Mr. Magazine

“I’m a great fan of digital and I’m a big supporter. Us Weekly has a very sizeable print footprint with just under two million copies, 1,968,000 per week is our most recent AAM (Alliance For Audited Media) statement for the six months ending December 2017, so of course, we’re big believers in print. And I am incredulous with the number of conversations that I have with agencies and clients in acknowledging that their own research with media-mix modeling, etc. will point to a strong ROI, but it’s not in fashion, so the industry is often plagued with people who are concerned for their jobs because they’re not forward-thinking enough.” Vicci Rose…

“I do feel we just have to temper the industry’s excitement. And there are certain advertisers that rushed into the digital world, and so because we could measure it, thought that it would have the measurement that they wanted. But if we continue to see that click-through rates are a fraction of a percent, there isn’t an advertiser out there that could believe that is a success metric, where at the same time any of the more traditional quantitative research in print, Starch for example, shows tremendous awareness, tremendous activity levels, as a result of engaging with the ads. And that continues, even in the face of such tremendous, widespread access to digital.” Vicci Rose…

A lot can happen in a week, indeed. What former Us Weekly owner, Jann Wenner, said to Vicci Rose years ago, when describing the difference between Us Weekly and its prime competitor at the time, still remains valid to the VP/CRO today: you know, a lot can happen in a week. Since before the Internet and during Jann Wenner’s ownership of the magazine, Vicci Rose has been publisher of Us Weekly. And when it comes to celebrities and entertainment, her knowledge is vast and her opinion strong on both the category and the frequency of her brand: “The fact remains, whether it’s Us Weekly or some of our key competitors, we are able to provide a tremendous amount of paid circulated copies every single week.”

And indeed she is right, with her quoted amount of paid copies sold per week: just under two million copies, and her intense belief that all that is needed in the world of advertisement and magazines is for the two to come to an understanding about the continued value of print and the continued synchronization of digital with the legacy platform. It’s really as simple as that and as complex, as some advertisers are still seeking that pot of gold at the end of the digital rainbow. But being Print Proud Digital Smart has never been more important to her and her brand.

I spoke with Vicci recently and we talked about all of the above, and about the transition of ownership of the brand to American Media, Inc., and how her role as publisher, now chief revenue officer, has evolved over her many years in the business. While the core objective has remained the same, forming those strong bonds with agencies and clients, Vicci said today her job is always effected by the rapid changes within the industry. But if anybody can roll with the punches, it’s Vicci Rose. She is strong, dedicated and committed 100 percent to the continued success of Us Weekly.

So, I hope that you enjoy this delightful conversation with an equally delightful woman who believes that as long as Us Weekly remains current and relevant in the world of celebrities and entertainment, the brand’s present and future success is safe, the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Vicci Rose, VP/chief revenue officer, Us Weekly.

But first the sound-bites:

On how her role as chief revenue officer, publisher, has changed since the dawn of the digital age: Some of the evolution in my role is imposed by the rapid change in the industry. And another very important part of it is Us being more introspective to determine how we can keep pace with the rapidly changing world first and foremost, if we are truthfully driven by our audiences, which in turn then we promote and engage with our advertisers. So, I think in the initial stages of the role of publisher, and it was very much publisher, focused on the audience, the circulation, the advertisers’ interest in that audience to affect their objectives and strategies, etc. That’s always at the heart of what we do.

On why she thinks advertisers are so enamored by digital advertising in light of recent media reports on Bots and fake ads: I do feel we just have to temper the industry’s excitement. And there are certain advertisers that rushed into the digital world, and so because we could measure it, thought that it would have the measurement that they wanted. But if we continue to see that click-through rates are a fraction of a percent, there isn’t an advertiser out there that could believe that is a success metric, where at the same time any of the more traditional quantitative research in print, Starch for example, shows tremendous awareness, tremendous activity levels, as a result of engaging with the ads. And that continues, even in the face of such tremendous, widespread access to digital.

