Hanley Wood Adds Digital Editions to Deliver Bonus Circulation

Hanley Wood Business Media has entered the digital edition arena for the purpose of delivering bonus circulation to advertisers.

The initiative is enabling the publisher to cost-effectively deliver larger audiences at no additional cost to advertisers a time when the construction market is contracting somewhat due to the economy, explains VP, circulation and database development Nick Cavnar. "The total print and digital audiences being delivered are much larger than print alone," he says.

To date, Hanley Wood has launched digital editions of four titles: Builder, Big Builder, Custom Home and Building Products. According to the company's own data, as of June, combined print circulation for those titles was 348,329. In August, HW began sending digital editions of the magazines to readers of the brands’ enewsletters. This resulted in combined additional, unduplicated (total digital circulation minus enewsletter readers who are also print subscribers) readership of 262,525 across the four titles, again per the company's data.

The bonus digital circulation is not currently going through qualification for audit reporting purposes, but HW will be making reader demographic and usage tracking information available to advertisers. In addition, the digital editions are being posted on the brands’ Web sites

On an individual-title basis, HW’s advertising promotion materials show the print circulations as of June (company data) as 132,180 for Builder; 55,000 for Building Products; 35,000 for Custom Home, and 10,000 for Big Builder. The same titles' average qualified print circulations for the six-month period ending in June 2008, as reported on BPA statements, were respectively 133,336, 55,000, 36,875 and 10,022.

The same bonus circulation model is being used in launching digital editions of two more titles, Remodeling and ProSales, as of January. Remodeling, which per company data had print circ of 80,000 as of June, and ProSales, which had 36,100, will add unduplicated digital edition readerships of 41,430 and 15,924, respectively.

Advertiser response to the bonus digital-edition reach has been very positive, reports Cavnar, who adds that HW is now evaluating the possibility of extending the digital bonus circulation model to additional titles next year.