The stories you read most on FIPP.com in 2017
Perhaps not surprising, the search for workable business and revenue models drew much attention in 2017. Most read stories included:
February: How Meredith fuels its revenue growth across channels
March: One company’s ‘blueprint’ for magazine media to thrive
April: Publisher business models in the age of platforms
April: What digital companies and publishers should learn from China
May: How Haymarket plans to grow its automotive sector
May: Monetisation: six strategies for increasing average revenue per reader
June: How Aller Media Finland unlocked the value of data-for-profit
July: How six initiatives led to stunning audience and revenue growth for BBC Good Food
July: How Hearst UK unlocks significant value with revenue stream diversification
October: Maximising audience revenue
Along with the above, stories on circulation and subscription, advertising, events and video strategies were popular.
February: How Hearst UK is developing ‘Events-as-a-Service’
April: Condé Nast and Joe Media on creating a sustainable video strategy
June: Five industry experts give their insights into emerging subscription models
July: How a Canadian publisher turned ‘the traditional ad model on its head’
August: How Quartz approaches online advertising with ‘less is more’
August: How The Economist turned circulation into its most profitable revenue line
September: How Brazilian publisher Grupo Abril achieved revenue increases by decluttering ad inventory
October: Building B2C and B2B subscription revenues into the dominant revenue stream
October: How subscriptions became a driver of profit at The Economist
October: Proof that magazine media still deliver the best results for advertisers
One of the major industry stories this year – widely read on FIPP.com in late November, early December – was of course Meredith’s purchase of Time Inc., which Meredith CEO Steve Lacy described as ‘a truly transformative moment’. Several other stories on transformation also caught users’ eyes.
March: Transformation in India: Vikatan’s plans to grow digital revenues five-fold by 2020
April: Digital media strategy: verticals, consolidation and the ‘squeezed middle’
April: Lessons for all publishers from the transformation of Abril in Brazil
May: Prisma Media transformation chief: ‘Nothing will ever be the same again’
July: The remarkable transformation of Atlantic Media’s National Journal
September: New Hearst UK CEO’s strategy for success
September: 100 years of Forbes… and the future to come
November: Globalising your niche: Building Vogue International
November: A roadmap with ‘six major levers for digital transformation’
December: BuzzFeed founder’s fixes for ‘media in crisis’ has a familiar ring
Innovation-related stories are always popular and 2017 was no different. Here are some of the most read ones.
January: How The Washington Post drives innovation
February: How Harvard Business Review is embracing the future
March: John Wilpers showcases top trends included in new FIPP Innovation World Report
August: License to thrill
September: Following its success with Slack, Harvard Business Review expands bot strategy
December: Blockchain: can it transform the media? Yes, says Burda CTO
To say our industry is nothing without its audiences is to state the obvious. Stories on audience engagement (and data) again featured high among most read stories in 2017. They included:
January: How The Economist built an award-winning engagement strategy
January: A look at AJ+ – Al Jazeera’s unique approach to engaging with millennials
April: How Paris Match’s innovative data tool engages audiences during the French election
July: Approaching journalism as a service can provide new revenue opportunities
October: How IDG uses data to understand audience needs, enable growth, and bring in revenue
December: Prisma’s Philipp Schmidt on ‘the big data myth, keys to industry transition’
Last but not least, stories with a magazine-specific focus often ended up on or near the top of most read stories month to month. Here’s a selection of the most read ones:
January: 2017 could be the year of resurgence for magazines
March: Empire editor: data and research are vital, but so is gut feel – even today
May: What to expect as Hearst Magazines’ new Airbnbmag hits the streets
June: Country Living takes readers on a road trip with pioneering front cover
July: Review of Religions: Meet the 115 year old publication finding new resonance today
September: Why print can be child’s play
October: Inside Marie Claire’s pop-up experiential shop in New York’s SoHo
December: Country Living unwraps another innovative cover campaign
December: The Mr. Magazine™ Interview: Print is never going to go away, says Hearst’s Joanna Coles
We’ll be back with more in 2018. Here’s how to stay in touch: visit fipp.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, subscribe to our FIPP World newsletter and join us for our first 2018 event, Digital Innovators’ Summit (DIS) from 19-20 March in Berlin, Germany (news about FIPP Asia in September will follow soon!).
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