Personalized Magazines
Time Inc. tests customizable magazine concept, in print and digital.
Mega magazine publisher Time Inc. is testing the waters for a free customizable magazine. The five-issue, 10-week experiment allows readers to go online and select content from five Time Inc. and American Express Publishing magazines that will be combined into one magazine.
Time Inc. says it will publish only 31,000 print copies of the magazine, called “mine.” After that, the publisher will produce 200,000 digital editions.
“Each issue will include stories tailored specifically to your interests, whether providing timely financial advice, helping to find the perfect golf club or inspiring your next vacation,” Time Inc. said.
The eight titles readers can choose from include: Food & Wine, Golf, In Style, Money, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, Time and Travel + Leisure. Editors will pre-select the stories that will be available for inclusion in mine.
Lexus will be mine’s sole advertiser, Time Inc. said.
Time Inc. has been experimenting with new digital business models. In September, it launched Maghound, a virtual newsstand delivery service. In February, CEO Ann Moore floated the idea of charging for content online, which was later expanded on by John Squires who said the company would begin testing certain sites for paid content models in the coming months.
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Comments: 1
Being part of a company that creates digital publications that are personalized to each individual reader's taste, I was really excited by this move from Time & Lexus. However, it does seem that the final product is not as impressive as the concept sounded (mostly the lack of coherence and context - which Time's magazines do so well as stand-alone products), although that might just be us having unfairly high expectations. And of course, the level of personalization can never be as high with a mass-customized print version as it can be online.
Would be really interesting to see other publishers try this and improve on it.
Our blog with more examples and ideas is at http://platform.idiomag.com