Lara Lang
Andrew Harrer/ Bloomberg News
What is the future of the magazine business?
With the appointment of Lara Lang as the new CEO of the company that publishes 21 magazines-- including Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Fortune-- we can get a glimpse of the direction the company will take in promoting its titles.
First, her background is not in advertising sales or traditional publishing. She was CEO of Digitas, the digital arm of multinational ad giant Publicis. Here she focused on designing ads on websites that are geared to getting immediate responses (by clicking on offers). She thus could bring hard core results and data to the advertiser by tracking the reader's interests.
It used to be that advertisers were happy to run ads for their products in general interest magazines such as Time or Life. Buick would run an ad for its latest model even though most readers would not have the slightest interest in purchasing the model and thus merely flip through the ad pages.
This ad model has changed dramatically with the introduction of google ads where advertisers target an audience of 'interested' potential buyers based upon cookies that have been inserted on the computer of the user.
Magazines were formerly in print versions (brands) only.
Now more and more magazines have applications for the ipad and other tablets. So magazines are now placing more current content- such as up-to-the minute videos and stories online so the reader doesn't have to wait a week to read these late breaking stories.
The new online version of the magazines, presents a golden opportunity for advertisers to display their brands. So for instance, live coverage of the Indy 500, whether in Sports Illustrated or Time, affords automotives the right venue to get their message out.
Does this spell the end of print magazines as we have known them? No! They will continue to thrive so long as they have branded themselves into new digital versions to supplement their traditional format.
How well Miss Lang can effectuate this model for Time Inc. awaits to be seen.
Good luck Lara!
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