Black Web 2.0 - Latest Comments in Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

yvonne — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:37:48 -0000

Linda Johnson Rice has changed a lot about the magazine by attempting to attract a younger audience. I'd hate to see her sell the magazine and become just like Essence and become a part of the pop culture mass marketing and consumer group.

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

yvonne — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:33:40 -0000

Not really because I tried to buy a subscription from them and they don't even have that capability. Arise is nice but when I look at the magazine, nothing is unique about it. I feel that I'm reading any other UK or American magazine because the models have nothing remotely different about them other than their names.

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

ananda — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:11:15 -0000

thanks for sharing the information.

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

Eric Easter — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:33:14 -0000

To correct a couple of inaccuracies. EbonyJet.com and JET are different divisions, with EbonyJet.com being part of the new digital division. JET's twitter page is also different from that of EbonyJet.com, which has been on Facebook and Twitter for quite a while. The site is, in fact, a third publication with original content and not to be confused with doing Ebony or JET online - which may happen in the future. There is little to no crossover between the mag audiences and the site's audience which is younger, wealthier and more educated. That was the intent of the site strategy - to develop new audiences and explore if a new voice done different could reach a new audience, and it has, with both traffic and revenue up more than 2000% from the previous iterations of Jetmag.com and Ebony.com which only used content from the magazines,

As for the traffic stats listed, that' s not even close. Free third party stats like Quantcast don't tag such thing as galleries and other widgets done in Flash, nor do most of them track international traffic. The real stats are 400,000 uniques and a range of 1.6 - 2.2 million oageviews per month. And more importantly, it's profitable.

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

jacksonkendrick — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:40:34 -0000

I dont think it is we as blacks "always" selling off our business. I think its quite the opposite. The culture normally goes the way ebony and jet is headed. Never evolving to the times and letting their main audience die off and no one to replace them. Two options

1. Sell while its worth something. Use the resources you already have and come up with a strategic plan to recapture the $45-$100k a year urban audience. (hopefully online)

2. Hail Mary an attempt to stay relevant by jumping on the online bandwagon five years (at a minimum) too late.

Building loyal and consistent visitors is very hard. They should learn as much as possible about the repeat visitors they have. They average 110k visitors per month. If out of those only 30% are active members to the site and not just google traffic. They have the possibility to gain a larger ROI for advertising as well as help develop up and coming blog sites within their niche category.

All in all the best investment for them is to try to find the "next big player" within their niche. Monetize and learn. The one thing they have is a house hold name. If they market right they can recapture some of those lost readers who have left them for the net years ago.

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

uglyblackjohn — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:48:48 -0000

Both are outdated.
Arise magazine is the new international model that should be followed.

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

BlackAdTalk - Webmaster Forum — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:45:24 -0000

If I was at the helm of that kind of family owned business and the original founders had passed...I wouldve pulled a Bob Johnson years ago and sold that puppy. It has to be worth about 500m to a 1 billion to any major media company.

My 3c
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I have to disagree... We as blacks always selling off our businesses...
It's about Generational black wealth...

You can't take that money to the grave...

Re: Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

thewayiseeit — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:56:13 -0000

The one thing that Ebony/Jet has working for them is their strength in being able to generate original content in connection with what the bulk of what/who black people want to read about. That is their magic stone of success to really make things pop off because there are no black bloggers and content generators who can get the attention of a black A lister to basically do anything they want to do quite like the old regime magazines can. It's an aspirational brand for nearly every African American in Hollywood, business, and beyond to be a part of...that is 'hulk' strong.

The hard part is making such a radical shift in an old business model which is probbaly the root of why they havent been more aggressive in regards to the internet until now.

My 3c