Glamour.com Gets Traffic Touch-up Courtesy Of Google
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Cond Nast's Glamour.com has been making strides in driving traffic the past yearit gained four times to 1.4 million monthly uniques in February, per Nielsenbut the fashion mag hoping for a major boost from Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Starting today, users will be able to feature a Glamour.com content through a widget on iGoogle, WSJ reports. The iGoogle feature, which was introduced last fall, lets users customize their Google homepage. For example, in addition to selecting interests and themes, users can add content from sources like Time magazine's site and others within a widget.
By hosting Glamour.com hosting a gadget for Glamour.com. The move is part of a larger push to drive more traffic and ad revenue at the Cond Nast sites. The company consolidated digital ad sales earlier this year, as print advertising plunged. In the past, Cond Nast had primarily used the web to drive subscriptions. The individual mags are also under pressure to build up their web presence. Glamour.com's traffic climb has resulted from its syndication policy that it started last year. It struck distribution arrangements with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), AOL (NYSE: TWX) and MSN and despite the migration of users away from portals, did record a steady growth spurt. Secondly, Glamour.com has created some individual blogs, like the single mother travails on Storked, which have attracted some attention as well.
Still, as the company has dealt with cutbacks since this past fall, Cond Nast's approach has seemed fairly ad hoc and tenative: in December, it said it was suspending new website launches. That same month, it curiously pulled the plug on the blog network tied to Glamour, Allure and Self. As new former New Yorker magazine publisher Drew Schutte settles into his role as CN Digital's first chief revenue officer, expectations are high for a more streamlined policy to its websites.
By David Kaplan