“Reverse Publishing” Gains Traction at Meredith, Hearst
Reverse publishing, or the act of taking a Web property and turning it into a print publication, may seem counter-intuitive considering the past couple of years the industry’s had.
But Meredith Corp. and Hearst Publications both weathered the recession and drop in ad sales fairly well, and therefore make some of the best candidates for the experiment. According to MediaWeek, Hearst will be publishing a “bookazine” called Light & Delish, based on recipes from their foodie Web site Delish.com. Meanwhile, Meredith just released its second MixingBowl.com print magazine last week.
But with the relatively low costs of putting something online versus putting it in print (and considering that neither of these publications are relying heavily on advertisers, but are consumer-driven and crowdsourced), what’s the point of putting these food projects to print? Says Light & Delish project editor Susan Schulz:
“It’s a way to repackage content in a way that’s meaningful to the reader…We’re sitting on such great content. We’ve found success and repurposing it on the Web, and there are other ways to repurpose it. We’re always looking for revenue streams — and low-cost revenue streams.”
So before you submit your next recipe to your favorite cooking site remember: it just might end up as an ad-hoc profit-maker for a media company.
Read More: Hearst, Meredith Try Web-to-Print Titles –Mediaweek
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