AARP’s Reign as Most-Read Magazine, Hearst’s David Carey Stepping Down, Vogue’s Break From Facebook, AT&T-AppNexus Deal, TFP Margot Knorr Mancini: Navigating SEO Changes and More, Top 10 InDesign Tips, InDesign Tip: Easy Access to Hex Value Field for Colors

Welcome to Technology for Publishing’s roundup of news, stories of interest, and tips for media industry pros! This week we include posts on AARP’s spot at the top of the most-read magazine list, David Carey leaving his post at Hearst Magazines, how Vogue is breaking its dependence on Facebook, AT&T’s purchase of programmatic ad marketplace AppNexus, and more.

  • AARP coverAARP took the No. 1 spot as America’s most-read magazine once again, with an estimated 38.6 million readers per issue, according to the latest data from GfK MRI. In fact, while print readership of other top titles declined compared with last year, AARP The Magazine saw an increase of about 0.2%, reflecting a jump of about 105,000 readers an issue. The only other top 10 magazine to see gains in readership was The Costco Connection, which, like AARP, is a free, membership-based pub. Folio posted the full top 20 list for spring 2018 along with year-over-year changes in audience estimates.
  • David Carey is stepping down as president of Hearst Magazines at the end of the year, and will help the publisher choose a new leader in the months ahead, according to a statement. Carey is “widely seen as one of the more successful leaders at traditional media companies,” says a Forbes post. It notes that during his eight-year tenure at Hearst, he oversaw the purchase of the Hachette Filipacchi magazine group and Rodale as well as a number of successful launches, like HGTV Magazine and The Pioneer Woman. Upon leaving his post, Carey plans to serve as a fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, a platform to support leadership of social initiatives.
  • Digiday reported on Vogue’s efforts to break away from Facebook—and if the title’s traffic in May is any indication, its diversification efforts are succeeding. With coverage of the Met Gala and the royal wedding, it saw a record 13.6 million unique visitors that month, driven not by Facebook, as in the past, but mostly by Google, email, and Instagram, the post says. According to Vogue, search traffic in May was up 73% over last year, newsletter traffic increased 32%, and Instagram traffic grew 139%. Meanwhile, unique visits from Facebook fell 30% in the same period.
  • And on the heels of its Time Warner deal, AT&T confirmed its buying AppNexus, a programmatic advertising marketplace that “describes itself as the world’s largest independent digital ad exchange,” for a reported $1.6 billion to $2 billion. The marketplace serves more than 34,000 publishers and 177,000 brands, TechCrunch says. Like Verizon and other mobile and broadband access carriers, AT&T is making a push into advertising and content businesses in efforts to grow “revenues around the data that they already have about their connectivity customers,” the report says. AT&T said the deal will “deliver a world-class advertising platform that provides brands and publishers a new and innovative way to reach consumers in the marketplace today.”

On the Technology for Publishing Blog

Folio image: AARP cover

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Posted by: Monica Sambataro

Monica Sambataro
Monica Sambataro is a contributing editor and copyeditor for Technology for Publishing. Her publishing background includes work for leading technology- and business-related magazines and websites.
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