• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 10, 2014

Hearst Unveils Redesigned 'Cosmo' Site

Hearst Magazines Digital Media has redesigned the Web site for Cosmopolitan magazine, including a new look, new publishing tools, and a new content personalization engine. The new publishing system will allow editors to produce and post stories more quickly, enable advertisers to integrate their messages into the Web site more centrally and offer readers an intuitive, customized content feed.
 
The content feed moves beyond the standard “reverse chronological” approach that is typical of most Web sites and blogs, by combining curated editorial with recommendations based on live analytics of audience behaviors. Optimized for mobile devices, the feed will also support a new content marketing initiative, integrating messages from advertising partners with editorial content.
 
Hearst Magazines Digital Media President Troy Young stated: “We’ve moved quickly to activate our ‘months to moments’ strategy, developing an infrastructure that enables us to publish and build scale at a rapid pace. The changes and upgrades we’re implementing on Cosmopolitan.com, our biggest brand in the U.S. at nearly 30 million UVs, are the first step toward a common publishing platform that can respond to data in real time, and one that we can apply across all of our properties, globally.”
 
Last month, Hearst Magazines Digital Media announced the appointment of Lee Sosin as senior vice president with responsibility for overseeing advertising services, ranging from concept development to content creation, including Hearst’s new branded video offerings. Sosin previously served as vice president of strategic solutions at Yahoo, where he oversaw the expansion of the sales strategy team into a new corporate structure, based on verticals.
 
Hearst Magazines Digital Media includes the Web sites, apps and related digital properties for all Hearst Magazine brands, including Cosmopolitan.com, Esquire.com, ELLE.com, CarandDriver.com and HarpersBazaar.com. According to the publisher, the combined Hearst Magazines Digital Media portfolio attracted 100 million unique visitors, based on data from Adobe Site Catalyst.
 
Condé Nast Changes “Beauty Rotation” Policy
 
High-end publisher Condé Nast is axing a longstanding policy, called the “beauty rotation,” that governed when different beauty advertisers could appear in the front of its beauty and fashion-focused magazines, according to Ad Age, which first reported the news. The decision, which will take effect at the end of this year, affects ads from brands like Revlon, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal, and Procter & Gamble. In the old hierarchy, multipage ads from Revlon usually appeared first in Vogue, Glamour, Self and Allure, followed by ads from Estee Lauder, then L’Oreal, and finally Procter & Gamble -- regardless of how much money each spent. Now placement will depend, in part, on the simple size of the ad buy.
 
 
Atlantic Expands Government Executive with City, County, State Coverage
 
Atlantic Media is extending its public sector management brand, Government Executive, to include more news and analysis tailored for city, county, and state governments. Previously, Government Executive focused primarily on the federal government. Now it will provide coverage of issues important to executives in other levels of government, including technology, health care, citizen services, infrastructure, security, transportation and finance. The state and local coverage is led by senior editor Michael Grass, previously a founding co-editor of DCist.com.
 
Novgorod Steps Down from Travel + Leisure
 
After 21 years leading Travel + Leisure, Nancy Novgorod is resigning her post as editor-in-chief, publisher Time Inc. announced this week. According to the announcement Novgorod intends to “pursue a new chapter,” which includes “writing a book and much more traveling -- for fun.” Under her leadership the magazine introduced the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards, the Design Awards, and Global Vision Awards. She will assist Time Inc. in finding a successor .