On finding new ways or creating new ways to engage with the advertisers and serve the customers and readers at the same time: It began first with positioning ads in relevant editorial. And that evolution of the positioning of the ads in relevant editorial became enhanced promotional pages and what we used to call advertorial pages. And today it’s a much more sophisticated translation of that original objective, which is branded and custom content as well as sponsored content. We are pursuing all of the avenues to allow our clients a better connection, a stronger connection, which includes social media components, but the translation of that has been a particularly productive avenue for Us Weekly over the years.

On her response when people say the entire celebrity genre and the weekly genre has no future in print: I totally disagree. The fact remains, whether it’s Us Weekly or some of our key competitors, we are able to provide a tremendous amount of paid circulated copies every single week. You just have to look at Us Weekly and People magazine. Again, the landscape has changed, where today not as much of our sales are at retail as they were before, but our average customer is paying roughly $70, that’s the actual price paid, for our subscription; for 52 weeks a year. And we’re able to sustain the circulation and in fact, the advertising, for 52 copies per year. And almost all of our weekly competitors in the entertainment and celebrity space are able to do that as well.

On why she feels there are less success stories, such as Us Weekly’s, in the media today and more doom and gloom magazine predictions: The proliferation of new products, new digital products, new software; the average CMO (chief marketing officer) today would be bombarded by not just six or seven entertainment magazines and 10 fashion and beauty magazines and the Seven Sisters. I mean, they are bombarded with thousands of alternatives today. So, I think in many cases, the decisions and the interaction with the publishing community has really been largely deferred to the advertising agencies. And they too have taken on such tremendous responsibility, as well as seeking new revenue streams.

On the analogy that digital was the seductive mistress when it burst upon the scene and print was always the steadfast spouse: (Laughs) Well, it’s interesting, there’s no question that digital, when it’s done right and with integrity…I always think, how did we end up here? The publishers have always had these tremendously solid relationships with our agencies and with our clients. And so, how did we lose so badly? You’re anecdote here is a perfect one for this because here we were, loyal, supportive; all of the editorial mentions that the editor is independent of commercial investment. And the support we’ve given over the years, yet, there was this shiny new object, the one that was thought to be the more exciting of the two.

On what someone would find her doing if they showed up unexpectedly one evening at her home: If you came to my house, you would probably find me somehow connected with my work. While I’m probably not proud to say it, other than my family and my twins, who are turning 21 soon, I am really totally immersed in what I do. But luckily that immersion does include a very significant and substantial immersion in pop culture and entertainment. I see a tremendous amount of movies; I watch a tremendous amount of television across the full spectrum: broadcast, cable, streaming.

On what she would have tattooed upon her brain that would be there forever and no one could ever forget about her: I think I’d like to have people think of me as their partner, a real consultative, professional who is dedicated and enthusiastic about what I do 12 and 14 hours per day. And that they can trust me to be a really committed and productive partner. I think that’s true with my dedication and my commitment in everything I do. I’d like that to be my legacy.

On what keeps her up at night: Two things, I have to be honest. One is, as we said earlier, how do we get the market to see the true value of print, which is there for them to see, it’s just a question of breaking through. And the other side of the equation, which is something that does plague all of us in the business, not only on the print side but also on the pure play digital, how do we accelerate the adoption of audiences to pay for the content they are consuming? Some are doing it well, others are doing it even more brilliantly, but as an industry we have not yet after 20 years or more, we have not as an industry solved this challenge.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Vicci Rose, VP/chief revenue officer, Us Weekly.

Samir Husni: You’ve seen it all in this industry. As a brand that has its cornerstone in print as Us Weekly does, how would you describe the change in your role as a chief revenue officer, as a publisher, from the dawn of the digital age until now?

Vicci Rose: Some of the evolution in my role is imposed by the rapid change in the industry. And another very important part of it is Us being more introspective to determine how we can keep pace with the rapidly changing world first and foremost, if we are truthfully driven by our audiences, which in turn then we promote and engage with our advertisers. So, I think in the initial stages of the role of publisher, and it was very much publisher, focused on the audience, the circulation, the advertisers’ interest in that audience to affect their objectives and strategies, etc. That’s always at the heart of what we do.

I can honestly say today that core objective is at the heart of the role of chief revenue officer. I do feel there is a difference in perspective, however, because growing up in our industry and our business, making the transition from the media side, media planning, at Benton & Bowles, where I worked with leading advertisers like Procter & Gamble, at the time it was called General Foods, the role of ad sales and publisher or management was very much about connecting the advertiser to the audience, in a very pure connection in that way.

