Condé Nast bridge the gap between bloggers and publishers

An interesting new project by Condé Nast aims to unite bloggers and traditional media even more, through a joint publishing effort. The venture is being launched through Condé Nast’s magazine – Lucky – which is already being printed and available online. The magazine is going to be working with over 50 fashion and lifestyle bloggers who will be contributing content to the magazine, but crucially will also be business partners for the magazine, as a brand new business model is revealed. There’s currently a lot of debate around how blogs can be monetised, and whether this can be done through more traditional methods such as advertising, or whether monetisation will come through new, indirect means, such as being employed as a journalists on a traditional newspaper, The project by Lucky Magazine shows that the answer might be more in the latter.

Not just paid for content

Rather than just being paid for contributing content and articles to Lucky magazine, the bloggers are more business partners, with specific details being released by the publisher. Advertising opportunities will be made available both through the print magazine and the online version at Luckymag.com Revenue generated here will be split 50/50 between the publisher and the bloggers taking part. In this respect, the bloggers are being paid as, and acting as, media platforms themselves, instead of being paid purely on a content production basis, or a price per word for example. This shows a new way of working between publishers and bloggers. Every publisher or blogger wants more content, and everyone wants to get paid. This shows a way of publishers and bloggers uniting to achieve both of these things simultaneously.

Of course, this type of model might cause consternation among some bloggers, who will question why they only get paid on the ad revenue generated, rather than the publisher paying them outright and upfront for the content that they’re producing. I think what Condé Nast are trying to do here however, is find a more equal platform, whereby rather than looking at a static payment model, the blogger can earn more based on the number of ad impressions served. I.e. the better your content, the more money you’re going to earn.

What about journalists?

The question remains of course, of just how journalists will react to this. Relationships between bloggers and journalists have always been lukewarm, to put it nicely. When newspapers are in trouble, staff are getting laid off and demands on journalists increase, quite how they’ll react to bloggers moving closer into their own turf remains to be seen. This project is particularly interesting because it’s carving out a completely new space for bloggers to sit, as opposed to placing them in directly the same roles as journalists. It also contributes to a more competitive environment, as journalists and bloggers compete to get the same scoop for the same publication, as opposed to looking for the best content for their own sites respectively.

What about brands?

The upshot of a project like this for brands of course, is that it provides a much more accessible platform for them to get in front of and right beside the most influential bloggers in their area. Revlon are one of the first advertisers to sign up to this platform and get in front of a whole new audience. If as a brand you’re not particularly active in building personal relationships with bloggers, it can be difficult to get coverage in this holy grail of the most influential bloggers. But here you have a more direct in through Condé Nast, to speak to, or advertise alongside, some of the most important bloggers in fashion and lifestyle. Here, the publisher almost becomes a gatekeeper for that relationship. This is perhaps one of the most attractive offerings a publisher can put forward to a brand – the chance to get in front of journalists and bloggers within the same platform, with a very different – and less risky – approach than traditional blogger outreach.

While this isn’t the first example we’ve seen of publishers working with bloggers (The Guardian introduced ‘beat bloggers’ to increase coverage of local events), it’s one of the most interesting in terms of how the partnership is proving mutually beneficial. This may well be the blueprint that is set for other publishers that want to work with bloggers and further adapt to social technologies. It’s well known that publishers have a big job to do to catch up with social media, make themselves relevant and still make money with the new form of content consumption. This is a good way of showing how social technologies can influence an entire business model, and it will be interesting to see how this pans out for both the publisher and the bloggers.