Posted in Online Publishing Strategy	March 5, 2008

Meredith and Hearst reveal their secrets for selling lots of print subscriptions online

Meredith's John Zieser told the FIPP Digital Magazine Media Conference participants in Berlin this week that Meredith sold more than 2.8 million net paid magazine subscriptions from its websites in 2007. Impressive in its own right, but even more so when you consider that Meredith generated more than $150M in online magazine revenue for 2007 primarily from their flagship Internet Hubs, BHG.com and the newly relaunched Parents.com.

When Mequoda asked Zieser the key to their online publishing success, he replied: "We own our content." The Meredith Digital Library contains millions of videos and photos to which Meredith owns all rights and which all print and online editors can access globally. Text can be rewritten and should be rewritten when it goes online. You've got to have the rights to use videos and photos.

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Hearst EVP John Loughlin notes that his company sold 1.6M print subscriptions from its websites in 2007. An insight to the difference in online performance can be had by checking out the key metrics for BHG.com and GoodHousekeeping.com:

* Sources for Key Metrics: # of Webpages and # of Inbound Links from Yahoo! Site Explorer, Online Audience from Compete.com, Print Circulation from the Audit Bureau of Circulations eCirc. Online Media Index (OMI) is calculated by dividing monthly unique visitors by print circulation.

Loughlin also noted that Hearst was playing catch-up in the area of online publishing, having outsourced its online publishing business to iVillage until recently.

The contest they ran last year is a great first step in increasing traffic and email circulation and drawing attention to their newly reclaimed website.

Learn more tips, tricks and strategies shared at the FIPP Digital Magazine Media Conference:

• Axel Springer to Double Online Magazine Revenue by 2009
  The german magazine giant reports 8% of magazine revenues were generated online in 2007 and promises shareholders 16% for 2009
  
  
• Distribution Key to Successful Online Publishing at IDG
  Patrick J. McGovern estimates that over the next 5-10 years, online revenue will pass print revenue in almost every one of the 85 countries he publishes in
  
  
• FIPP's Hewitt Declares Paid Versus Free Websites Battle to Be Over
  A year ago, free vs. paid was the big debate of the FIPP Digital Magazine Conference. This year, the battle is over: free wins