The Yorkie as a commercial venture, identify possible advertisers and best income models.

During week fives session we looked at income models used by magazines to gain revenue through advertisements.

These different methods are:

• Display advertising
• Classified advertising – selling within the magazine
• Native advertising/ advertorial
• Branded media – sponsored content
• Online programmatic ads
• External/ affiliate links – links to click-bait stories
•  Subscriptions
• Memberships
• Events
• Merch/ shop

How will you The Yorkie magazine work as a commercial venture?

The Yorkie magazine could work as a commercial venture using a range of different income models.

Native advertising/ advertorial:  This would be an effective way of generating revenue for The Yorkie as there are many businesses in York that we could collaborate with to fit into editorial within the magazine and also advertise places within York, this for example could work with restaurants, pubs or tourist attractions within York. The bonus with that is that it is growing within the industry and there is a lot of  money available there if we could find the right businesses to collaborate with. However, when creating this kind of content it may be harder to give an honest review if being paid to write about the thing, therefore it may feel like a bit of a sellout. 

Another model that would work for the Yorkie is display advertising – adverts within the magazine that standalone – this would be especially good because the magazine has a geographical specific location, it will be easy to advertise things in York and businesses are more likely to agree to this because they know our audiences are likely to be the same or similar to theirs and they will definitely see the adverts.

Branded media content is also a way in which the Yorkie could generate revenue. This involves using content that brands have made as adverts and incorporating them into the magazine or website. I think this could work well for our magazine as it would provide targeted adverts for our audience and they are therefore likely to engage with them.

Merch/ shops is a potential other avenue to explore for generating revenue in our magazine as there are a lot of independently run businesses in York that could be placed in the magazine to help their business and ours, similar to the end pages of previous NME issues.

How will it hook in with our website?

Native advertising and branded media content are models that are already used by many magazines and print publications to gain revenue online. The HuffPost, Buzzfeed and Elle all use native advertising and the Guardian have a whole section of their website dedicated to native advertising – Guardian Labs. Creating collaborative content with companies in York is definitely something that is viable for the Yorkie website and may help the website grow in terms of visitors to the site. Branded media content is also something we should explore for the website as I am sure there are many businesses in York that would want there advertisements using on a website like ours. 

If we were to incorporate the Yorkie website more into this module, it would also be possible to use online programmatic ads to generate revenue.

Where should we distribute?

As we would like our magazine to be classy and minimalist, and our audience are primarily young people living in York, it would make sense to distribute our magazine on the campuses of both universities as well as coffee shops, cafes and independent stores in and around York. Working collaboratively with independent shops in York to do this may mean they would be more likely to want to advertise in our magazine as well.

Also, start thinking visually and make a note of what kind of images you might use and why.

I want very strong and striking images of animals that are often used in the fur industry that imply the vulnerability and innocence of the animals before they are used for fashion. I want pictures of fur items set to make them look priceless and give connotations of wealth and luxury. 

For the bowel cancer story, it would be a nice to have photographs the different contributors to the story and the beards they have grown for ‘decembeard.’ Another idea I am particularly fond of creating for this feature is old fashioned photographs of the persons relative/ relatives. Often in there kind of stories a relative has passed and that is the reason the reason the contributor is taking part in the event; however this is dependent upon the contributor I can get for this feature.