NYMag, Woman’s Day, Snakk Media Evolve the Blog
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Steve Smith

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A cluster of launches this week underscore the maturation of the blog as a flexible publishing platform for old and new media brands. Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. is starting a series of “RadioWD” audio blogs each day at noon that will feature live call-ins and editors from the magazine addressing a range of service topics (health, money, cooking, style). The project is being done in partnership with BlogTalkRadio. Clearly the concept of the blog is expanding beyond the familiar endless text scroll and into video and audio programming that also invites user interactivity.

Meanwhile NYMag goes mobile by turning its most popular blogs, “Daily Intel,” “The Cut,” “Grub Street,” and “Vulture” into a simple mobile Web site at m.nymag.com. NYMag.com was among the first major consumer books to embrace the blog format as the core of its online strategy, so it is fitting that the beta launch of its mobile extension use this platform for its structure. NYMag.com claims the blogs attract 10 million page views at the Web site, and this first attempt at mobilizing NYMag lets readers monitor the blog refreshes throughout the day. The simple mobile WAP site is a medium-sized scroll of four or five headlines from each of the four categories with clickthroughs to illustrated entries from the main Web site. The company promises enhancements in 2009 but indicates m.nymag.com gets their toe in the water of mobile.

The next evolutionary stage of blogging may be mobile networks. Snakk Media is launching on the mobile Web 310.tv. This aggregation of over 100 independent blogs on everything from fashion to TV, video games and celebrities focuses on trendsetter content from some of the hippest of the hip, like “Accidental Sexiness” and “Gloss Lip Image.” Snakk Media is hoping to attract advertisers to a model that crafts unique promotional programs both on mobile as well as in the field, at clubs and concerts.

Because of blogging’s personal, conversational nature, it seems to be adaptable to a number of platforms and can leverage audio and video on multiple media. This is where magazine brands have a special strength. Their legacy brands already have established an abstract “relationship” with readers, and the editorial staff can make that relationship very real and specific in the blog format. Done well, the blog dove tails nicely with magazines’ legacy strengths, while the format can move publishers into new ways of touching their readers.

If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com

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