The conventional wisdom in magazine publishing used to be that traffic arrived, reliably if unromantically, through search engines. Readers typed questions into Google, and Google sent them to your website, where they might linger long enough to see an advertisement. It was not glamorous, but it worked.
That particular arrangement has become rather less reliable of late.
At People Inc., the parent company of InStyle and its sister publications, the response has been to pivot toward social video with an enthusiasm that might have seemed improbable even two years ago. The centerpiece of this effort is a series called "The Intern," which follows a chaotic young staffer as she wreaks havoc on the magazine's offices. The show was shot on an iPhone, using actual InStyle employees as the cast and the actual InStyle office as the set.
The series has now run for 15 seasons and more than 87 episodes, which have collectively drawn over 107 million views, according to the company. Its most-watched season, which featured the actress Madelyn Cline, brought in 17.1 million views on its own.
(One is tempted to note that 107 million views represents rather more attention than most magazine covers receive these days, though perhaps that observation is too obvious to make.)
The shift reflects a broader recalibration across the publishing industry, as the traffic that once flowed so dependably from search results has begun to thin. Social platforms, whatever their other complications, offer something Google increasingly does not: an audience that arrives because it wants to, rather than because an algorithm sent it.
Whether a fictional intern can sustain a magazine's business model remains, of course, an open question. But for now, the havoc appears to be paying off.
Original story published in adweek.com: "People Inc. Ramps Up Social Video as Google Traffic Fades"