“A new kind of magazine has arrived online and it’s bringing editors into the sales business,” reports WWD. Their story focuses on the growth of sites like Net-a-Porter and Gilt—two companies that are dramatically expanding their resources. And, unlike magazines, these sites are fully-supported by commerce, allowing them to bypass advertisements and solely focus on customizing their content. “There is nobody at our company who is pressuring our content people to cover X or Y product because there’s no incentive for us to do that,” says Gilt Groupe chairman Susan Lyne.
Just as the e-commerce game is evolving, magazines likes InStyle are now launching their own online shopping sites to stay competitive. Since this new content-meets-commerce business model will soon be the standard for all digital platforms, we’ll see how companies manage to simultaneously replenish stories and inventory on a near-daily basis.
