• by Erik Sass , July 18, 2013

Time Inc. Signs Up for GfK MRI Starch Digital Metrics

Time Inc. is the first multi-title publisher to sign up for GfK MRI Starch Digital’s syndicated service measuring the impact of digital magazine advertising, the research outfit revealed this week. The service measures the readership and effectiveness of digital advertising in over 17 genres of magazines across 254 advertising categories, including the percentage of readers who “noted” a digital magazine ad, how much of a digital ad was actually read, and actions taken as a result of seeing a digital ad (for example, making a purchase, intention to buy, visiting a Web site, recommending a product, and so on).

The GfK MRI Starch Digital service was launched by Starch (then an independent company) in May 2011. To date, the Starch says it has measured 75,450 digital ads across 2,200 issues of consumer magazines delivered to a variety of devices, including tablets, e-readers and electronic reproductions created by digital publishers like Zinio and Coverleaf.

Time Inc. Vice President for Research and Insights Caryn Klein stated: “The importance of understanding advertising effectiveness across all of our platforms has never been more critical. With the addition of Starch Digital, we can now provide even broader insights to our advertisers about the effectiveness of their campaigns across print and tablets.”

In May Time Inc. revealed a wide-ranging mobile content and advertising deal with Sprint. Under the terms of the deal, Time Inc. content -- including entertainment, lifestyle, sports and business news -- will be available to Sprint subscribers in a customizable section of SprintZone through a free Time Inc. app. Conversely, Time Inc. advertisers will be able to deliver mobile ads to Sprint’s 56 million mobile customers with targeting courtesy of Sprint’s Pinsight Media+. The deal also gives Time Inc. advertisers access to mobile ad networks like Jumptap and third-party publishers like AccuWeather. Sprint advertisers will be able to place ads on Time Inc.’s mobile sites, including Time, People and Sports Illustrated.

These strategic moves come as Time Inc. prepares to be spun off by Time Warner, which announced the decision to divest its publishing assets in March of this year.

Hearst Fashion Titles Clean Up in September

Hearst’s fashion titles posted big year-over-year gains in their September issues, the most important month for the fashion business, the publisher revealed this week, with record-breaking issues for Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Marie Claire. Elle’s September issue is up 12% over the same month last year, to 442 ad pages, making it the biggest September issue ever and the biggest issue ever published by Hearst, which acquired Elle from Hachette in May 2011. Harper’s Bazaar posted a year-over-year gain of 10% in September, to 397 ad pages, and Marie Claire jumped 13.5% to 246 ad pages. Meanwhile, Cosmopolitan grew 16% to 171 ad pages, and Esquire soared 26.5% to 126 ad pages.

Executive Shakeup at Forbes

There has been lots of movement in the executive suites at Forbes recently, with the news that chief revenue officer Meredith Levien, who spearheaded the brand’s programmatic and native advertising initiatives, is leaving to become executive vice president of advertising at The New York Times. She will be replaced by Mark Howard, who previously served as senior vice president of digital advertising strategy. Last week Mike Smith, who served as chief digital officer at Forbes, left to become vice president of revenue platforms and operations at Hearst MagazinesDigital Media.

Shetty to Digitas

Baba Shetty, who announced he was stepping down as CEO of Newsweek/The Daily Beast in June after nine months on the job, is joining Digital in the newly created role of chief strategy and media officer, the digital ad agency announced this week. In his new role Shetty will oversee media, content and social capabilities, including BrandLIVE, a propriety agency platform that matches brands with content using a newsroom-like approach. Before joining Newsweek, Shetty had served as chief media officer and then chief strategy officer at Hill Holliday from 2005-2012. Under his stewardship, the media department was awarded Media Agency of the Year by MediaPost’s Media Magazine in both 2011 and 2012.