“Fabulous!” The James Wildman interview
Michaela Jefferson talks to the lively Hearst UK CEO about new ways of making money, working with agencies – and why the adspend pendulum will swing back to magazine media
Hearst UK’s new Leicester Square offices are very nice. Minimalist, grey-scale, open plan – it’s maybe a little more ‘IKEA showroom’ than ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, but other than the luminous H-shaped ceiling-light burning my retinas, it’s hard not to like.
It definitely looks glamorous enough to call itself home to some of the most iconic magazine titles in print, including Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and Esquire.
Relocating almost 1,000 employees across 24 brands into one building earlier this year was one of the first notable moves announced by Hearst UK’s new CEO and president, James Wildman, after joining the company in April 2017.
It’s my first time meeting Wildman, who has a reputation for being charming, upbeat, and extremely likeable. Not one for grandeur or self-importance, he comes to meet me at reception himself; in fact, throughout our interview he is keen to impress.
He is very excited by Hearst’s “fabulous” new offices (Wildman uses that word a lot), a far cry from their old home off Carnaby Street, which Wildman jokes was “a bit of a dump”. I wonder whether the move is meant to demonstrate a level of confidence at a time when magazine media is facing a lot of uncertainty. Wildman says he hopes it does.
Before being headhunted for his current position at one of the best-established publishers in the UK (and there are trophies lining the walls to prove it), Wildman held senior roles at Yahoo before joining Hearst from his position as chief revenue officer at Trinity Mirror (now Reach).
House of Hearst, Leicester Square
How has Wildman found his first year in the world of magazine media?
Although he says that he’s loved all his previous jobs, he feels that with Hearst UK he’s found his “spiritual home”.
You would think it would be daunting, joining a magazine publisher when so many say print is dead, or that the magazine brands of years past must struggle against the long-tail of online upstarts, but Wildman is a self-identified “genetic optimist.”
“I absolutely believe that the bigger the challenge, the bigger the opportunity… and I believe we have a massive opportunity,” he says.
That’s a nice way to spin it, but reading between the lines, magazine media is under a lot of pressure – and Hearst is no different. This month the company published the last copy of celebrity weekly Reveal, which was forced to close following a circulation slump.
On top of that, although magazine brands have been rapidly expanding their digital offering, publishers know all too well that the vast majority of digital adspend goes to Facebook and Google – a problem newsbrands are suffering from too.
In 2016, whilst still chief revenue officer at Trinity Mirror, Wildman spoke at Mediatel’s The Future of Newsbrands event about the digital duopoly. He was critical of those platforms for financially benefiting from journalistic content, and asked whether the commercial value they bring publishers is worth having to go “toe-to-toe with companies that don’t have anyone creating content, but are taking all the revenue.”
Wildman is somewhat reluctant to lay claim to those words now, and is more careful with how he talks about Facebook and their “symbiotic relationship.”
[picture src=”/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/November-2018-Main-Print-.jpg” position=”right” width=”60%”]
“Facebook is a phenomenal business first and foremost,” he says. “Our business wouldn’t have the reach, and therefore the fame, if we didn’t have the distribution platform that is Facebook.”
Hearst isn’t after charity and in any case, the business is in good shape, he insists (its most recent filings show it has increased its market share by 1% and recorded a profit before tax of £6.1m in 2017, compared to a loss of £1.8m in 2016).
However, Wildman is critical of the idea of chasing short term metrics, which platforms like Facebook encourage from advertisers.
“[Facebook] is a huge disruptor in the market because it’s able to sell what is essentially classified advertising, very cheaply. And advertisers have therefore moved to an ROI model and away from brand building.”
“It’s fuelled the extraordinary growth of the platform in terms of ad revenue, but to the detriment of the brand equity of the advertisers. It’s damaging brands, and it’s damaging our business for sure, as we’re seeing money leech out of print advertising.”
Coincidentally, Next’s CEO Simon Wolfson recently announced that the retailer would be ditching print and TV adspend, which traditionally help with brand building, and instead will invest that money into online where it is generating “impressive” returns.
Publishers, broadcasters and industry commentators reacted with exasperation – adland has seen many brands make similar decisions before doubling back. Last year saw both Adidas and Taco Bell shift their digital budgets back into TV after learning their lesson.
Wildman confirms that Hearst UK is also beginning to see the adspend pendulum swing back towards magazines.
“In print we’re seeing stabilisation, after several years of decline. I won’t say it’s in growth yet… but it’s stabilising for sure,” he says. Later, he tells me that women’s magazine Red is one of four titles now in growth.
“I actually do think it will grow, but that might sound arrogant. I don’t mean it that way at all.”
Wildman says he is well aware that it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get magazines back to their ad revenue glory days, in either print or digital.
[picture src=”/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/FLORENCE-MAIN-AND-SUBS-high-res-jpeg.jpg” position=”left” width=”60%”]
Interestingly, Damon Reeve, the CEO of The Ozone Project, told Mediatel last month that he might have an answer to boost the digital proposition of magazine publishers. The Ozone Project is currently a joint digital sales house between newsbrand publishers, but Reeve said he’s eyeing magazines up next.
I can barely finish my sentence before Wildman is laughing.
“I’m sure he is! He would love to – oh my god! He would love to have magazine brands in the Ozone!”
He might laugh but, given his history with Trinity Mirror, Wildman is an obvious first choice. He was vocal during his time there about the need for a unified sales platform between news publishers to rival the huge audiences of Facebook and Google.
“Maybe… Maybe I would be,” he says.
He’s more positive about the idea than some other magazine publishers Mediatel has asked – who, I tell Wildman, have argued that magazine audiences are too dissimilar to newsbrand audiences for a single sales platform to effectively serve both.
