PENNY HOARDER

The Penny Hoarder is an American personal finance website based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Owned by Taylor Media, The Penny Hoarder publishes multimedia content about the different ways people can make and save money. For the second consecutive year, the Inc. 500 recognized The Penny Hoarder as the No. 1 fastest-growing private media company. The magazine also ranked the digital publisher 25th fastest-growing private company overall on its list. The Penny Hoarder has 15 million unique monthly page views and 4.9 million Facebook likes.

START TO FINISH WORKFLOW

The project was to simplify the workflows in order to improve efficiency and increase productivity but also to unify their ways of working across departments. To identify a new culturally suitable workflow tool that could be used throughout the business along with a replacement asset management solution that integrated with the workflow system and their publishing engine. Working primarily with the editorial web and social teams at the Penny Hoarder this quickly spread to all departments.

Hearst UK

Hearst Magazines UK is the largest digital magazine publisher in the UK with an online audience of 16 million unique users per month. Through 21 brands, they reach one in three adults in the UK and speak to 22 million fans and followers on social media. Hearst UK also meet 1.3 million customers every year through their network of events. Their brands include some of the world’s best known titles – Cosmopolitan, Digital Spy, ELLE, Esquire, Good Housekeeping and Harper’s Bazaar.

Editorial systems

My work with Hearst UK was primarily to implement the editorial, production and advertising workflows across all brands. This involved putting together a talented team to manage both the technical and cultural changes required. It also included the implementation of a digital asset management and rights management solution. Also the introduction of digital editions for all magazine brands.

Wigmore Hall

The Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in performances of chamber music and song. Based in the heart of London it is a venue that is impressive yet intimate-enough for recitals of chamber music. With near-perfect acoustics, the hall is celebrated across the world and features many of the greatest contemporary artistes. Today, the hall promotes over 500 concerts a year and broadcasts a weekly concert on BBC Radio 3, attracting several hundred thousand listeners as well as a worldwide internet audience. The hall also promotes an extensive education programme throughout London and beyond.

WORKFLOW & PROCESS MAPPING

Working closely with the talented staff at Wigmore Hall we mapped all significant roles and responsibilities along with detailed workflow of creative and business processes. From these sessions we identified scope for improvement within both cultural and technical areas. By bringing the right people together it was possible to plan new and more efficient ways of working as well as identifying important system requirements.

Page Lizard

Page Lizard is a mobile publishing platform which empowers content creators to author once and distribute across apps, webviewers, social and media channels. Page Lizard’s Webviewer enables you to create digital editions that format perfectly for mobile, tablet and desktop. Built in fully responsive HTML5, their Webviewer is the modern answer to the old Flash page-turners.You can author editions in pure HTML, as replica pages or both.

Strategy and growth

Working with the Page Lizard team was both challenging and fun. Project objectives ranged from overall digital strategy through to carrying out a series of media industry presentations. Work often involved meeting with senior publishing staff at both consumer and business to business publishers. The aim was always to raise awareness to changes in significant media channels and how to best take advantage of these new opportunities.

BURDA STYLE

BurdaStyle is the biggest German media company in Fashion and Entertainment, producing its brands on multimedia platforms – as print product, through every digital channel, and with selected events. With its luxury magazines Elle, Elle Decoration, Instyle, InstyleMen and Harper’s Bazaar as well as its premium magazines Bunte, Freundin and Donna, BurdaStyle reaches some ten million consumers.

360 WORKFLOW

The project was to start the process of moving Elle magazine to a more integrated workflow that brought together print, digital and commercial teams. It was as much a cultural transition as it was technical. By challenging old concepts and historic ways of working it was possible to establish more efficient workflow, removing bottlenecks and reducing repetition of effort.

Cost savings were made and expansion into new digital channels were achieved.

PCS Ltd.

Guidance & Knowledge

My work with PCS was primarily to help with the tailoring of Knowledge (their end to end publishing solution) for the consumer magazine market. This developed into a more strategic partnership with guidance through to individual publishers along with business presentations to the media industry groups.