Media Business - July 2010

Five-year-old FireRescue1 has made great strides in the past year. Regis- tered users are up more than 27% year-over-year; since November, when the site began to use Omniture metrics, unique visitors have increased 21% and page views, 9%.

Meanwhile, FireRescue1 has amassed 71,000 fans on Facebook. “We really got serious about Facebook around a year ago, adding depth to our fan page, posting with greater frequency and pushing sign-ups on FireRescue1 and in our e-newsletters,” said Jon Hughes, editorial director for the site’s parent, the Praetorian Group.

“We’re now adding an average of 6,000 new fans a month, and we’ve seen a clear impact on traffic. In June, Facebook was our third largest external referral site, at

9%.” On May 31, FireRescue1 added a Facebook “like” button to the top of all articles, which automatically adds a link to the user’s Facebook wall.

“FireRescue1’s success reflects the

TRADE

FIRE RESCUE1
URL: www.firerescue1.com
Company: Praetorian Group
Average monthly unique visitors:
272,000
Source: Omniture

growing interest among firefighters in sharing information and finding a community online that captures the spirit of the firehouse,” said Alex Ford, Praetorian Group CEO. Community features are prevalent on the site, including a blog called the Kitchen Table that emulates get-togethers where firefighters share stories in their firehouses. ;

With a brand that dates back 112 years, the U.K.-based Financial Times continues to break new ground in the digital realm. As of March, FT.com had more than 126,000 paid subscribers, an increase of 15% year-over-year. By The brand is executing a twofold strategy that FT.com Managing Director Rob Grimshaw termed “a direct relationship with the audience.” The brand is striving to generate more money from its content, with the goal across all platforms and geographic regions of having content revenue overtake total advertising by 2012. FT.com has also begun testing a micropayment option in which users can pay to view unlimited content for one day. Users who want to view a limited amount of content for free—currently 10 articles per month—must register.

“Registered users are incredibly valuable, and the information we gain from them has turbocharged other areas of our business,” Grimshaw said. “It drives the advertising side because we have a fundamentally different offering [from free and non-registration sites], and we reoriented our marketing to focus on using the knowledge we have about our registered users to power marketing.” ;

GENERAL BUSINESS

FINANCIAL
TIMES
URL: www.ft.com

Company: Financial Times Ltd.

Paid digital subscribers:

126,281 (March 2010)

Registered users: 2. 3 million (May 2010)

Source: Self-reported

Steve Reiss, VP-publishing director of Vance Publishing’s Salon and Wood Interiors divisions, joined Vance 16 months ago. Since then, he has presided over a complete redesign of the Modern Salon website as a portal that provides online communities for each step of a beauty professional’s career, including BeautySchoolAdvisor.com for consumers looking to enter the industry. On the b-to-b side, ModernSalon.com is geared to professional stylists; SalonToday.com, to owners and managers; and FirstChair.com, to beauty school students.

First Chair is now on the Modern Salon platform; Salon Today is due to be integrated this summer. The single platform will give all the brands a consistent look, feel and navigation.

ModernSalon.com was
relaunched last fall with a
night-and-day change in
look and features. “Our au-
dience is artistic and cre-
ative,” Reiss said. “We
need to be a bit more eclec-
tic and visual than tradi-
tional business sites and
feature what our users have
identified as most critical—
inspiration, education and
collaboration.”
With a black background and hot-pink accents, Modern-
Salon.com prominently showcases bold fashion images from
world-renowned stylists. Modern Salon TV, which debuted in
January, provides regular video updates from the editorial staff
and industry contributors. Interactive features include blogs,
feedback mechanisms for all content, and Facebook and Twitter
conversations. ;