Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for J/P HRO
- Execs at Marc Benioff's Time magazine revealed their strategy for the iconic title.
- Time's president said Time would be profitable as early as this year and ultimately be a billion-dollar business.
- Its CEO plans to expand the title to verticals like health and business and is even eyeing acquisitions.
- They also plan to drum up revenue from audio, video, and overseas.
- But Time has to convince younger generations and advertisers that the brand is still relevant after years of neglect by its past owners.
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It's a scary time for old media - unless you're fortunate enough to be owned by billionaires.
A year since Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne bought Time, a plan to turn around the iconic news magazine is taking shape.
Like much of print media, Time has struggled to adapt its business as print ad dollars have moved online, mostly to the big tech giants Google and Facebook. Time has also endured years of business-side neglect under public companies Time Warner and then Meredith.
To revamp the business, the Benioffs tapped Keith Grossman, former CRO of Bloomberg Media, as Time's president. In a wide-ranging conversation with Business Insider, he and CEO/editor in chief Edward Felsenthal laid out their plans to turn Time around.
Grossman called 2019 an investment year - Time had to rebuild the infrastructure it lost and make new hires when it became independent. It's hired more than 100 people since the sale, for a total of 267 (part and full-time.) He said he planned to make it profitable as early as 2020 and turn it into "an excellent business" over time.
"We all want to grow this to a billion-dollar organization," Grossman said. "Right now, it's a $200 million organization. It could take seven to eight years. It's not an overnight thing."
Time sees opportunity to play a bigger role
Time
Edward Felsenthal
Felsenthal said now that Time is no longer limited by corporate earnings pressure and internal competition that it faced under previous owners, it would expand in verticals where it has authority, like health, business, and education. Health is the most visible example so far; last fall Time expanded its Time 100 concept to a health summit, and plans to out out a digital health product in the fourth quarter.
"We have 90 years of authority and can go deep in bringing people together for positive change," he said. "Health is the clearest example. Time can go anywhere."
Time is also looking to expand its role in history and education. On Feb. 26, it's kicking off a traveling exhibit called The March commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and the civil rights march on Washington. Visitors will be able to wear VR viewers that will make them feel like they're part of the march itself. Revenue will come from sponsors (American Family Insurance is sponsoring The March), licensing to museums, and merchandise sales.
"It's our biggest differentiator in a crowded marketplace," said Ian Orefice, EVP and president of Time Studios. "Hundreds of millions of people will interact with Time in a way they never have before."
In other ways, Time is pulling from the standard media playbook:
- It's going deeper into live events, expanding its Time 100 franchise to five events last year from one.
- It's making a bigger push for overseas advertisers and creating more ways to drum up subscription revenue.
- It's trying to make money off its videos through advertising and licensing to video platforms like Netflix and trying to leverage new voice platforms.
It's a tough time to be in the news business
The Benioffs are among a crop of tech titans that have snapped up legacy publications lately. They paid $190 million to buy Time from Meredith, which inherited the magazine with its purchase of Time Inc. in 2018 and then sold off its non-lifestyle titles like Fortune and Sports Illustrated in addition to Time.
In announcing the purchase, Marc Benioff referred to Time's "unique storytelling of the people and issues that affect us all and connect us all" and as a "treasure trove of our history and culture."
Time has picked up some Benioff touches, moving into gleaming new offices in Salesforce's building and adopting Salesforce's "V2MOM," its planning tool that stands for vision, values, methods, obstacles, and measures. The Benioffs have regular conference calls with executives and had a hand in the decision to turn the Time 100 gala into a summit last year. Marc Benioff is big on improving the "customer journey" and at his suggestion, Time started collecting the emails of people who vote on the Time franchise Person of the Year for marketing purposes, Felsenthal said.
But Time employees said he's mostly been a hands-off steward, similar to the approach Jeff Bezos has taken with The Washington Post.
"He invests, he provides great guidance - he likes to know how you think about things," Grossman said.
The optimism about the Benioff's ownership is shared by editorial staffers, who also told Business Insider they hope to see improved benefits as they enter new contract negotiations (all editorial sections are now under representation by the News Guild).
Still, it's tough being in the news category these days, with many companies afraid to have their ads run next to polarizing content, and people's trust in the news falling.
Grossman's pitch is that unlike other, polarized news outlets, Time is editorially centrist, which makes it more trustworthy and safe for advertisers.
"You want a brand that's read in red states and blue states," Grossman said.
A new presentation for advertisers, meanwhile, emphasizes that while Time's print subscribers skew old and male, it's younger and more female when digital and social audiences are taken into account. And it's dropping "magazine" from its marketing.
"It's going to be a bit of reeducation that we're not just in print," Orefice said.