Over the last decade or so more, it’s really about that consultative sales part of that equation. We could be far more creative over the last decade or two than ever before. We were engaged in a much more significant relationship, in terms of having a better understanding of what that client wanted to achieve. And through that process we built more comprehensive programs, again, using the media or the various components of our brand.

Us Weekly, as an example, went into the mobile space back in 2002 because it really didn’t require a significant investment, and I at the time as publisher had to determine how much of our resources could go into a forward-thinking medium. So, as I sit here today as chief revenue officer, that core objective is at the heart of what I do, but I do have to be so much more aware of a much broader platform. I have to be knowledgeable with not just my audience and how they engage, but where they engage. And where, as you just said, will we be engaging them in the next week or in the next month? (Laughs)

And I would honestly say tactically, we used to look at three and five-year plans regularly; today I hardly ever look at a five-year plan because I have to be really concerned with the three-month plan and the six-month plan and the 12-month plan. My role is that much more urgent and immediate, in terms of everything we do. We have to be far more concerned with the actual performance metric, that has been a very dramatic change in our responsibility to our clients.

And we’re under tremendous pressure to prove daily the power of print and the importance of print. In fact, I have a presentation coming up to one of the major agencies and one of the top ten clients in the industry to prove the power of print using many of the components from the very productive presentation that the MPA has designed, that magazines tell and sell. And then we adopt some of that information and translate it for our clients and how their product categories and their particular products have actually seen increases in consumption in magazine audiences.

My responsibility today is not just to connect clients and audiences, but really to prove that there is a powerful and productive connection and ultimately to help set up the ROI that they will achieve. In a long-winded way, my role has changed a lot, but there are still some core things that drive me every day in my role.

Samir Husni: Recently, I interviewed the president of Meredith Magazines, Doug Olson, and he was amazed and surprised that with all the data and with everything that print can offer, and with the stories that have been in the news lately about fake ads and all the Bots looking at the digital ads, he was amazed that some advertisers still have this strong belief in digital? Do you think the industry will ever overcome that newness of digital and see the return of the tangible ROI in the magazine business?

Vicci Rose: I’m a great fan of digital and I’m a big supporter. Us Weekly has a very sizeable print footprint with just under two million copies, 1,968,000 per week is our most recent AAM (Alliance For Audited Media) statement for the six months ending December 2017, so of course, we’re big believers in print. And I am incredulous with the number of conversations that I have with agencies and clients in acknowledging that their own research with media-mix modeling, etc. will point to a strong ROI, but it’s not in fashion, so the industry is often plagued with people who are concerned for their jobs because they’re not forward-thinking enough.

So, I would agree with Mr. Olson, yes. I am constantly surprised, especially in light of the fact that print for most of our clients works and has been proven to work. But at the same time I do feel that the digital component, and when I say digital, I mean the whole spectrum of digital, digital video, social media, mobile; all of those platforms add such a tremendous conduit to audiences, both our existing audiences, but more importantly to new audiences.

I do feel we just have to temper the industry’s excitement. And there are certain advertisers that rushed into the digital world, and so because we could measure it, thought that it would have the measurement that they wanted. But if we continue to see that click-through rates are a fraction of a percent, there isn’t an advertiser out there that could believe that is a success metric, where at the same time any of the more traditional quantitative research in print, Starch for example, shows tremendous awareness, tremendous activity levels, as a result of engaging with the ads. And that continues, even in the face of such tremendous, widespread access to digital.

So, I would agree with him. I do feel though that in the last year, year and a half, since many of our industry leaders on the client side are expressing concern again, not a wholesale withdrawal, but a concern. I do think there is a tempering of that willingness to try anything new at all costs and take on tremendous risk. And I have seen, in fact, in our presentation, that there are about 30 advertisers out there that have actually pulled away from print, then came back to print in a significant way and are actually growing their print. And there are many new research tools that will help us. In fact, thinking about Meredith, they were among the first companies to go into the Nielsen Catalina study and be able to, through some complexity, but be able to show their advertisers that there is significant ROI in print-based programs.

Samir Husni: You’ve been very creative in dealing with your clients and with advertisers. Can you talk a little bit about the new ways of getting revenue and advertising, rather than the traditional: we’ll sell you a page here or we’ll send you something on digital? What are you doing in terms of finding new ways or creating new ways to engage with the advertisers and to serve your customers and readers at the same time?

Vicci Rose: We actually started this back, I would probably say, at Mademoiselle magazine when there was first this opportunity to better engage our audience with some creative projects. And then pulling together the marketing team and really working with the clients to try to recognize more of the context and the relevance of the messaging. At first it began clearly with just positioning. It wasn’t just, let’s call it the Campbell’s Soup position that it used to be called in the women’s service area, the left-hand page opening the main editorial well and it didn’t really matter what the context of that adjacency was.

So, it began first with positioning ads in relevant editorial. And that evolution of the positioning of the ads in relevant editorial became enhanced promotional pages and what we used to call advertorial pages. And today it’s a much more sophisticated translation of that original objective, which is branded and custom content as well as sponsored content. We are pursuing all of the avenues to allow our clients a better connection, a stronger connection, which includes social media components, but the translation of that has been a particularly productive avenue for Us Weekly over the years.

And I think the reason why we’ve been able to see this as a very particularly productive channel for us, meaning the branded or custom content channel, is because we are able to work with the clients, really better understand what their objectives are. At times, because we’re dealing with celebrity and entertainment, we have to remind the client of what those objectives are and make sure that they adhere to what they originally thought was the objective and not get all caught up in the excitement of working with entertainment and celebrity.

But again, the importance of that I think has never been clearer than it is today with the new audiences. As you mentioned, that younger customer coming into media with very different expectations, with a very different landscape, and a very different appraisal of advertising and how they react to advertising. How they feel about companies and their promise, typically made in a classic ad.

So, we have this fantastic opportunity to work with our clients to really understand where their objectives converge with the interest of an audience. It takes it to a much purer level for me as a chief revenue officer, and still at heart a publisher. That’s the most exciting part of our business and what keeps so many of us active. It’s the creativity, but always knowing that it’s only creative if it satisfies that client’s objective.

So, yes, Us Weekly has had a very, very big stake in sponsored content and branded and custom content. In fact, the articles that you may be reading had recognized some of the programs that we triggered recently, first with the paper and packaging board, with the GRAMMY’s and being able to include them in a big GRAMMY-based initiative; Music’s Biggest Night, it was not formerly working with the GRAMMY’s, but again, being able to recognize and have some contextual relevance to awards programming.

And then most recently, with the completion now of the Olympics, we were able to align our client Nutrish with Olympics programming. So, context and relevance, as classically done by ad-placement in magazines, is now on steroids. (Laughs)

And we created a custom video with Kelli Stack, who was an Olympian, and she rescued some dogs from Sochi, when she was last participating in the Winter Olympics there. And we were able to sit down with her and understand how these wonderful animals helped her and her training, her relaxation, and her motivation. And it was a win-win with tremendous results. In fact, the contest, it was a user-generated contest where you provided pictures of your Olym-pet, and the votes were just under 900.000 in two weeks. It was very exciting.

Samir Husni: You mentioned the celebrity environment of Us Weekly has almost two million copies every week. What’s your response when people say the entire celebrity genre and the weekly genre has no future in print?

Vicci Rose: I totally disagree. The fact remains, whether it’s Us Weekly or some of our key competitors, we are able to provide a tremendous amount of paid circulated copies every single week. You just have to look at Us Weekly and People magazine. Again, the landscape has changed, where today not as much of our sales are at retail as they were before, but our average customer is paying roughly $70, that’s the actual price paid, for our subscription; for 52 weeks a year. And we’re able to sustain the circulation and in fact, the advertising, for 52 copies per year. And almost all of our weekly competitors in the entertainment and celebrity space are able to do that as well.

We do have a number of competitors that have double issues and so have lowered their frequency, but it’s still in the mid to high 40s, forty copies going out there. In fact, and this is fact not fiction, there is an audience out there buying hundreds of thousands of copies a week in our space, when the suggestion is that they could be getting much of this content online for free. So, there’s clearly a perspective, a point of view, a treatment, a community of celebrities that we include; how we approach them and frankly, how each one of these properties addresses this audience, is different.

To the untrained eye it may not be apparent, but our duplication among the magazines, let’s say, each one of us has a different statistic, but it’s between 15 and 18 percent on average, which in the scheme of things is very, very low in terms of duplication. If you look at some of the fashion/beauty books, some of those duplications can be in the 30 percentiles or women’s service books, again between 20 and 30 percent duplication.

So, the fact remains that our category is still quite vibrant and able to sustain this number of magazines every week. And I would tell you that Us Weekly, I do believe and continue to believe, that Us Weekly’s continued success, which originated with Jann Wenner’s initial vision for Us Weekly, remains today, 18 years later. We launched as a weekly 18 years ago in March, it’s hard to believe.

But today what drives us weekly and one of Jann’s initial comments to me, in terms of how he saw Us Weekly differing from our prime competitor at that time and even today, People magazine, is that he said, you know, a lot can happen in a week. And if we continue to focus our editorial perspective and objective on that kind of currency, in things that happen here and now, we will continue to win. And that has been a driving piece of our brand equity even today.

If you come on Us Weekly’s site on The Stylish channel, one of our strongest portfolios is called About Last Night, and it is a photo gallery of celebrities and what they looked like, fashion and beauty, in real time, updated every day. Or if it’s in the pages of Us Weekly, most of that editorial content happened in the last five to seven days. And if there is a rare occasion where a story isn’t yet fully baked or we decided that there’s something else that needed to go in its place, we rarely post that story only to run it the following week, because it won’t have the same sense of currency and urgency that it needs to have.

And that’s how Us Weekly continues to stay relevant to our audience. And integrity also drives that, or transitioning overtime, integrity, credibility, those are the demands of our audience. And as long as we continue to provide true news in an era of fake news, I think we will continue to thrive as we are today.

Samir Husni: Why are there less of your success stories out there in the media, in the general magazine media environment, than all of the doom and gloom stories that we hear about magazines and magazine media?

Vicci Rose: The proliferation of new products, new digital products, new software; the average CMO (chief marketing officer) today would be bombarded by not just six or seven entertainment magazines and 10 fashion and beauty magazines and the Seven Sisters. I mean, they are bombarded with thousands of alternatives today. So, I think in many cases, the decisions and the interaction with the publishing community has really been largely deferred to the advertising agencies. And they too have taken on such tremendous responsibility, as well as seeking new revenue streams.

And so I think the combination of the proliferation of alternatives, squeezing the dollars allocated to marketing, and again, we have a lot of clients that now within their marketing channel have so many objectives, high funnel, low funnel, where they’re judged, how they’re judged, how the executives themselves are compensated.

I think you’re very right, and frankly, this is what keeps me up at night. My greatest concern is how do I break through? How do we as an industry break through? How do we gain the attention of the ultimate decision makers for the funds? Thankfully we have a very strong leader in Linda Thomas Brooks at the MPA, and she has tremendous client-side perspective, agency-side perspective, and I think she’s doing an incredible job at breaking through that gauntlet.

But we’re not there yet. And I think we need very resilient and tenacious leaders in our industry who understand and will make this effort daily. And with no change in our resolve. Working with Linda and seeing her new presentation has given me personally the resolve and my team the resolve.

And as I mentioned to you, we have now adapted our presentation to include many of the facts and the findings that the MPA has given us. And I would tell you that in the last couple of weeks, since we decided to redirect a portion of our efforts to the “why print” equation, it’s always been implicit in what we’re selling, but now it’s “why print” as part of the larger picture. We have had tremendous response on both the strategy side of the agencies and certain key clients. We’re very, very excited about what we’re seeing now.

And it may be good timing. As you said earlier, there are many clients that are scratching their heads and saying, oh my gosh, we rushed into digital and now we have to think about where that true balance should be. And we may be coming in at just the right time to help them see that the balance is the prudent course.

Samir Husni: I tell my students that when digital exploded onto the scene in 2008, she became the mistress that no one could resist, while print was that faithful and steadfast spouse. People began spending all of that money on the mistress, digital, meanwhile there was the spouse, print, asking the question: what is she giving you for your money?

