Web Site of the Year: People.com
Among a galaxy of celebrity sites, People.com, with its round-the-clock tracking of the triumphs and scandals of the stars, burns brightMike Shields
MARCH 31, 2008 -
In a star-obsessed world where Britney Spears' every move is tracked by the prying eyes of camera crews, news helicopters and fast-multiplying Web sites--from Gawker to Perez Hilton, TMZ to Egotastic--it says something that one of the dominant online purveyors of news about the rich, famous and sometimes nutty emanates from the print magazine that helped define celebrity journalism as we know it.
Its amazing growth in a hot-as-fire category, along with its “right for the medium” editorial approach and surging advertiser support, have led AdweekMedia to select People.com—under the guidance of the site’s editor in chief Mark Golin and People Digital president Fran Hauser—as its first-ever Magazine Web Site of the Year.
Despite considerable competition in the blogosphere from an array of newer players chasing celebrity triumphs and scandals, Time Inc.’s People.com—the Web extension of the 3.62 million-circ People, the 34-year-old chronicle of entertainers we love and remarkable everyday people—grew its audience by an eye-popping 48 percent in 2007, adding roughly 1.7 million monthly unique users for a total of 5.3 million as of December, per Nielsen Online. People.com is, in fact, one of the most trafficked magazine-generated sites, up there with the online offshoots of Time and Newsweek. The momentum continues this year, with February racking up still more traffic records. The site recorded 6.3 million monthly uniques in February, per Nielsen Online. Feb. 25, the day after the Oscars, turned out to be the most heavily trafficked day in the site’s history, with 57 million page views, besting its previous single-day record by 10 percent, according to the site.
David Cohen, senior vp, interactive media director at Universal McCann, says his team met with People.com sales execs roughly a year ago and challenged them on the site’s small audience relative to the massive reach of the print product. “We said to them, ‘Why does your site reach only a few million uniques? It should be so much bigger.’ And they delivered.”
On the ad side, People.com reports ad revenue in ’07 grew 285 percent versus the year prior. The site boasts 28 ad categories, including entertainment, auto, apparel and beauty.
Advertisers include Verizon Wireless, JC Penney and Quantas Airlines. New accounts include Tiffany & Co., Chase and Toyota. (Meanwhile, the print edition of People, the biggest moneymaker of all magazines, continues to thrive, its ad revenue in 2007 reaching a staggering $979.8 million, up 12.3 percent year over year, per Publishers Information Bureau. Ad pages gained 4 percent, to 3,889.)
People.com has grown by attracting a bit of a different audience than its venerable, influential print counterpart—a younger, more celebrity-fixated demo for whom the 24/7 news cycle is second nature. Thus, the site has established its own identity—focusing on breaking celebrity news, beefing up video offerings—rather than simply transporting the People magazine formula to the Web. “We live in a medium now where the cost of entry is sight, sound and motion—many magazines have failed at this,” explains Cohen. “Other [sites emanating from traditional media] like cable networks have had an easier transition. People.com has embraced this concept in that it’s not just a translation of the magazine.”
Golin—a veteran of magazines including Maxim (which he edited in 1999, when he was named AdweekMedia’s Editor of the Year), Details and Cosmo who later served as vp, creative director at AOL and creative director of Time Inc. Interactive, where his projects included the ill-fated young-male-centered viral-video site Office Pirates—became People.com’s top editor in September 2006, a move that indicated Time Inc. wanted to take the property to the next level.
Golin acknowledges that the site has undergone a philosophical evolution. “You go back a few years, and we had a lot of repurposed photos [on the site],” he recalls. “In the past few years, we realized that news drove traffic. Expectations have grown. We really kind of upped our offering. It’s much more around-the-clock.”
That news-never-sleeps mind-set has resulted in some major scoops. People.com broke the news that Nicole Richie and Christina Aguilera gave birth, and that Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds’ marriage was kaput. The site has also earned a load of industry accolades, including Web Site of the Year in the entertainment/celebrity category in the Magazine Publishers of America’s 2007 Digital Awards. It also was nominated this year for the Personal Service Online National Magazine Award.
Unlike some of its snarkier brethren, People.com reporters—like those for the mothership People magazine—have built a reputation for getting it right when it comes to reporting on celebrities, Golin boasts, snagging consumer loyalty in an age of blogs, camera phones and Photoshop. “Our news is accurate,” affirms the editor. “That’s a big deal to users.”
And like the weekly, People.com also distinguishes itself by employing the human-interest angle. It’s not all about drunken heiresses in car crashes. People.com recently reported on Patrick Swayze’s cancer battle and director Anthony Minghella’s death.
With celebrity news breaking virtually by the minute, it is important, of course, to be fast, but People.com also seeks to provide the most comprehensive coverage on the Web. With that in mind, the site is prepping the launch of News Storm, whereby People.com, during major breaking news events, will be transformed into a wall-to-wall news source on whatever bomb gets dropped into the celebrisphere. So, if Tom Cruise were to dump Katie Holmes for Brooke Shields, People.com would roll into News Storm mode—launching a homepage treatment aggregating the latest news, archival content and, in a first for the site, links to non-People.com stories. Users will also be able to place comments alongside the news. “This is for big moments,” explains Golin. “In cases like this, what happens is that everybody is thinking, what else is out there? This is the page you wished you’d found if you searched on Google.”
Also in the coming weeks, People.com will launch its first games channel—something of a departure for a celebrity news site. But the channel will stay on topic. Rather than posting the usual Tetris or Bejewled-type puzzlers, People.com will, naturally, test users’ expertise on celebrities.
Fran Hauser, who as president of People Digital has responsibility for business, sales, product development and production functions, hopes the games channel provides the site more stickiness, particularly on nights and weekends when its core workday traffic dips. Games also will present an “interesting” ad opportunity, says Hauser, who earlier was general manager at Time Inc. Interactive and a programming vp at AOL. Another ad opportunity People.com hopes to mine is shopping. Beginning this April, the site will unveil a platform enabling users to find fashions and accessories featured in its hundreds of celebrity photos.
People.com’s sales team gets props for its flexibility and out-of-the-box ideas. “They are one of the few Web publishers who are open for business,” says McCann’s Cohen. “They will hear you out.”
Last July, People.com, teaming with agency Saatchi & Saatchi, launched the channel Celebrity Central, designed around sponsor Toyota in support of its Corolla and Highlander models. The channel served as an ever-growing celebrity database where users could access mini news feeds and bios of celebrities including George Clooney and Miley Cyrus, interspersed with People.com stories and photos. Toyota, looking to connect with young, pop-culture afficionados, weaved ads throughout the section.
It’s not just pushing out the news minute-by-minute and responding to advertisers’ challenges that have spurred People.com’s transformation, says Hauser—it’s programming. Many users visit the site three or four times a day for “their celebrity experience,” as she puts it, with traffic spiking first thing in the morning, then again during the lunch hour and finally at the end of the workday. Thus, People.com has initiated its own version of “appointment TV,” building out several regularly scheduled video franchises.
Over the past year, People.com has introduced five signature series, including Who Looked Hot, a timely study of celebrity style, and They Said What?, a recap of highlights from daytime talkers like the Today show and The View. Then, there’s the popular Monday morning staple What You Missed Over the Weekend. Video will continue to be a major focus for People.com going forward, says Hauser.
It’s just the latest move to make People.com the dependable, go-to destination for gotta-have-it details on Brad and Angelina’s next family adventure or the celebutard of the moment’s latest meltdown—and an example of what makes the player a true standout among magazine sites.
As Golin puts it, “We think this is how you do it.”
Mike Shields is a senior editor covering digital media at Mediaweek.
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