 to September 2019, the annual increase in monthly visits to TMB’s websitesThe rate is 30%. Errico said: “We may be one of the fastest growing re-starting companies in traditional print media.”
In 2018, the online feature “Nicest Places in America” of Reader’s Digest was awarded the Eddie Award by the Folio website in recognition of the outstanding performance of this column and the long-term efforts of TMB for transformation. “The collaboration between print and new media is progressing very smoothly.” TMB senior editor Jody L. Rohlena said, “We hope that traditional and new media can complement each other’s strengths.” This year’s editors of the “Most Beautiful Places in America” also It will cooperate with the Nextdoor website that promotes communication between community residents, with a view to expanding the influence of the column and diversion of its website.
Legend note: Elica County, Georgia was selected as the “Most Beautiful Place in America” in 2018 (Source: Reader’s Digest) < / p>
Although TMB did not disclose revenue data, it is expected that total revenue will increase by 6% in fiscal 2020, and digital advertising revenue will increase by 48%. The development strategy for the next three years includes deep cultivating video creation, developing content distribution channels Trusted Studios, expanding e-commerce, news information and book projects, and striving for more digital subscription users.
3 user insights
In order to understand the readers, TMB spent two years rebuilding its customer database, Kintzer said: “We want to know what users buy from us.” In addition, TMB also cooperates with the data management platform Salesforce DMP to grasp New marketing trends and opportunities.
In April 2018, TMB established the “Insights Lab” (Insights Lab) to provide brand marketers with data and information about consumers and marketing trends. Since then, Insight Lab has released a series of research reports on modern American household consumption trends and brand marketing, which provide important information for advertising partners. Kintzer said: “We want to understand our country and consumers. The deeper we understand them, the clearer the direction of future productsClear. “
The news letter sent to readers by TMB covers more than 20 different vertical fields, which naturally becomes a way to investigate user needs and purchase intentions. First-hand data will serve the development of new products, and managers will also listen to Young internal employees’ suggestions for new products.
At present, readers ’revenue accounts for 75% of the company ’s total revenue, covering subscriptions, book sales, offline events, newsstand sales and other fields. Kintzer said: “User insight is an important engine driving the company’s development. By placing different advertisements and promoting various forms of activities on its various websites, consumers can get in touch with different brands.”
4 Dare to try new products
According to data released by CNBC, currently 25% of adult users in the United States read TMB printed materials and access digital platforms. A ranking released by Comscore in 2019 shows that 33% of TMB digital users are millennials. Errico attributed the increase in users to the exploration of new content. In addition to its well-known magazines, TMB has also launched platforms such as online learning sites EnrichU, the Taste Community and Haven Home Media.
In April 2019, TMB’s magazine “Family Handyman” (Family Handyman) opened a membership program called “Family Handyman Insider” (Family Handyman Insider). Members pay $ 179 per year to get DIY projects Planning, online courses, learning skills such as building sheds or installing kitchen baffles.
Legend: “Family Handyman” membership plan (Source: Familyhandyman)
In September 2019, TMB ’s first digital content-only platform, TheHealthy.com, was launched, which was a milestone in TMB ’s digital transformation. According to the latest data released by Comscore, TheHealthy.com has reached 2.6 million monthly visits. TMB plans to launch more vertical domain websites this year.
Legend: The content of TheHealthy website (Source: TheHealthy.com)
In the era of experience supremacy, consumers, especially millennials, are willing to pay for valuable products or experiences. For companies to make great progress, they must not be afraid to try new ideas. Speaking of this year ’s development goals, Kintzer said: “Developing new products, automated marketing, and data science are important tasks in 2020. Diversified revenue sources and continuous efforts to explore new profitable methods will drive continued revenue growth.
Under the leadership of Kintzer and the joint efforts of all members of the company, TMB paid off its debt in 2017 and achieved excellent results with a total digital revenue increase of 98%. Kintzer said: “It’s not easy to get a company in its 90s on the digital path. Morale is very low. If the transformation fails, the company’s honor for nearly a hundred years will disappear. But after unremitting efforts, we finally do Arrived. “