Cut to the core

The key hits:

• New York Magazine and The Cut dedicated a cover story last month to an abortion guide as part of a larger package on reproductive rights and women’s health.
• With some advertisers viewing abortion coverage as a brand safety issue, journalism dedicated to this topic could run the risk of not having financial support.
• The Cut’s editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples said service journalism for readers hasn’t led to any push back from the sales team or advertisers.

Over the past couple of years, brands have become more outspoken in their marketing strategy, prioritizing brand awareness campaigns that are rooted in social impact, such as vocalizing their support of Black Lives Matter, sharing their sustainability efforts and speaking out against gun violence.

But in the month since the leak of the Supreme Court document that challenged Roe v. Wade – the 1973 ruling that gave people in all 50 states the right to an abortion – it seems that advertisers are taking a more measured approach to messaging on this topic, or staying quiet altogether.

For publishers, this could become an issue in getting the financial support needed to cover pressing issues such as abortion rights, particularly with service journalism aimed at educating people about where and how they can access this health care.

For New York Magazine and The Cut, however, the threat of brand safety did not keep their editorial teams from printing a 20-page cover story titled “This Magazine Can Help You Get An Abortion,” as well as a state-by-state online directory for abortion facilities, with a multi-channel social strategy to boot. Not only that, but the publisher removed the reader revenue component of the online package by taking down the paywall on all of the stories in the guide.

Without the fear of demonetization holding her team back, The Cut’s editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples said she spearheaded the magazine’s abortion guide in order to provide readers the service journalism they needed in this moment, and in doing so, did not meet any resistance from the sales team or the audience growth teams in the process. — Kayleigh Barber

Below are highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Why was the abortion guide an important editorial package for you to work on?

One of the things that I personally wanted to do in coming back to The Cut was to do a lot more collaborations between The Cut team and the New York Magazine team, specifically on issues that have to do with inclusivity, equity and equality. The issue that we did earlier this year on 10 years since Trayvon Martin’s murder was a …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron