Legacy newspaper and magazine brands have been struggling financially for years, in part because of increased competition from digital news and information sites. More recently, however, the latter have been facing equally steep challenges, as consumers rely less on—and often mistrust—official news organizations and turn instead to independent, often opinion-driven sources they follow on social media. This trend, along with market fragmentation, makes it difficult to maintain adequate subscription or advertising revenue.
Thus digital news sites, too, are striving to achieve profitability and are experiencing layoffs, closures of operations, and consolidation along the way.
In March 2023, Vox Media discontinued its Recode and The Goods brands and merged their reporting into the flagship’s coverage of technology and culture trends, respectively. The company acquired Group Nine Media in December 2021, after purchasing New York magazine in 2019, and earlier this year Penske Media Corporation became the company’s largest shareholder. Vox’s brands now include New York, The Verge, The Cut, Eater, Vulture, The Strategist, Polygon, SB Nation, Intelligencer, Curbed, Grub Street, and Punch, along with former Group Nine brands Thrillest, The Dodo, PopSugar, Seeker, and NowThis. Vox is reportedly considering the sale of Complex Networks, a distributor and producer of content and experiences that it acquired in 2021.
At BuzzFeed, meanwhile, flagship BuzzFeed News announced in April 2023 that it would be shuttering after about a decade in business, leaving HuffPost, acquired from Verizon Media in 2020, as its sole news brand. At the same time, the corporate parent said it would reduce its staff by 15%, affecting 180 employees across all of its divisions. BuzzFeed’s full-year 2022 financial results, announced in March 2023, showed revenues of $436.7 million, up 10% compared to 2021, but it also had a net loss of $201.3 million. In addition to BuzzFeed and HuffPost, the company’s brands include Tasty.
The Gawker satire and pop culture site was shut down in February of this year; it had previously closed in 2016—when its owners also sold Gizmodo, Jezebel, and Deadspin to Univision, which subsequently sold them to private equity firm Great Hill Partners—before being acquired by Bustle Digital Group in 2018 and being relaunched in July 2021. At the time of its latest closure, its parent laid off 40 employees across its different units, including eight at Gawker, in a third round of layoffs in just six months. BDG’s 11 remaining brands, targeted to millennials and Gen Z consumers, include Bustle, Nylon, and The Zoe Report.
All of this turmoil means digital news sites, like legacy news publications, are looking for revenue streams beyond subscriptions and advertising to make ends meet. These include experiential initiatives and consumer products. In 2022 Buzzfeed hired an in-house executive to oversee its growing consumer products and e-commerce business, which it said at the time would likely account for 31% of total revenue by 2024. In fiscal 2022, “commerce and other revenues,” which includes product licensing as well as events and the affiliate marketplace, grew 11% to $68.1 million, accounting for 15.6% of the company’s total revenues.
Digital news site-based merchandise licensing really came into its own in 2018 to 2020, when revenue spiked and a wide variety of deals were being forged. As of 2023, new deals in this space continue to come to light regularly, albeit less frequently than a few years ago. In August 2023, for example, Eater partnered with Heritage Steel for a chef-grade stainless steel cookware line for home chefs, following an agreement with Abrams announced in November 2022 for seven Eater-branded books (four city guides and three cookbooks). And, in September 2023, the women’s lifestyle site PopSugar created a 360 Wellness Collection of seven bath and body items and a 16-piece fitness equipment line, available exclusively through Walmart, with merchandise produced with Centric Brands.
Not surprisingly, the digital news and information brands that are focused on a specific topic, like sports or food, have tended to attract the most licensing activity over the past few years, but general news and pop culture sites are in the mix as well. Here are some examples of brands that have extended into different categories, depending on their areas of focus:
- The sports-centric Bleacher Report, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, has for several years focused on continuous product drops in partnership with sports leagues, athletes, and musicians, often timed to events such as the NFL Draft or the NBA All-Star Game or having unique artwork or themes. Its NBA Remix Collection, for example, pairs NBA teams with musicians including Big Sean (with the Detroit Pistons), Future (Atlanta Hawks), and DJ Khaled (Miami Heat), and is produced by NBA licensee Mitchell & Ness, which specializes in vintage styles. It has also worked with Major League Baseball, former NBA player Dwyane Wade, former MLB player Pedro Martinez, the NFL Players Association, USA Women’s Soccer, and other partners.
- Tasty has been the focus of much of Buzzfeed’s licensing, with extensions since 2019 having included food (e.g., limited-edition ice cream with Nestlé, spice blends with McCormick, wines with Grape + Grain, and dinner kits with General Mills); cookbooks with Penguin Random House; and kitchen-related products (e.g., cookware with Walmart and appliances with Cuisinart). The Tasty brand has had deals for cook- and kitchenware and other items in key markets around the world as well.
- In addition to the new beauty and fitness line mentioned above, past deals for Vox’s PopSugar brand have included a line of yoga mats, weights, and other equipment in Target in 2021, tween apparel with Old Navy in 2020, a 19-piece beauty collection with Ulta Beauty in 2018, business casual clothing with Kohl’s in 2018, and a home collection, co-branded with Disney Princess, at Target in 2021.
- The flagship BuzzFeed brand partnered in 2022 with Stellar for BuzzFeed airport news kiosks as well as with VersusGame for a series of Buzzfeed quiz games, and in 2020 it paired with Bellesa for a line of sexual wellness products tied to the Sex & Love coverage that BuzzFeed News was launching at the time.
- Vox’s The Dodo, which features content about animals, has been licensed for children’s books with Scholastic, pet toys exclusively available at Walmart, kids’ plush under The Dodo Loveables brand from License 2 Play (based on the Little but Fierce series), and pet insurance from Fetch, Inc., among other categories.
- Buzzfeed’s Goodful lifestyle commerce brand launched an e-commerce site with Verishop in May 2023; the site includes both Goodful licensed products and curated merchandise. In 2021, BuzzFeed announced it was launching its own cannabis brand with NUG Inc. under the Goodful name.
- Vox brand Thrillest announced a licensing agreement with Academic Travel Abroad for the adventure travel service Thrillist Trips that launched in 2020, with vacations to Mexico and Morocco and a caravan package to New York’s Finger Lakes among the offerings.
It should be noted that some of these deals ran their course, with products and services no longer available. Others have been ongoing for some time and, as noted, announcements of new deals continue for many of the brands.
A number of digital news sources also maintain e-commerce sites offering limited ranges of exclusive logo merchandise, whether or not they are involved in licensed brand extensions. Vox relaunched its merchandise store with Fourthwall in December 2022, touting Vox-branded products including t-shirts and sweatshirts, crewneck sweaters, face masks, totes, baby onesies, mugs, caps, and the like. Gizmodo has an e-commerce site with similar products, as does Jezebel, with some of the same items crossing over between the two corporate-sibling shops.
A reminder that Raugust Communications’ free monthly e-newsletter goes out tomorrow, September 19, 2023. The Licensing Topic of the Month examines how collaboration partners’ shared experiences can create storytelling opportunities to grab consumers, while the Datapoint research spotlight takes a look at the children’s audio market. If you are not yet a subscriber, you can sign up here.
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