Time Inc. Tries Out New Digital Strategy with Curated DIY Site

Time Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher, introduced a new website on Monday that collects articles about do-it-yourself projects and home decor from its magazines and several dozen partner websites, including Apartment Therapy. The new site, called "The Snug," is aimed at millennials and is part of a Time Inc. strategy to publish digital-only sites that pull in content from a variety of sources. "Time Inc. is re-imagining the way we curate and deliver content for this highly coveted audience" of millennials, Evelyn Webster, exec VP of Time Inc., said in a statement. Snug staff repackage articles from other Time Inc. titles to better appeal to young readers. There is, for example, a post on The Snug that includes several pictures of Lauren Conrad's home. The Snug headline is "go inside lauren conrad's apartment (without getting arrested)" -- all lower case. (Apparently, millennials don't like capital letters.) The pictures are from an InStyle slideshow that carried the headline "Inside Lauren Conrad's Beverly Hills Penthouse." There are also posts created for The Snug, such as "10 things you didn't know you could paint." Time Inc. publishes a number of prominent magazines including InStyle, Real Simple, People, Time and Sports Illustrated. Although Monday was its first official day, The Snug's own design feels DIY in nature and not to the same level of quality as the sites for its various magazines. Nevertheless, Time Inc. has brought on Ikea has the site's exclusive sponsor for the first six months. A mix of banner ads and native ads -- including a digital video series that takes viewers on home tours -- appear on The Snug. "Many of our customers are natural DIY-ers and this unique platform allows us to reach and inspire them in a new way," Alia Kemet, external media solutions manager at Ikea U.S., said in a statement. The Snug is running on a platform provided by Rebelmouse, which creates sites that help brands and publishers curate social content such as links, photos and videos. This isn't the first time a DIY decor publisher has tried to appeal to millennials with a separate publication. Martha Stewart rolled out Blueprint in 2006 but shuttered the print magazine for young women less than two years later. It's also not Time Inc.'s first attempt to roll out a digital-only site for young people. In 2006, it started publishing Office Pirates, a humor site for young men, but ended up closing it down just six months after the rollout.

Time Inc. Tries Out New Digital Strategy with Curated DIY Site

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