In a time of upheaval for the news media, the Christian Science Monitor is thriving – in old-school print and online. About a year ago, reeling from poor sales, dwindling subscriptions and diminished revenue, the Monitor was forced to fold its daily edition, which had been in print circulation since 1908. In its place, it launched a weekly glossy in tandem with a spruced up website for breaking news. The venerable brand went from one struggling news product to two complementary platforms – and in the process, gained a newfound lease on life.

The Monitor's website provides a window on breaking headlines, while the weekly edition cultivates the longer, more in-depth commentary which was a hallmark of the brand for more than 100 years. So far, the relaunch is working. When its weekly edition launched on April 12, 2009, there were 40,000 paid subscribers – a base that it has almost doubled, to about 77,000 paying subs. The conversion rate from the daily to weekly was an impressive 90%.

Although modest by some newspaper criteria, the Monitor’s demographic is an upscale advertiser’s dream: a median household income of $88,000; 80% college graduates; 47% post-graduates; and they're a worldly bunch, clocking more travel than the average population. So how are they taking to the brand's digital reinvention?Continue reading...

National Public Radio, America's national gem and enduring media brand, is at a crucial analog/digital crossroad, and the sign-posts are positive. Built on the retro model of information distribution that is radio, NPR's embrace of digital and social media is catapulting NPR to new heights and new audiences.

"Our heritage is radio, but the digital sphere has been a boon to us and is a second core. There is no platform more conducive to mobile than radio,” Vivian Schiller, NPR's president and CEO, observed at an Ad Age conference in New York.

Schiller, who ran the New York Times website before joining NPR as president and CEO in January 2009, pegged NPR’s current reach at 26.4 million listeners across 900 stations. In serving that audience, Schiller and staff are walking a tightrope in allocating budget and resources between “basics,” and "every bright, shiny object that comes along."

"We're a not-for-profit, mission-driven organization, so for us the first question is always about mission," noted Schiller. "We have almost a religious fervor about two things: the user experience and the quality of the content. If you just keep focused on those two things, the rest of it falls into place."Continue reading...

Jay Leno is back where he should be, reigning late-night king, all is right again with NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” and the buzz word on the Leno audience is “older.”

That audience is up by fifty percent since the re-shuffle and departure of Conan O’Brien, and the average age is fifty six years old. Among the factors contributing to Leno’s resurgence is NBC’s strong 10 P.M. lead-in, which includes the new drama “Parenthood,” comedy reality show “The Marriage Ref,” and reinstated long-time audience pleaser “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

“Even though everyone can go to their remote control, the lead-in audience is still a very impactful part of a network television strategy,” commented Brad Adgate, SVP, Horizon Media. “Over all, I can’t imagine NBC isn’t happy with the results it has gotten so far.”Continue reading...

Though only the future knows the iPad's contribution to the workplace, the present seems to indicate that Apple's latest offering is an entertainment superstar – or, as one brand hopes, a superhero.

Like many traditional print publishers, Marvel is banking on the iPad as a delivery device for its brand of comic books. Marvel says its "landmark" app will make over 500 of the brand's greatest comic books available for iPad consumption. Marvel's app does more than just substitute an LCD for paper though. The Marvel app takes advantage of the iPad's interactivity and connectivity. Yet, the brand may also be missing a major opportunity. Continue reading...

Advertising spends are becoming increasingly fragmented, with online media sucking up larger and larger percentages of the allotted total. Everyone agrees this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. But hardly anyone agrees on is how online advertising should be measured.

Gawker Media, however, has just announced a game-changing proposal that suggests a whole new direction for online advertising metrics. Gawker calls it "branded traffic," and it's worth paying attention to because Gawker has rarely been in the wrong when it comes to the online media business.Continue reading...

The 2010 World Cup will have the world abuzz once again with soccer fever and the passionate displays of nationalism that accompany it. And brands are going to be paying attention to that fervor -- for obvious reasons.

This summer, ESPN will undertake one of the most ambitious efforts ever to track media consumption. If the cable network succeeds, it could usher in an entire new era of understanding how, and calculating how many, viewers consume specific media in a fragmented age.

To accomplish its goal, ESPN will work with several research firms and the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative. The team will also include the TouchPoints system, developed to measure unduplicated cross-platform audience reach. Additionally, modified "diary" iPhones will track individual media use. Continue reading...

As the surge to create online news brands continues, GlobalPost is an emerging contender. In its second year of operation, it has achieved several significant milestones: 750,000 unique visitors monthly, an audience from 230 countries, and more than 4 million visitors since launch in January 2009. Internet metrics of success aside, GlobalPost has proved detractors wrong: There is a healthy online audience for quality international news – and making money while doing so is a viable possibility.

Headquartered in Boston, MA, GlobalPost has assembled a team of over 70 correspondents from 50 countries. They’ve also created a network of partners including PBS, CBS, AOL, Huffington Post, Reuters, WorldFocus, Fox News (The O’Reilly Factor), NewsMax, and more.Continue reading...

The infamous supermarket tabloid brand, The National Enquirer, is being considered for a Pulitzer Prize. Their prize-worthy coverage is the result of mounting the first and most diligent journalistic pursuit of allegations that John Edwards was having an extramarital affair and fathered an out of wedlock child.

The Enquirer’s tip line promises, “We’ll Pay Big for Your Celebrity Gossip.” And in September 2007, the first tip came in that Rielle Hunter was involved with then presidential candidate Edwards.

Normally, the tabloid wouldn’t have bothered with a political story, but when executive editor, Barry Levine googled Edwards, and discovered that his and Elizabeth’s marriage was among the most respected of all the candidates, he realized that such a story could destroy his image and fulfill the tabloid’s mission: “It still shows the reader that wealthy people, rich people, people who they may admire – when you take away the money, have the same types of problems that they have in real life.”Continue reading...