A few of my magazine favorites in an age of Mommy blogging and Groupon

Groupon's quality content keeps users coming back

So, when tasked to write a blog about my favorite magazines, I thought this would be an easy one. I’ve worked in advertising or content marketing my entire career, and I’m especially mindful of the media I’m consuming; however when I really started thinking about it, the subject became much more difficult than I had anticipated. This is partially because I chose to go last in a great series of blog posts, and many of my colleges have already profiled some of my favorites such as Real Simple and Entrepreneur—but also because I’ve come to realize that my magazine subscriptions have dwindled over the years.

I am a classic example of a new mom moving my media consumption habits from print to digital for the sake of time. Many moons ago I read six to eight magazines per month on the plane, the bus or when I had time to lounge around the house. I once received a plethora of foodie pubs, but now they have been replaced with apps and trips to my favorite blogs. The travel publications I once adored are now just periodic online visits where I obtain information when I want to plan a quick getaway.

I love great magazines, don’t get me wrong. I think that magazines can be compared to a good friend; they know what you like and what you’re interested in, and they help you answer questions when you need a bit of guidance. A print magazine can be a mini-vacation from your daily life that is completely portable and doesn’t need to be charged. A digital device I do believe can never really replicate the hands-on experience of flipping a page, or if it can we are still years away from it. But now I only receive three monthly magazine subscriptions, and I really only flip through one or two of them. So sad, I know!

Consumer – Parents

Parents is a publication that I without fail pick up and read whenever it arrives in my mailbox. I don’t know if I ever would have subscribed, but a friend signed me up for it when I was pregnant and I’ve been hooked ever since. I think the reason I like it so much is because, like a good friend, I feel like they know me.

Case in point: One of the first items you see in the book, the TOC. When you open the publication, they include a bold, bright chart cross-referencing their main stories with children’s ages starting from pregnancy through age 12. As a working mom, I’m time-starved, and this nifty chart makes it easy for me to cut right to the articles that are relevant to my family and me without having to wade through the entire publication.

Another element that they do well is solicit user-generated content. They open up many aspects of their publication to readers, which in turn directs them back to digital tools such as their website, e-newsletters, apps, links to mommy bloggers and social media portals. Even the magazine’s cover often features children submitted through reader contests. They also provide valuable, age-specific digital tools to parents. They have an e-newsletter that is delivered weekly and is specific to the age of your child. There were many mornings on which I found it in my inbox and it answered those panicky new parent questions, as if they actually knew me!

Business – Fast Company Online

I believe that a good business publication should leave you scratching your head, asking yourself how you can apply some of the innovative thinking you just read about to your daily business life, and Fast Company Online accomplishes that goal.

I look forward to opening the daily newsletters when they arrive in my inbox. They capture readers by sending them a handful of articles with captivating headlines, and offer a daily infographic that they pull from various sources. They also cover a variety of topics, so you can expect the unexpected to a degree. Recent examples include State of the Union, the Digital Party, Infographic of the Day: LinkedIn Maps Big Shots in Your Social Network and My Dad Found Coke’s Secret Recipe.

Again, reading this e-mail is like a mini-vacation in my day that I use to power up and think about innovative business solutions outside of my daily grind.

Custom – Groupon

Yikes, I know! Does Groupon really qualify, you ask? Again this signifies the shift in information consumption. It meets several criteria: It’s well-written and engaging and captures my attention on a daily basis. In terms of ROI, even though I’m getting most deals at heavily discounted rates (50% or more), it has made me spend more on items I wasn’t intending to purchase. This is the goal of all of the products we produce at Pace, so my vote is yes.

Sure, they’ve had some hiccups lately, but all in all the last 12 months have belonged to Groupon. What I really enjoy about the Groupon story is that quality content has been a big part of their success. CEO Andrew Mason was recently quoted as saying that having well-written, engaging content is a key part of convincing users to keep reading about new shops that they might never have heard of. So true it is, many companies are out there duplicating the model but few of them have captured the tone to keep consumers coming back, and looking forward to receiving that daily deal regardless of how random it may be.

Will this signify more businesses following their lead in using content to drive purchases? Only time will tell.

Posted By: Emily Wright