Interesting article in the New York Times, which follows up on a story our Lauren Bell broke last month about a personalized magazine initiative from Time Inc., American Express Publishing and Lexus.
Though both Time and Lexus hedge their words when asked by the Times for any plans to continue the initiative, the strong results for the custom print bode well for a potential new business model for publishers. Allowing readers to receive a magazine that contains pages that are all relevant to their interests can only increase engagement with that publication — and the targeted ads served within it.
It may be difficult for daily news outlets to keep up with the Internet, but those publishers are among those betting that consumers want to read longer, more in-depth reporting in print. The Time/AmEx/Lexus initiative is a good move in that direction.
