Architectural Digest will publish its first global print issue as part of revamped international rollout strategy

Publishing across the world wide web

AD has tested out coordinating global “drops” of feature stories that were translated into local languages and published on U.S. and international websites this year, and those pieces helped increase traffic to its sites. Editors work together to “identify stories that will have immediate global appeal, and work together as a group to launch them simultaneously all over the world,” said AD global digital director David Kaufman. “It’s really exciting to learn what content is resonating with audiences in different markets, so we can continuously refine our approach.”

Digital growth has been especially strong in Mexico, India and Italy, where October monthly unique visitors to those sites were up 152%, 83% and 23% year over year, respectively, according to a Condé Nast spokesperson. 

In January, AD tested its first global launch for an AD.com story with “The One.” The piece debuted simultaneously on AD’s French, German, Indian, Spanish and Italian sites. It became the most-read story of the day in the majority of those markets, according to the spokesperson, who said the story received over 1.3 million engaged minutes on the U.S. site. The site had 10 million unique visitors that month, above its 8 million monthly average between January and October, according to Comscore data.

AD will also expand its popular “Open Door” video series to more markets, after a successful launch in India, Astley said. AD India’s September/October Style issue gave readers a look into the home of Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor via its first “Open Door” video, generating 4.2 million views on YouTube and 7 million views on Facebook.

The cost savings of a global rollout

Ultimately, this global rollout strategy also helps save costs. Layoffs and pay cuts hit Condé Nast last year, and Roger Lynch, who became CEO in 2019, is working to steer the company towards revenue growth as it continues its steady transition from a legacy print magazine business to a diversified, digitally-focused one. 

“By reorg-ing so that [Condé Nast] is a global brand with global stories, it saves money, it’s less of a lift, and advertisers are happy as well for that reason,” said Ava Seave, principal at consulting firm Quantum Media. “It makes sense to me from a cost perspective, and a revenue perspective.”

Most of Condé Nast’s brands produce “luxury content with luxury advertising, [which] has for a long time been international,” Seave added. “It’s not a crazy risk to do this, because advertisers were already there.”

In July, Astley said having one writer work on “The One” feature story and sending it to AD international editions helped save on content costs. “It was certainly far cheaper to do one story than to do 10 stories for all the brands,” she said in a Digiday Podcast episode.

With such a small portion of AD Pro subscribers coming from international markets, “possibly another reason they want to do this is to have non-U.S. oriented stories get some subscribers from other places,” Seave said. The challenge with a global rollout strategy, she noted, is finding “enough of an audience that is interested in this international view.”