Lessons From Early Media Innovators, Rodale’s Organic Shift, Smithsonian’s New Travel Magazine, Hearst’s Editorial Excellence Awards, Media Metrics, TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week, InDesign Tip: Using Find/Change to Change Applied Styles
Welcome to TFP’s roundup of news and tips for media industry pros! This week, we’re sharing stories about how BuzzFeed can benefit from the lessons of media pioneers from earlier eras, Rodale’s launch of its rebranded Organic Life magazine, a new quarterly travel magazine from Smithsonian Enterprises, winners of Hearst’s first-ever Editorial Excellence Awards, and more.
- A feature by The Atlantic, titled “The Eternal Return of BuzzFeed,” examined the parallels—and differences—between the online news industry innovator and trailblazers from earlier eras: Time, USA Today, and MTV. This detailed account of the rise of yesterday’s media pioneers highlights ways in which BuzzFeed could learn lessons from their examples, how it is achieving success, and why its approach to the news business has, in just a few short years, shifted the entire industry.
- The New York Times reported on Rodale’s launch of Organic Life, a rebranded magazine that it said will focus more on organic lifestyle, including food, health, and home, compared with its predecessor, Organic Gardening, which covered topics like soil and plants. “This is about reaching new readers, definitely reaching new advertisers,” said Scott D. Schulman, the company’s president. The publisher of health and wellness titles such as Runner’s World and Prevention is following in the steps of other popular magazines, including Travel & Leisure and Maxim, that are redesigning their look and editorial content in efforts to expand their audiences, the report said. For its part, Rodale has also recently debuted an e-commerce site, clean-eating and women’s running sites, an online learning site, and plans to start a video network.
- Smithsonian Enterprises is planning to introduce a newsstand-only print quarterly called Smithsonian Journeys, with the intent of anchoring “a broader travel services strategy for the Smithsonian Institution,” according to Folio. The title won’t be ad-driven, the company said, but rather rely on single-copy sales with a premium cover price ($13.99). Each quarterly issue will center on a destination featured by the Smithsonian Journeys tour group, the first being Paris. Smithsonian Enterprises’ Victoria Pope, who previously worked for National Geographic, will serve as editor in chief.
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At the first-ever Hearst Editorial Excellence Awards, a number of titles were recognized for both print and digital editorial achievements. According to a report from Adweek, design and photography awards went to Harper’s Bazaar, which also won the digital innovation of the year award for #TheList, an online daily trends round-up that integrates native advertising and the magazine’s e-commerce platform. Cover of the year, which also integrated native advertising, went to Food Network Magazine, while Cosmopolitan won the print innovation award for launching the Fun Fearless Life Weekend conference in New York last fall. Other winners included HGTV Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, Marie Claire, and Esquire. The report details the full list of categories and winners.
- On the Technology for Publishing blog: We bring you our latest Media Metrics roundup, which covers messaging app retention rates, magazine industry growth, social media preferences, and more.
- TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week focuses on the digital threats publishers face today, highlighting the types of fraudulent activity, efforts to police bot traffic, the percentage of publishers losing ad dollars due to fraud, and more.
- The Find/Change dialog is a powerful InDesign tool that offers a number of ways to make automated, multiple changes throughout selected text, an individual story, an entire document, or all the documents you have open. TFP’s Monica Murphy explains how it works in this week’s InDesign Tip.
Photo: The Atlantic/Emily Anne Epstein/Corbis
This Week in Publishing appears every Friday on the TFP blog. Every week we compile interesting and noteworthy stories from the publishing world and put together a wrap-up to help our readers stay up-to-date. Think we missed something great? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Posted by: Monica Sambataro
