Dive Brief:
- Time Inc. has introduced a one-click shopping and research resource that’s an extension of The Drive, a digital publication dedicated to automotive industry and lifestyle editorial content, according to a press release. The portal features visual vehicle specs, purchasing details, and information about the makes, models and trims of hundreds of vehicles alongside The Drive’s car coverage.
- Detroit Trading, an aggregator of automotive shopper intelligence, created the portal and also set up a hotline for The Drive readers wanting to receive car shopping advice and pricing information over the phone.
- The Drive is touting the Shop portal as a destination for advertisers to get in front of consumers when they’re looking to buy cars. Time describes The Drive’s audience as young, tech-forward auto enthusiasts who consume content on mobile devices. The Drive’s YouTube channel has roughly 2 million subscribers and 5 million monthly views on average.
Dive Insight:
The launch of The Drive’s Shop portal arrives as magazine publishers are pursuing strategies to diversify their revenue streams in the face of tumbling subscriptions and the rise of digital ads that don’t command the rates of their print counterparts. Although the portal isn’t a direct e-commerce platform similar to New York Magazine’s The Strategist and Buzzfeed’s Shop, it blurs the line between advertising and editorial content that traditionally was a clearer border.
Digital publications geared toward Millennials such as The Drive regularly toil in crossover territory between advertising and editorial content once considered murky if not verboten. Refinery29, The Zoe Report and the various arms of Clique Media, for example, extensively incorporate advertorial pieces and sponsored product picks on their sites. The Drive’s Shop portal is betting that readers of a particular subject matter can be desirable targets for advertisers. Whether the targeted, sponsored approach has the potential to undermine the credibility of content that drew readers in the first place remains to be seen.
The Drive’s Shop portal is illustrative of Time’s attempts to dig itself out of a hole many traditional media players find themselves in. But it isn’t enough to stave off a probable sale of the magazine mainstay. Bloomberg reports Meredith Corp. is likely to take over Time’s titles in an acquisition valuing the publisher at more than $20 a share. In its article on the prospective deal, Bloomberg detailed how Time has been expanding its online businesses “to persuade advertisers to pour money in its magazines instead of upstart digital outlets.”
Time hasn’t come up completely empty in its efforts to remake itself for modern times. The publisher has had some success with its native digital advertising strategy. The company revealed in an earnings conference call that its native ad revenue doubled in 2016 with more than 400 advertisers taking part in around 600 programs. Native is on track for another strong year in 2017, and Q1 native ad revenues doubled as well.
