Consumer Publisher Uses Digital to Build Print Equity

Digital magazines can build equity for print brands by acting as "a bridge between the demands of the digital landscape" and the benefits of the print medium, according to one consumer publisher who is employing this strategy.

"The e-zine is proving to be one way to adapt to the new media environment," including the changing preferences of time-challenged readers and advertisers in the face of the Internet's continually updated content, Stephen Kong, vice chairman/group publisher of Modern Luxury Media and publisher of just-launched Manhattan magazine, observed in DM News Circulation Marketing Weekly.

E-zines enhance print reader engagement and brand affinity by providing a format that enables content to be more frequently updated, he points out. Further, "strategically aligning a print magazine with an e-zine provides an ideal platform for competitive distinction and cross-promotion, as recent industry moves attest," Kong notes. "The strategic overlay of the e-zine with a print product's niche and editorial mission can spark a new subset of loyalists," instantly increasing audience/subscriber mass and scale.

To leverage this opportunity of brand equity that "translates into a differentiated, more enticing content and advertising platform," publishers must focus on providing service-based editorial and co-branding that doesn't alienate the core audience, Kong stresses.

Adding an e-zine also makes ad buys more attractive by enabling "rifle-shot" demographic targeting via Web-based strategies and giving advertisers a range of media options, he notes.

In a business environment in which "finding a way to play on geographical and editorial synergies between print models and digital platforms will become increasingly vital with time," digital magazines "may represent a tool for long-term survival," Kong concludes.

Modern Luxury has deployed this strategy across its brands to build a cross-media audience of five million readers per month nationwide.

Including Manhattan, the company now publishes 13 "luxury lifestyle" city/regional magazines covering all major markets in the U.S., as well regional visitor, bridal, home and men's interest magazines. Most of the 34 print magazines are distributed free to high-end households (bimonthly Manhattan will go to 60,000 households with income of $3 million plus) and through retail hubs and boutiques, hotels and real estate offices. Paid print subscriptions ($20 to $40 per year, depending on the title) are also offered on Modern Luxury's Web site.

Then it gets interesting. Modern Luxury posts a digital, interactive, page-through version of each issue of its magazines on its site.

In addition, through its recent acquisition of lifestyle/luxury online publisher Juli B., Inc., which has 700,000 existing subscribers in 14 cities for its twice-weekly enewsletters, Modern Luxury is this month launching a new digital platform. The platform will enable readers to receive its full portfolio of brands via email, including localized mobile and iPhone applications. The Juli B. publications, which include advertising from brands such as Estée Lauder, Gucci and Target, are free to registrants who provide their email addresses, demographics, and editorial category interest preferences. Founder/editor Juli Benlevi-Zeff will continue to edit the e-publications bearing her brand, but Modern Luxury brand content will be added/blended in.

The move gives Modern Luxury's brands significant digital reach (about 60 million email impressions per year) to upscale lifestyle readers in metro areas across the country and key international markets. Importantly, about 110,000 Juli B. subscribers are in the New York metro area, providing the publisher with an edge as its latest launch attempts to go up against existing free-distribution luxury magazines serving Manhattan, including Avenue, Quest and Gotham.

Modern Luxury CEO Michael Kong has reported that Manhattan's first issue (September/October) pulled 240 ad pages and over $1 million in revenue.

The email extension is the "first in a series of moves to deliver new and engaging content and interactions with readers and advertisers," according to the company. -- Karlene Lukovitz