Vicci Rose: (Laughs) Well, it’s interesting, there’s no question that digital, when it’s done right and with integrity…I always think, how did we end up here? The publishers have always had these tremendously solid relationships with our agencies and with our clients. And so, how did we lose so badly? You’re anecdote here is a perfect one for this because here we were, loyal, supportive; all of the editorial mentions that the editor is independent of commercial investment. And the support we’ve given over the years, yet, there was this shiny new object, the one that was thought to be the more exciting of the two.

But I do feel that there is tremendous value. Us Weekly alone, for example, our own Google Analytics are roughly 30-35 million unique visitors a month that come to Us Weekly. But they go 350-400 million pages deep in our site. In fact, we are thrilled, we’ve worked really hard to develop the kind of relationship in the digital platform that would allow this audience, not only to come to usmagazine.com, but to come daily, multiple times per day.

But we do believe that there is a different experience, that the reader or the visitor has very different expectations when they come digitally. There are so many pages, there are so many galleries and videos. And when they come to the pages of the magazine, they have a much more curated view. Tina Brown once said that when she starts at the front of the magazine and she ends at the end of Us Weekly, she knows everything that she needs to know about those 20 to 30 people that everyone is talking about right now. It was many years ago that she stated that, but that’s still true today.

So, there is a different promise in the pages of the magazine than there is in digital, which allows us to really update the information minute-by-minute. And our content leadership, Dylan Howard, Jen Peros, our Style and Beauty director, Gwen Flamberg; they’ve done a tremendous job at really delivering on that expectation on the part of our audience. Far surpassing my expectations in a relatively short period of time since we transitioned to AMI’s ownership.

And while it was a challenging transition just in moving from one corporate culture to another, the commitment was very clear from the get-go. David (Pecker) understood the difference in our property; he understood how important the relationship with our digital audience was and continued to allow us to invest time, energy and resources in delivering. And I’m very excited to say that February, while the comScore for February isn’t out yet, it should be one of our largest comScore audiences in the last five years.

Samir Husni: If I showed up unexpectedly at your home one evening after work, what would I find you doing? Having a glass of wine; reading a magazine; cooking; watching TV; or something else?

Vicci Rose: I think all of the above. (Laughs) If you came to my house, you would probably find me somehow connected with my work. While I’m probably not proud to say it, other than my family and my twins, who are turning 21 soon, I am really totally immersed in what I do. But luckily that immersion does include a very significant and substantial immersion in pop culture and entertainment. I see a tremendous amount of movies; I watch a tremendous amount of television across the full spectrum: broadcast, cable, streaming.

I do have my projects that I’m absolutely obsessed with and I look forward to them and I support that through some of the social media that I see. I am also obsessed with cooking and that landscape, both digitally and in print. And if I go to bed at night, even if I may turn off the lights between midnight and 2:00 a.m., I’m always reading a book, if albeit only a very few pages before I go to sleep.

So, I would tell you that is where I find my personal enjoyment, and the boring of the lines between work and relaxation are just fine with me.

Samir Husni: If you could have one thing tattooed upon your brain that no one would ever forget about you, what would it be?

Vicci Rose: I think I’d like to have people think of me as their partner, a real consultative, professional who is dedicated and enthusiastic about what I do 12 and 14 hours per day. And that they can trust me to be a really committed and productive partner. I think that’s true with my dedication and my commitment in everything I do. I’d like that to be my legacy.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Vicci Rose: Two things, I have to be honest. One is, as we said earlier, how do we get the market to see the true value of print, which is there for them to see, it’s just a question of breaking through. And the other side of the equation, which is something that does plague all of us in the business, not only on the print side but also on the pure play digital, how do we accelerate the adoption of audiences to pay for the content they are consuming? Some are doing it well, others are doing it even more brilliantly, but as an industry we have not yet after 20 years or more, we have not as an industry solved this challenge.

So, that is another one that keeps me up at night as I watch more and more of my audience, and I’m thrilled to see the growth in those audiences, but the burden on advertising is just too great to sustain it for the next 20 or 30 years.

Samir Husni: Thank you.