Reverse the process - Digital publishing in Asia

Re vers al of
For tune
Print and We b aren’t exclusive.
Bu ild them that way.

Reversal of Fortune - APC Collin Crowell – collin@ringier.vn

Who am I?


Ringier who? A long story…
o  175-year old family-owned
Swiss media company
o  Market leader in East and
Central Europe with Axel
Springer
o  Launched in Vietnam 20 years
ago. Only foreign publisher.
o  Reinvested in Vietnam in
2009. Expanding carefully
into S.E. Asia.


What is ringier focused on?

1.  Launching more
international titles
•  Women
2.  Building digital
businesses based
•  Age: 25-34
on databases and •  ABC Class
transactions


But enough
about me.


The web and print. It’s
not a zero-sum
world in publishing.


!But… Cannibals!
The web eats my print
business.


I don’t believe this. I
nd that the web
engages my readers,
drives down my
editorial costs and
improves my overall
performance.

No money!
There’s no money
online or I can’t
make money.


My experiences tell
me this is wrong.
Change your
perspective I nd,
that at worst, the web
can save you money.

The City Weekend Project
o  City Weekend is an English
entertainment magazine in
China.
o  We were poor. We were
behind. We had to think
differently.
o  Fortunately, we had a great
CEO who championed the
Web (even though he didn’t
know what that meant.)


Before we were just
like everyone else…
o  A small group of editors would plan, source and
edit content into a magazine.
o  After the magazine came out, some poor “web
editor” would be responsible to upload all the
content online.
o  The only interactivity was that users could submit
classi eds.
o  Our staff turnover was high. Work was hard!


The trick was to
reverse it Instead of
making a magazine, we
made a website
that made a
magazine.


The website became the
smartest guy in the room
o  Editors and users shared events, articles, listings, photos,
classi eds and comments with the site.
o  Each “object” shared by users was ranked on the site. The
best of the web was analyzed by the editors and exported
into print.
o  Editors and Sales and Marketing were alerted to new
content via the CMS’s content approval system.
o  The CMS exported the best content directly into InDesign. It
also published the content into our email updates and
mobile service.


UGC content flow in the City
Weekend CMS
1 2 3 4
USERS * CMS EDITORS CMS
•  Visit site • Categorized, • Approved • Exports data
ranked, Sorted and into:
•  Create edited data
managed and • Magazine
content
shared data • Email update
•  Listings • Alerted users • Mobile
•  Classi eds • 24/7 phone
•  Articles • RSS feeds
•  Events
•  Photos


City Weekend magazine advertised web interaction for users

Contact
editor.
Read blog.

Contact the
author.
Read more.

Pick your Add your
Reversal of Fortune - APC favoritesCrowell – collin@ringier.vn
Collin events

It was one big circle
Users/
Products
Readers
• Magazine,
email update, • Share content
mobile phone they like and
want

Editors The website
• Organize, • Organizes,
edit, share, ranks, edits,
help design shares, alerts


So, did it work?
o  800 unique daily visitors in 2006 
o  Today, 36,000 (double our competitors) 
o  3,000 listings in 2006. Today- 19,842
o  In 2006, we had zero registered users.
Today, we have 102,874.
o  CW is now the market leader in Beijing and
Shanghai. CW has a staff of 15 editors. Our
next competitor has 30.

Instead of making a
magazine, make a
website that makes
a magazine.


Yeah, but…


Meet marry.vn

I’m a
website!


No. 1 wedding website in vn
o  Launched in August 2010
o  Based off theknot.com
o  Focused on business
directory, photos and user
engagement (UGC)
o  150,000 visits/month
o  11,000 members
o  2 full time editors
o  Published rst magazine in
April 2010 (7 months later)


Marry Milestones


Revenues looking good

Jun-‐10
Jul-‐10
Aug
2010
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
2011
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
2011


Marry market share

12%

5%

16%

67%


So what did
we do?

website then the magazine

Website Email Magazine
Everything Popular Best of Marry.vn
o Directory o Listings o Listings
o Photos o Photo albums o Photo albums
o Columnists o User reviews o Articles
o Forum o Forum topics
o User reviews


Advertisers everywhere possible

Website Email Magazine
o Banner Ads o Newsletter Ads o Print Ads
o PR Articles o Promotion Email o PR Articles
o Category Sponsor o Noti cation Email o Business Listings
o Search Sponsor o Photo Collection
o Consultant Corner


Marry.vn made a decent Magazine

o  Launch: April 2011
o  2x Advertising Sales Target in 2 weeks
o  Best Seller on online bookstores
in 2 days for 3 weeks
o  Newsstand Sales:
 Sold out after 3 weeks
 Distribution partner request for reprint


make a website that
makes a magazine.


There’s something about Marry…

o  Low headcount (2 editors!)

o  Great content for low costs (site
can even score and select)

o  Advertisers see the bene t of
Marry
moving to web

o  Editors want to work on web,
because it makes their life easier

o  Web performance GROWS when
it became the focal point


We are reversing our
traditional print
Ringier’s cooking magazine

magazines to…
make websites
that make
magazines.

A recent issue of Bep Gia Dinh

Share your recipes
The magazine drives traf c to the website

g
Put our $ where our mouth is
Comin

www.ELLE.vn
soon

We’ll focus on…
o  Promoting and streaming the most
popular columnists
o  Shopping deals become shopping
trends
o  Popular stores/shops drive (directory)
feature stores and become advertisers
o  Street fashion/style photos become
user engagement


5 Key points on reversal
1.  Start with content that’s “easy” to reverse i.e. low-
hanging fruit. Don’t have to do it all in one-go.
2.  Think of content as objects and give each object a
score. Then you can stream the object into the best
place i.e. email, mobile, print, etc.
3.  The web has everything, print has the best. Don’t
duplicate, distinguish.
4.  Choose or build a CMS (open source!) that is editor-
friendly. Who wants to do two jobs?
5.  Invest in great people who get brands and
positioning.

But enough about
me…. What do you
think of me?


P.S. We’re hiring.


Reverse the process - Digital publishing in Asia

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