• WWD, Wednesday, May 20, 2009 9:45 AM

Hearst Magazines is getting more personal as a way to deal with the ad slump. Cathie Black, president, and Michael Clinton, CMO, have personally hit the road on a 10-city tour, armed with a new presentation that offers a more customized approach to advertising.

Clinton says the new presentation was hatched about two years ago and the results are now showing up from brands such as Dior Beauty, Intel and Pantene. Dior Beauty, for example, recently decided to advertise in five Hearst titles, including Marie Claire, Seventeen and O, The Oprah Magazine. Since all three magazines are read by different audiences, the brand's ad design varies in each. The variations are dealt with in-house at Hearst and everything is processed digitally. "There have been iterations of this before, but it's never been done to this extent," Clinton claims.

In 2007, Hearst produced 415 pages of advertising in-house, and in 2008, almost 600 pages, or 22 programs, were published. This year, 16 programs have been completed, with three more about to close in May.

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