Helen Lee Schifter was a longtime fashion editor at Conde Nast and Hearst. With her background at those publications and as a blogger, she’s uniquely qualified to lend commentary on the continued evolution we are experiencing in the digital media space. We’ve seen a tremendous amount of change in the digital media scene, and it has affected the ability for many news properties covering fashion, entertainment and an array of other subjects. With the continued rise of social media, there has been an incredible amount of change in the way media properties have adapted to the traditional circumstances of the media world.
Elle Decor and other outlets that cover fashion, interior design and other interesting and related subjects, have seen an incredible growth on their digital platforms. That’s translated into a renewed focus on providing their audiences with content that they deem interesting. Of course, one of the advantages of the continued transition that we’ve been experiencing from a traditional print media outlet to a digital one, is the ability to
Helen Lee Schifter regularly contributes to Thrive Global concerning these fascinating trends in the media industry. She consistently provides her insights on the ways media properties can properly leverage the increasing changes to a digital media platform from a brick and mortar one, to their advantage. Of course, there are numerous ways that can be done – and those variables should all be properly taken into account.
For one, the intelligence that a news property can retain from digital analytics and associated tools and programs, provides these properties with an incredible amount of useful information about the makeup of their respective audiences. This information includes everything from the readers’ preferences to what their needs, wants and desires are in terms of content.
Other forms of intelligence that can be gathered on this basis, include but are not limited to – readers’ favorite reporters that might be on a news teams’ staff; the type of subjects they have a special inclination and desire for consuming and reading about; and lastly, their overall reading habits. Analytics is a tool that provides digital press barons with the unique ability to analyze how long a reader might be taking to read a certain piece of press on their website, relative to a different piece of press.
This type of information may seem superfluous or unhelpful; but nothing could be farther from the truth. Editors can use this information – along with their publishers, to seek to cater to their audiences. Ultimately, what they produce in terms of news should be a (somewhat) accurate reflection of their readers’ interests and preferences. After all, that’s the recipe for the success of any news property. In order to build an audience that is substantial, that’s the proper way to do it – namely, by creating content that is going to be of substantial interest to a property’s readership.
Moreover, outlets like Charity and Life and other similar up and coming digital media properties have a leg-up and an inherent advantage over some of their digital counterparts. Many of the digital media outlets in cyberspace today are merely creations of what were initially print properties. Their own publishers made the conscious and most would say prudent decision to make the transition from print to the web on the basis of the changes in times and the overall changes in the industry.
But other newer and more contemporary outlets that have fresher content have an advantage because they are just starting out on the web; as opposed to merely using the digital platform as a useful venue for transitional purposes. These outlets are predominantly run by younger people who also have an inherently superior understanding of the way the digital media environment can properly be run. This allows them a unique understanding of how to operate a profitable digital media entity that not only creates a following among the public that is loyal, dedicated and substantial, but also generates significant profit that allows it to be financially sustainable. After all, in this cut-throat media environment, whether you’re on the web or in print, ensuring that you have an economic model that will be able to maintain itself, is the name of the game.
