Next Issue Media Funding, Vox’s New Native Ad Chief, Q&A With David Carr, Start-Up Model, TFP’s Infographic Pick of the Week, DPS Tip: Testing Your App With TestFlight, Holiday Shutdown Reminder
Welcome to TFP’s roundup of news and tips for media industry pros! This week, we’re sharing stories about funding for a Netflix-like digital magazine service, how Vox’s new head of native advertising plans to leverage the company’s technology, insights from Times media columnist David Carr, a new model for traditional publishers, and more.
- Next Issue Media, a subscription service aspiring to become the Netflix of digital magazines, announced it has secured $50 million in private-equity financing from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., according to The Wall Street Journal. The company, which charges a monthly fee for unlimited access to some 145 magazine titles, plans to use the money to rev up advertising in a push to become a top digital media company, the report said. The service also has the backing of some big publishers, including Time Inc., Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Rogers Communications, and News Corp.
- Vox Media raised a new chunk of funding as well ($46.5 million) and announced the hire of Lindsay Nelson, founder of Slate’s content studio, to run its in-house advertising unit, Vox Creative. In an interview with Digiday, Nelson discussed the state of native advertising and how her division plans to leverage technology to drive the scale needed to make the company profitable.
- While New York Times media columnist David Carr recently wrote about the fallout of working in an industry that’s been “profoundly disrupted,” he noted in a Q&A that there remains plenty to be optimistic about. Among other things, Carr pointed to readers’ willingness to pay for content they like, new capital coming into the market, and the successes of stalwarts and newcomers alike. Ultimately, he said, “the consumer is making out really well.”
- On the topic of disruption, an article from the Columbia Journalism Review looked at the “hybrid tech-journalism organizational model” of newer media companies like Upworthy and Storyful and how their agility and innovative approaches to staffing and team-building provide lessons for traditional publishers struggling to restructure. A timely piece.
- Also visit the TFP blog for our Infographic Pick of the Week on how the four major digital ad formats perform by vertical. It highlights clickthrough rates, engagement times and rates, and in-screen impressions for rich media, video, mobile, and standard banners.
- Our DPS Tip this week looks at a handy tool called TestFlight. Available from the iTunes App Store, this free app lets developers invite users to test prerelease versions of an app on their iOS devices.
- A reminder for developers: Adobe offices will be closed Dec. 22 through Jan. 2, and Apple has announced its annual holiday shutdown of iTunes Connect, Application Loader, and iTunes Connect for iOS, from Dec. 22 through Dec. 29. See a post on our blog for more details.
Image: The Wall Street Journal/Next Issue Media
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
