by Deanna Utroske

 

Hearst's monthly digital edition sales have reached 400,000 according to President David Carey. In the year ahead, he's aiming for one million monthly paid digital magazine subscriptions. 

 

All that enticing digital content has to start somewhere. On Jan. 18, The New York Women in Communications Foundation presented Behind the Scenes at the Hearst App Lab, a small-group tour for Students and Young Professional members. The venue opened seven months ago; it is a state-of-the-art space that the company uses as a think tank and virtual drawing board for digital editions, apps and ads.

 

Susan Schulz, NYWICI’s Foundation Board President and Editorial Brand Director at Hearst's Cosmopolitan Magazine, opened the event and introduced Avi Zimak, Advertising Director for Hearst Digital Media, who previewed the state of the marketplace, unveiled Hearst's strategy and demonstrated some of the company's recent apps.

 

The app lab's sleek design promotes productivity by accommodating a small and intimate team. Seating in-the-round and windowless walls (a bit of an anomaly in the all-glass Hearst Tower) with sound proof paneling ensures privacy and encourages the team to “leave with something tangible."

 

One screen, in quadrants, takes center stage. When the NYWICI group arrived, Hearst apps populated this wall. It functions as a touch screen, much like Keynote for MAC, but with the capabilities of a PC, PlayStation, DIRECTV, Apple TV and more. This dynamic screen can be used as a social media aggregator, a message board or to share content via email, and it includes the iOS app.

 

Rounding out the app lab environment are a quality sound system, a Ladybug device cam and a tidy, showroom-worthy collection of myriad tablets and e-readers, while a separate device charging wall keeps all these gadgets charged.

 

In the tablet market, the iPad holds 80% of the market share. Avi considers the Samsung Galaxy another viable player, and he noted that Windows 8 has capabilities comparable to a tablet.

 

Easily portable e-readers with 7” screens are especially popular with women. And significantly for Hearst, magazine sales have done well on e-readers thanks to digital newsstands like Zinio, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. (Read what NYWICI's panel The Evolution of Publishing had to say about e-readers just over a year ago.)

 

For a media company, each device represents a defined customer base and a selection of media products — magazines, newspapers, etc. All of Hearst's U.S. magazine titles have digital components or are available on digital newsstands, namely Apple's and Zinio. For some titles, these are enhanced editions of the print magazine, redesigned for devices to include extras such as slideshows and animation. Other titles offer replicated editions, similar to PDFs with revisions suitable for tablets. And, utility apps are available within a given brand — ELLE, marie claire, or Harper's BAZAAR, for instance.

 

In its current phase, Hearst’s strategy requires a dual revenue stream for each app. That's revenue from at least one advertiser's sponsorship and from the consumer: a one-year subscription to a Hearst digital edition is $19.99. The company understands that generally there are not duplicate readers between print and digital — and that subscribers are more likely to read content that they pay for.

 

In the near future, the app lab will equip in-house editors with tools and training to creatively develop their own magazine-experience apps. It is fully equipped to help the company "re-imagine editorial content for digital editions."

 

Digital editions deliver material above and beyond print editions via tap, pan, drag-and-drop, scroll and accelerometer technology, which responds to the movement of the device. One digital page can direct the consumer to up 10 pages of supplementary content.

 

The enhanced content and apps that the lab has innovated include ELLE's Inspiration Board tool, where any image in a digital issue can be slid onto the board—much like a Pinterest board. Once on the board, each image can be manipulated: zoomed, rearranged, deleted.  This app caters to readers who want to tear out editorial and image content.

 

Avi demoed further apps: ELLE's Personal Stylist app, marie claire's Chanel-sponsored virtual makeup tester and the House Beautiful 500+ Favorite Paint Colors app, which includes a Color Personality Tool.

 

In line with Hearst's dual-revenue strategy, each app and tool has a shopping component. The Inspiration Board, makeup bags, paint boxes and grocery lists serve as virtual shopping baskets, allowing readers to purchase online what they discover in the magazine.

 

Avi also highlighted Food Network Magazine's summer grilling issue for its enhanced advertizing that Hearst developed in-house. Digital ads now boast video, animation, slideshows, contests, social media plugins; a shopping list button will soon be available to advertisers too. Success metrics for these enhanced ads and sponsored apps are in the offing. Avi emphasized that 60–70% of tablet and e-reader usage is off-line and that the majority of subscribers, millions in fact, get print editions.