Millennials seem to garner the lion’s share of attention in the magazine world these days. Aside from iconic Baby Boomer brands the newsstand reads like a social media profile of a younger audience base.
There’s so much emphasis on Gen-Z and Millennials in fact that a mass segment of Gen-Xers, Baby Boomers and women in their 30s or 40s or 50s is being largely ignored from a media perspective. Some savvy publications, however – like NewBeauty, Liz Earle Wellbeing, Woman & Home – see a big opportunity here, particularly as these women are the ones who generally have the money to spend on beauty.
That focus is influencing editorial direction – NewBeauty aim to own the whole brand tagline to ensure that everything they do is done through that demographic lens.
Importantly, their editorial must be authentic – the products NewBeauty introduce to their readers must have efficacy and genuinely be able solve a woman’s problem, so they vet everything they write about.
While NewBeauty is expanding into multi-channel revenue streams, they are still committed to the medium of print, understanding that print audiences are often the most powerful targets for brands, and this particular audience likes print as much as digital.
Under no circumstances is print dead for NewBeauty. They believe marketers may have abandoned print, not consumers, pointing out that the successful print brands are focused on passion points like travel and food, and these brands are charging the consumer for it.
That editorial, however, needs to be of real quality – the way ad-funded online journalism has fallen off a cliff proves this. Scale is important to revenue, but chasing it for its own sake isn’t the answer.
The mantra should be ‘quality over quantity’.
NewBeauty’s approach is bold but working. The publication is not beholden to having to charge for every issue just to capture ad revenue. Their traffic reaches them organically without too much investment in SEO. They believe this and their dedication to their consumer, is what makes NewBeauty healthier and more resistant to fluctuations that occur in the marketplace.
What can we take away from this? Regardless of size, the publications taking this approach are treating their audience the way a niche publisher would – quality writing, editorial integrity and a tightly focused brand voice that resonates. In this way they are leveraging the niche trend in women’s titles to redefine what it means to be niche in the mass market.
Focus on audience really is the key to thriving in this new golden age for magazines, and we’re watching the clever forerunners with real interest.