“I think that’s probably true, but it’s about data alliances isn’t it,” he contemplates. “I do think magazines are very different to newsbrands, but it’s an audience sell.”
“I wish [the newsbrands] well and I think collaboration is good,” he says after a moment’s thought. “But I think we need to see how it plays out.”
Wildman is much more keen to talk about how Hearst is diversifying its revenue streams to reduce the business’ dependency on advertising. The publisher now has two agency models within its business: content marketing agency Hearst Made, and events agency Hearst Live.
He’s proud to talk about the work Hearst Made has done on behalf of clients including Asda, for whom they produce a magazine, write content, and even produce TV ads. According to Wildman, Hearst Live is also looking strong.
[picture src=”/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Tom-Hardy-Venom-British-Esquire-UK-September-2018.jpg” position=”right” width=”60%”]
“Attendance this year over last is up more than 50% and revenues are up significantly more than 100% year-on-year – and that’s not making virtue of a small basin,” he says. “We had a very established business last year.”
Diversifying revenue streams isn’t a proposition unique to Hearst. In an interview with Adweek earlier this year, Condé Nast’s CEO Robert Sauerberg revealed plans to transform the company’s 70/30 advertising/non-advertising revenue ratio into a 50/50 split through its events business, data platform and digital business.
Conversely, Wildman is determined to assure me that Hearst is still “absolutely focused on obtaining and growing our advertising take.”
He’s careful not to reveal Hearst UK’s exact revenue split, but does point out that the publisher sells four million magazines a month in the UK – and by that, he means that cover price makes up the majority of the company’s revenues.
“Outside of that, advertising is a big part of our revenues. But new revenues are just as important. To give you a sense of split.”
With so many new revenue opportunities to pursue across so many different brands, products and platforms, Wildman says his biggest challenge as CEO is “prioritisation”.
He’s a “fat man spread thin”, he jokes – a “fabulous” problem to have.
[picture src=”/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GH-Nov-2018-cover-.jpg” position=”left” width=”60%”]
But with Hearst encroaching into the agency space, you have to wonder whether the publisher’s relationship with agencies has therefore changed – and whether there’s any bad blood.
“I love agencies!” Wildman exclaims. It’s an interesting space for Hearst, which already has strong direct relationships with advertisers due to its strong heritage in areas including beauty, fashion and luxury.
“But we’d never disintermediate the agencies. They do a phenomenal job of planning and buying media on behalf of their clients,” he says.
“We’re not just selling print display, or digital and print display, we’re selling solutions. We’re as likely to be talking to an advertiser through an agency or direct about a licensing opportunity or an experiential opportunity. The toolbox we’re working with is so sophisticated, and that’s very helpful because agencies want to differentiate their services. So we’re having a lot more strategic conversations now.”
Wildman says that all he wants is to be the “partner of choice” for agencies over all other media.
However, he does think that the media industry has “lost its mojo a little bit.”
“The mood music is too negative. It’s too much on the back-foot. Given the talent, the extraordinary capabilities in art and science, in data and in creativity, I think there should be more positivity around.”
Magazines are “a lighthouse in that sea of negativity,” he says.
Wildman was appointed chairman of Magnetic, the marketing body for all magazine publishers, at the beginning of the year; putting on his chairman’s cap, Wildman says that “this is a good time for magazine media, because of all the noise and fragmentation and negativity.”
“In a world of ad blocking and definitely ad avoidance, we are a media where advertising is positively sought out. Just that on its own – that’s amazing. People buy the magazine for the advertising as much as the editorial and at the same time, they’re downloading ad blockers.”
He is overwhelmingly positive about the efforts of Magnetic’s CEO, Sue Todd, whose “force of personality” is making a real difference in the trade body’s mission to “force a reappraisal in the hearts and minds of advertisers and agencies.”
“I look at radio and think, radio was dead on its knees five years ago in perception terms,” Wildman says. “It’s now in strong growth – advertising revenue growth. The product is exactly the same but the perception has changed, and I think we can do the same.”
[picture src=”/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Cate-NS-Cove.jpg” position=”right” width=”60%”]
“But I don’t want that to sound complacent or arrogant – we’re going to have to earn that shift in perceptions.”
The launch of PAMCo has also been crucial. The new currency allows publishers and advertisers to see audience delivery across both print and digital for the first time – it’s a project Wildman is very proud of.
“PAMCo is the world leading gold standard audience measurement. It’s an extraordinary piece of research, which eclipses any other media’s measurement in terms of robustness and sophistication,” he says.
“If our brands and the industry stands for authenticity, isn’t it fabulous that we have a new audience measurement that absolutely underpins that?”
To end our interview I try a light, more personal question – but Wildman finds it impossible to pick a favourite magazine.
“I don’t have a favourite Hearst magazine, I think they’re all brilliant and I read them all cover to cover. I’m a bloke and we’ve got Esquire and Men’s Health… So yes, I probably lean more naturally towards some of those. But I don’t have a favourite.”
Hearst’s PR interjects that it would be like having a favourite child, which Wildman loves.
“Exactly! That’s a great expression! I can’t have a favourite child!”
He also finds it difficult to pinpoint a career highlight, having had “too many to mention.” However, he does point out that Hearst UK has “cleaned up” at awards this year, with 29 in total for 2018 so far.
“I’m proud of that. The industry that we work in and care about, the media industry, is saying very positive things about Hearst. And they weren’t, honestly. So that is a career highlight for me, being associated with that turn-around.”
Hearst’s job now is to ensure that the next 100 years are as successful as the last, a challenge which Wildman feels “supremely confident” about.
“I promise you, the last thing I ever am is arrogant,” he reiterates. “I feel very humble.”
“But I think that we, through hard work, creativity, differentiating around customer service and all those good things… I think we’ll do well.”