The Medium is the Brand - Conde Nast

So, Conde Nast acquired Reddit, the Avis Rent-a-car of the content voting sites.  A great example of an elite brand understanding that it is the experience, not the title, that matters online.

Too many established publishers (and media companies) assume that their title or brand name is the most important asset when fighting for online audience.  So newyorktimes.com looks like the New York Times in your hand (as best as it can).

But read this article At Condé Nast, it's print versus digital from New York Business about Conde Nast as an interesting counterpoint to today's Reddit announcement.  An interesting observation:

As part of destination site Style.com, which includes content from sister title W, the Vogue channel falls below the Nielsen/Net Ratings minimum reporting level of 340,000 unique visitors.

But neither Ms. Wintour nor Vogue Publisher Tom Florio is to blame. Since the mid-1990s, the online strategy for all of Condé Nast's magazines has been handled by the parent company's interactive division, CondeNet. In the CondeNet world, GourmetBon Appetit share Epicurious.com, and Condé Nast Traveler is accessed through Concierge.com. Even solo sites, such as Glamour.com, are run by the Internet division.

The "Vogue Channel" is not the moneymaker, is is Epicurious.  Now my wife is a foodie, reads food blogs, and is a regular user of Epicurious.  She also subscribes to Gourmet and reads it within hours of its arrival.  Does it matter to her that the titles are not the same?  Would she recommend it to her friends more if Epicurious were branded Gourmet?  That is very unlikely.

Why?  Because Epicurious as an experience is a fundamentally different beast.  It is about searching and sharing recipes.  It is about participating and contributing and learning tips from other foodies.  Gourmet is about that perfect dinner party.  They are both useful, and entertaining.

That is why I hail Conde buying Reddit.  It is an ugly site.  Really.  It has none of the glossy brand appeal of their print pubs.  But its brand value isn't in its richness of visual experience, nor in its high editorial value.  It is in its community and participation.

Conde would be crazy to create "Reddit" as a magazine, or to rename it to match an existing brand.  The brand attributes of an effective online content vehicle are radically different, and need to be loved and managed differently.

So kudos to Conde for resisting the pull of trying to remake online in the print image. Lets hope this is a harbinger of other print publications asking if the online properties are not just different channels for content, but actually fundamentally different models that require different thinking to be optimized.

What do you think?