MediaBuyerPlanner: In order to help drive subscriptions from its magazine websites to its print publications, the Hearst Corporation’s website production and integration division has become intent on testing offers, running as many as 150 offers per title. The team parses the traffic to see which offers are working best, and then optimizes for the most effective one.
According to Chuck Cordray, vice president and general manager of the new division, the likelihood of an individual online visitor to subscribe to the corresponding print magazine has gone up more than 50 percent. Some sites have doubled their propensity for an individual visitor to subscribe, writes MediaShift.
The Hearst Corporation was a latecomer in terms of launching dedicated, in-house magazine websites. The company’s magazine sites were originally outsourced completely through iVillage until NBC Universal acquired the site in May of 2006. Only then did Hearst create a new in-house website production and integration division and begin running its own magazine websites.
Since that time, the company has hired more than 100 people for the new division and has launched 14 new websites and five mobile sites. The strategy of the sites is to help drive younger readers to print subscriptions (print is also helping to drive readers online and to the company’s mobile initiatives).
The new division has also been in an acquisition blitz, purchasing eCrush in January and men’s online network UGO and social shopping site Kaboodle in the past few weeks. It has also launched online-only destination sites The Daily Green and MyPromShopper.com. The eCrush sites had about 1.6 million unique visitors in July. Seventeen.com had about 1 million, while Cosmopolitan.com had 824,000, per comScore.
Related stories:
- Hearst Launches Back-to-School Teen Destination
- Hearst Goes Green With New Site
- Hearst Turns Magazine Sites Mobile
- Hearst Purchases eCrush
- ‘Marie Claire’ Tanking, Hearst Execs ‘Freaking Out’
