Chris Wilkes admitted he
was initially uncertain of how Hearst's digital efforts would play out—he even
made sure to keep his old job when he started his work on tablets. But now, more than three years
after the launch of the company's dedicated app lab, he's overseeing the future
of fulfillment. Wilkes, vice president of digital
editions, magazines and apps for Hearst Magazines, spoke to a room of about 50
fulfillment professionals at the CDS Global Preferred Showcase at Hearst Tower
on Tuesday. He described the company's digital strategy that helped its tablet
subscriber base pass the 1 million mark in March and add 400,000 readers
year-over-year. "There's a pretty good climb
for a business that's growing in importance for us," he said. "It's a
new revenue stream, it's a premium revenue stream, we do far less discounting
in the digital magazine space, the [production] costs are less. It's also
creates more of a transition between print advertising and digital advertising.
The economics of a digital magazine are superior to the economics of a print
magazine."
