Sept. 11, 2000

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Primedia Uses Web Sites To Complement Print

By Larry Greenemeier

rimedia Inc.'s ability to put IT in its proper place--right behind the company's core print and video properties--has kept the $1.7 billion media company at the forefront of the industry.

With more than 222 magazines and 47 trade shows, the New York company isn't about to position its 200 Web sites to succeed at the expense of its traditional properties. The goal is to leverage print publishing with new media, rather than spin off new divisions, says Fred Silva, Primedia's assistant VP of IT and new media. "Anyone with simple tools can put up a Web site," he says. "It's the knowledge of individual publishers and editors that's valuable."

The publisher of such magazines as Seventeen, New York, and Modern Bride must have a balance between launching Web initiatives with momentum and developing a sound business plan for such initiatives. Plans call for Primedia to migrate its content from traditional media sources to new Internet properties in the automotive, teen, and business-to-business markets.

The Internet creates opportunities to increase revenue, reduce costs, and more-effectively track internal assets and readership trends, says Silva. Primedia saw its Internet revenue grow from $11 million in 1998 to $24 million in 1999 and is on track to hit $50 million in 2000. Primedia's IndustryClick business-to-business marketplace company has partnered with CMGI Inc. to finance and develop a series of Web ventures. New online companies that will be formed by the partnership will have the financial backing of CMGI@Ventures, as well as content investments from several of Primedia's properties. These include Intertec Publishing and IndustryClick, which provides online information targeted at specific vertical markets, such as telecommunications and entertainment.

In the case of Primedia's Apartment Guide publication, for example, the company has placed the complete set of more than 15,000 listings from its local print guides on the Apartmentguide.com Web site and instituted an "up-sell" program for virtual tours, priority listings, and other features that has generated more than $3 million in incremental revenue in the first four months of sales, according to Silva. Other online revenue comes from integrated advertising packages that include print and online programs.

Primedia is also turning to IT to save money. The company plans to continue using the Web to increase exposure to its products and its advertisers' products. "The Web provides an excellent vehicle to gather immediate and cost-effective customer feedback on both our online and offline products," says Silva. E-procurement is expected to significantly increase savings this year as Primedia moves toward using fewer suppliers to provide commodity items such as paper, office supplies, and computers.

The Internet is also a tool for Primedia to learn more about its internal assets and to track readership trends. The company relies on traffic reports, information collected during registration, and, where instituted, dynamic personalization. "Personalization plays into the overall strategy of improving the user experience in our products, given our niche focus in many of our properties," Silva says. "At a number of our sites, we're in the various stages of developing data warehouses to manage this information and provide better-targeted information based on our viewers needs."

IT holds an important seat at the table in the product planning, marketing, and production of Primedia's content. "Management, outside of technology, has recognized and responded to the need to integrate technology into the value-creation process and not just the delivery side," Silva says. "IT works strategically with business leaders to insure that business plans are achievable. You have to temper your E-business rollout with reality."

Return to main story, "Out Front With Back-End Links."

Illustration by Jeffrey Fisher

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