Digital sales make 10-15% of Philadelphia mag revenue: David Lipson

A tenth of revenue comes from digital sales and at least that much comes from events in the changing business model of the century-old Philadelphia magazine, said president David Lipson at an event organized by Venturef0rth. The local Online News Association group was a media sponsor.

Here are some of his main points from the event.

• Lipson says making phillymag.com clearer, more like the magazine was a major step in reinventing the company.
• Acquiring Foobooz.com helped the company branch into the popular food realm. Lipson says the company has experienced success placing ads around contextually relevant editorial content.
• Serving the customers is Philadelphia magazine’s paramount concern. The president says editors and salespeople are working side by side strategizing.
• Lipson says mobile traffic to the site has tripled in the last year. Mobile growth has the company thinking mobile first with everything.
• Prioritizing innovations is something the company values. Lipson says settling on what’s important is a tough job. In the age of disruptions, companies cannot get comfortable with success.
• Digital makes up 10-15 percent of the company’s profit; Lipson’s goal is to get it to 30 percent in the near future. Events (Be Well Philly festival, food festival, etc.) make up 10-15 percent, which is more than newsstand sales. Print is expected to stay where it is for the next five years.
• Native advertising is something the company feels can be used as long as there’s transparency with the customers.
• Writing about what people are talking about is still key for the company to create content people want to read
• Getting to a point where a paywall can be set up is a future goal of the company.
• Philadelphia Magazine sees itself as media leader in the city; wants to be modern, cool media company. Lipson wants people to think of company as the Apple of local media.