The case for and against publishers continuing holiday-specific commerce coverage post-Black Friday weekend

By Kayleigh Barber

With less than three weeks left before the holiday gifting season abruptly ends, how publishers approach the final stretch of their commerce content strategies could be the difference between exceeding this quarter’s revenue goals over meeting them.

Meeting expectations is already an accomplishment for some given the rate of inflation and the state of the economy, which collectively ran the risk of consumers spending less this holiday season than in previous years. But after another successful Black Friday weekend, publishers are confident their December commerce strategies will leave their commerce businesses in good standing despite the headwinds.

“One of the things that we’re seeing, even more so this year, is that the deals are still live [and] as good as ever,” said Emily Silverman, vp of commerce at Hearst Magazines, whose team will remain focused on covering those deals through the end of the quarter. “There’s three weeks left, so we’re going to do everything we can to just help people buy the gifts,” while being cognizant of how far shoppers’ dollars will go, she added.

Not all publishers or commerce writers will remain focused on producing holiday commerce content, however. Following Black Friday weekend, some teams are pivoting back to evergreen content or shifting ahead to categories that typically perform well in the first quarter, like health and wellness.

Here are the cases for continuing with holiday commerce content post Black Friday, as well as why other publishers pivot away after the major shopping holiday.

The case for continuing holiday-specific commerce coverage

Total product sales during Black Friday Weekend increased by about 50% year over year for Hearst Magazines and according to Silverman, the increase in data around which products and brands readers gravitated toward during that period will also help inform the publishers’ commerce content for the remainder of Q4 and even into the new year.

“We can use that [data] as an indicator about where to spend our time for the next two weeks, until those shipping deadlines start to creep up,” said Silverman. “And then it becomes a little easier as we get closer [to Christmas], to be honest, because you start to get more into the last minute gifts, digital gifts, subscriptions, things like that, that can get to the recipient without any kind of shipping issues.”

Foundry’s tech-focused brands are also going to be highlighting deal-oriented content in the run up to Christmas. Given most of its brands’ coverage is around big-ticket items like laptops and headphones, those readers are going to be eager to find discounts all throughout December, said Jon Phillips, editor-in-chief of Foundry’s PCWorld and TechHive brands.

“It feels good to have Cyber Monday behind us, so I’m going to take [Dec. 2] off. All of December is super important when it comes to editorial affiliate, but I am going to take a couple of days to rest,” said Philips, after working the weekend after Black Friday.

Before taking that break, however, Philips said he …read more

Source:: Digiday