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Monkeyshines:
Felix web lad mag a go


Strong start for Monkey, Dennis's digital title

Feb 21, 2007

Three months ago, yet another lad’s mag launched into Britain’s slumping men’s magazine sector. But this launch was different. Rather than a print title, Monkey, as it was called, was a free, weekly online magazine.

The big puzzle for media people was just how well this publication, from Dennis Publishing, would do, and certainly a lot was seen to be at stake. A successful launch would potentially open up a whole new field of magazine publishing.

The word on Monkey: So far, so good. Audited figures released last week report an open rate topping 200,000 per week on average, double the publisher’s stated target. That’s the number of subscribers who actually open an email sent out to take readers to the latest edition.

“It’s off to a great start,” says Tim Pemberton, a London-based account director at i-level, a digital planning and buying agency.

What’s more, the idea would seem to be catching on, with another major publisher planning to test an online magazine in March. Media people see still more such launches coming.

“There is an awful lot of potential for this type of publication, especially now as more and more of the UK audience has access to broadband,” says Steve Goodman, managing director of print trading at Group M in London. “There are a lot more magazines that I think will do this--or have an element of their circulation this way.”

Certainly the publication has managed a strong start in a difficult market. Circulation for print titles in the men’s lifestyle category is tumbling, off more than 14 percent in the second half of 2006 versus the year-earlier period, according to numbers out last week.

So it would make sense that Felix Dennis, founder of Maxim and other titles, would choose the internet as the launch pad for Monkey. As an online magazine, Monkey features rich media and embedded video content, plus internet links. Yet it has all the appearances of a print magazine, complete with pages that turn and a sexy cover girl. Once registered as a subscriber, a reader receives a weekly email taking him to the latest edition.

While there are other digital magazines out there, most are digital editions of print magazines, meant as much for printing out, and are not designed solely for online use. What’s more, the company contends other digital magazines don’t have the level of rich media content of Monkey, which uses the Ceros platform from developer Applecart Solutions.

Monkey claims to be the world’s first ABC electronic audited online-only magazine. The second could well be CosmoGIRL!

Earlier this month, National Magazine Co., Hearst Corp.’s principal business in the U.K., said that it is testing a new weekly electronic edition of  CosmoGIRL! to sit alongside its web site and print offerings.

Online magazines have a number of draws for publishers, say media folks. For one thing, they cut out print and distribution costs, which typically represent the great bulk of publishing costs.

They’re also far more accessible for readers, being on the internet in this age of ubiquitous connections.

The question was always whether consumers would be interested, choosing to receive a magazine online when the market was already saturated with offline and online content aimed at young men. And the answer seems to be yes, says Richard Townsend, a partner at Circus Street, a London  interactive consulting company.  

“They seem to fit with the consumer and make sense. And they definitely hit on a consumer insight," says Townsend.

The remaining challenge, as Townsend points out, is figuring out how to monetize the concept—make real money from it. "It is hugely difficult for them to make any significant revenues.”

While costs are so much lower, so are online ad rates, which means even a successful venture like Monkey won’t see anywhere near the advertising income of a print title.

But in these times, that may not be such a bad thing.

Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Feb. 11, the top five parent companies were Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online for the second straight week. The top five brands were also familiar, Yahoo, Google, MSN/Windows Live, AOL Media Network and Microsoft.

Experian Group Limited was the top advertiser with 10.32 million impressions generated, nearly double No. 2 NexTag at 5.29 million. With 27.27 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, more than tripling No. 2 MySpace at 6.97 million.

Sessions per person per week were even to last week at 17, with domains visited per person up to 40 from 39. Average PC time per person per week was down slightly to 17 hours and 31 minutes.

 

Top 25 parent companies
Through Feb. 11

#

Parent

Unique Audience (000)

 Reach %

Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)

1

Microsoft

84,686

62.8

0:44:07

2

Google

78,187

58.0

0:30:54

3

Yahoo!

75,276

55.8

1:08:00

4

Time Warner

68,064

50.5

1:41:51

5

News Corp. Online

40,794

30.3

0:43:15

6

eBay

36,790

27.3

0:46:22

7

InterActiveCorp

29,404

21.8

0:13:08

8

Amazon

23,488

17.4

0:12:10

9

Landmark Communications

22,067

16.4

0:20:12

10

Apple Computer

21,208

15.7

0:34:01

11

Wikimedia Foundation

19,105

14.2

0:08:42

12

Walt Disney Internet Group

18,744

13.9

0:18:46

13

RealNetworks, Inc.

18,589

13.8

0:19:36

14

New York Times Company

16,571

12.3

0:11:55

15

United Online

13,955

10.4

0:29:04

16

Verizon Communications

13,630

10.1

0:16:58

17

E.W. Scripps Company

13,318

9.9

0:08:50

18

CNET Networks

13,229

9.8

0:06:47

19

Viacom Digital

13,039

9.7

0:27:00

20

Bank of America

12,307

9.1

0:23:53

21

AT&T Inc.

11,174

8.3

0:15:13

22

CBS Corporation

10,962

8.1

0:09:33

23

Comcast Corp.

10,750

8.0

0:27:55

24

Gannett

10,727

8.0

0:11:52

25

General Electric

10,094

7.5

0:09:47

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

Top 25 brands
Through Feb. 11

 

Parent

Unique Audience (000)

Reach %

Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)

1

Yahoo!

74,567

55.3

1:08:17

2

Google

73,462

54.5

0:25:36

3

MSN/Windows Live

65,003

48.2

0:42:01

4

AOL Media Network

57,275

42.5

1:51:32

5

Microsoft

55,868

41.4

0:17:55

6

Fox Interactive Media

35,392

26.3

0:46:29

7

eBay

31,811

23.6

0:48:01

8

Apple

21,208

15.7

0:34:01

9

Weather Channel

20,858

15.5

0:21:08

10

Amazon

19,540

14.5

0:11:32

11

YouTube

19,522

14.5

0:23:07

12

Wikipedia

18,972

14.1

0:08:41

13

Real Network

18,589

13.8

0:19:36

14

Ask Search Network

18,101

13.4

0:14:15

15

CNN

11,648

8.6

0:18:44

16

Bank of America

11,622

8.6

0:24:22

17

About.com

11,181

8.3

0:03:37

18

Blogger

10,135

7.5

0:08:01

19

Comcast

9,054

6.7

0:31:51

20

PayPal

8,993

6.7

0:10:29

21

Disney Online

8,021

6.0

0:25:05

22

IMDb - Internet Movie Database

7,992

5.9

0:07:34

23

Chase

7,838

5.8

0:16:33

24

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

7,817

5.8

0:12:33

25

Nickelodeon Kids and Family Network

7,704

5.7

0:38:03

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

 

Top 25 advertisers 
(excludes house ads)
Through Feb. 11

#

Company

Impressions (000)

1

Experian Group Limited

10,319,715

2

NexTag, Inc.

5,288,425

3

Low Rate Source

2,808,828

4

AT&T Corp.

2,068,063

5

HSBC Holdings plc

1,718,079

6

Reunion.com L.L.C.

1,638,833

7

Netflix, Inc.

1,391,915

8

H&R Block, Inc.

1,091,357

9

Monster Worldwide, Inc.

1,076,779

10

Verizon Communications, Inc.

993,298

11

Privacy Matters

819,167

12

Vonage Holdings Corp

773,636

13

True

704,193

14

InterActiveCorp

684,226

15

AmeriValue

645,920

16

The General

634,064

17

TaxACT

619,925

18

E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.

575,224

19

United Online, Inc.

555,876

20

Time Warner Inc.

553,934

21

QuinStreet

508,686

22

eBay, Inc.

506,807

23

General Motors Corporation

494,675

24

Scottrade, Inc.

460,620

25

Deutsche Telekom AG

450,050

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance

 

Top 25 advertising sites
(excludes house ads)
Through Feb. 11

 

Company

Impressions (000)

1

Yahoo!

27,268,916

2

MySpace

6,972,423

3

MSN

5,111,157

4

eBay

1,647,443

5

YouTube

1,034,464

6

AOL.com

982,988

7

Comcast.net

969,811

8

FOXNEWS.COM

846,952

9

Juno

796,495

10

The Weather Channel

650,645

11

CNN

604,843

12

New York Times

598,481

13

MSNBC

553,600

14

NetZero

471,674

15

IMDb

360,667

16

Classmates

302,613

17

Realtor.com

255,292

18

Excite

247,010

19

Pogo

228,255

20

EarthLink

227,875

21

The Weather Underground

225,324

22

iWon

204,423

23

ESPN.com

203,196

24

Drudge Report

190,803

25

eBay Motors

175,057

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance

 

Average use
Through Feb. 11

 

Current Week

Last Week

% Change

Sessions/Visits per Person

17

17

0

Domains Visited per Person

40

39

2.56

PC Time per Person

17:31:14

17:39:28

-0.78

Active Digital Media Universe

134,839,861

135,008,928

-0.13

Current Digital Media Universe Estimate

211,171,984

210,769,847

0.19

Source: Nielsen//Net Ratings AdRelevance

 



Heidi Dawley is a staff writer for Media Life.




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