The Week magazine will officially launch a new Web site, TheWeekDaily.com, in mid-October. Currently in soft launch, TheWeekDaily.com is written in the same style as the print edition – aggregating opinion pieces from national news sources into readable snippets. As the name suggests, however, the site is updated several times daily.
“For us, this is really opening a new point of contact with our readers and potential readers and people who we think enjoy The Week’s unique service, and it’s opening up a new source of revenue with our advertisers,” Steven Kotok, general manager of The Week, said.
“Advertisers are looking to connect online with the type of reader who reads The Week. They like readers who are open-minded and want to hear all sides of the issue,” he said.
Kotok sees the site as a daily complement to The Week’s print edition, which is issued on Fridays. Where reading an issue of the magazine might take an hour, the site is designed to provide 15 minutes worth of reading.
“We view it as a service,” Kotok said. “It’s more about something that fills a particular need for people that, in a perfect world, might read 10 newspapers a day and 20 magazines and don’t have time for that.”
“We’re not trying to keep up with Yahoo,” he continued. “Whatever the perspectives on news are, we’re here to fill in on that side of things. That giant news market is completely filled, and we’re looking to fill a unique part of the market that we think a more unique type of reader wants.”
Readers of The Week tend to be affluent, educated and attractive to advertisers. Advertisers will be able to buy packages across The Week and TheWeekDaily.com. The site is also offering sponsorship opportunities for Web pages, webcasts and events.
Some main advertisers in The Week include import automobiles and corporate and financial services.
The Week will be driving traffic to its new site with print advertising, including a cover wrap on the magazine that coincides with the time of the official launch. There will also be space set aside in each issue of the magazine to notify readers of the site.
TheWeekDaily.com will also work with other online news sources to develop marketing partnerships, in an effort to share audience.
“Because The Week aggregates so many other sources, we already have people coming up, wanting us to use their pieces and trying to market something they wrote,” explained Kotok. “So we’re asking them to make their readers aware that we refer to their content. They love The Week because we use so many sources, and we always link to them. So we’re sending traffic their way, and they’re happy to send traffic our way.”
Most of the content on TheWeekDaily.com will be available for free, but content from the print edition and print archives will only be available to magazine subscribers. The site will feature interactive sections, video Webcasts and podcasts.
Kotok predicts that the next step for The Week will be a move to mobile.
“Because our content is short-form, I think mobile is a big area for us to look at,” he said. “The platform is not that important so much as the service The Week provides. We’ll make things simpler for [readers], so if they want it on their cell phone, that’s what we’ll do. Wherever people are who want that, we’ll come to them.”
