At a time when other publishers are struggling, Hearst Magazines is doing well using a strategy that defies the current conventional wisdom.
Led by Cathleen P. “Cathie” Black, the company’s president, Hearst has kept much of the content of its magazines off its Internet sites, refusing to give away material, as other publishers do.
As The New York Times reported this week, Hearst, the publishers of Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, O, The Oprah Magazine and 12 other magazines, has also increased the physical size of some of its pages, defying an industry trend toward a smaller standard size.
Cathleen P. Black
And Hearst has raised some of its newsstand prices, despite the current recession.
“I give a lot of credit to Hearst for being willing to go in one direction when everyone else is going in the other,” Samir Husni, chairman of the journalism department at the University of Mississippi told the Times. “They’re doing well in a tough time.”
A 1966 graduate of Trinity College in Washington, DC, Black began her career selling ads for Holiday magazine.
In 1972 she moved to Ms. Magazine, where she headed advertising sales. After that, she went to New York magazine, becoming its publisher in 1979.
In 1983, Black became president of USA Today, which had begun publishing a year earlier. Later, she served as publisher.
In 1991, Black became president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, serving in that position until her move to Hearst in 1996.
In her career, Black has worked for legendary (and sometimes difficult) figures in American journalism and publishing.
In addition to Gloria Steinem at Ms., they include Rupert Murdoch, who brought her to New York magazine, which he then owned; and Allen H. Neuharth, the founder of USA Today and then the chairman and CEO of Gannett Co., Inc.
Black writes about these former bosses in her 2007 book, Basic Black: the Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life).
Her essential guide for getting ahead at Hearst, the Times suggests, has been to keep a tight control on costs, to use the Internet as a way of driving readers to the hard-copy versions of the magazines and to develop new products.
Black lured Oprah Winfrey to Hearst, which launched the highly successful O, The Oprah Magazine, in 2000.
Last year, Hearst and the Food Network teamed up to create Food Network Magazine. The initial publication run last October was 300,000 copies. The magazine’s paid circulation is now 900,000 per month.
Black also hasn’t been reluctant to cut her losses. During the last two years, the company has discontinued four magazines, O at Home, Quick and Simple, Teen and Cosmo Girl.
In general, the remaining magazines have fared relatively well despite the economy, the Times reports, the combined advertising pages dropping 6.7 percent, as opposed to an 11.7 percent throughout the industry.
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1 Comments
#1. Mark Williamson 06.04.2009
Although it seems that Hearst are bucking the trend they are in fact using the web in a considered way. Whilst they may not be giving away their content online they are ensuring that they give consumers quality offline whilst marketing their publications online.
For publishers who merely reprint online news this is not a viable strategy, but for content rich publications such as O and Esquire this is a profitable and plausible avenue. However, as consumer habits increasingly move online Hearst will need to consolidate an online presence which adds to their offline presence. They may not need to do this to survive in the short term but it will be essential in the long term.
http://www.socialmeetsbusiness.com/2009/05/27/can-social-media-save-publishers/
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