As publishers are learning to leverage their print brands in the digital world, monetising their online properties are top of mind for most.
At this week’s FIPP Worldwide Magazine Marketplace (WMM) conference, Meredith’s (a leading media and marketing giant in the US) chief development officer, general counsel and secretary John Zieser said there has to be separate sales teams for online and for print properties.
John Zieser
“Someone needs to wake up every morning and focus on the internet,” he said, adding that this person has to always consider how to increase the value of the net.
However, to prevent net sales person and print sales persons from tripping over one another, there has to be one person overseeing everything in the brand, stewarding the brand across difference channels.
For the brand’s biggest clients, though, there has to be 360 degree teams managing them across the media options, especially since most agencies today ask for print and multimedia “bundles”.
According to Donald Kummerfeld, president & CEO, FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press), 75% of Vogue’s record 700+ ad pages in a single edition were sold bundled with something else.
Donald Kummerfeld
Kummerfeld also said with online properties, publishers should focus on profit, not revenue, because margins are “way higher” online than in print.
Zieser put things into perspective when he responded to a question from the floor on how much revenue Meredith today makes from online: “Our total revenue is two billion and, 100 million of that is purely from online.”
