The Economist has launched the Ideas People Channel, a digital ad network that aims to expose advertisers to an elite audience unbound by the usual demographics. Rather than defining targets according to age, education level or how much money they make – so they claim – the Ideas People Channel targets individuals based on their mind-set. This audience is "intellectually curious, opinionated, influential and passionate about business, globalization, innovation and culture," according to a press release. Oh, and another thing: affluent.

The network, which launches with 11 million unique monthly visitors in the U.S., includes nearly 30 selected outlets ranging from the Christian Science Monitor to Wonkette, among others, many with a political bent, including The Nation, Roll Call, Congress.org and The New Republic. Member publishers were identified by Economist readers as preferred online information sources. Continue reading...

The Christian Science Monitor is standing fast and betting that people will pay for quality digital content, including well-produced video. Its latest foray, with FORA.tv, is called The Monitor Breakfast.

The new Web series invites the public into the longstanding Monitor-hosted power breakfasts in Washington, featuring journalists and others engaged in lively debate and candid conversation about the issues of the day.

The media brand's partnership with FORA.tv offers a hybrid model: same-day highlights will be available as free clips (such as the James Carville segment above) on both the Christian Science Monitor's website and on FORA's site. Full-length videos of each session are available on a subscription basis for $14.95/month or $99.95/year.

Advertising sponsorships are available, both as pre-roll video within the webcasts on both sites and standard ad units on the Monitor’s web video page.Continue reading...

In a time of upheaval for the news media, the Christian Science Monitor is thriving – in old-school print and online. About a year ago, reeling from poor sales, dwindling subscriptions and diminished revenue, the Monitor was forced to fold its daily edition, which had been in print circulation since 1908. In its place, it launched a weekly glossy in tandem with a spruced up website for breaking news. The venerable brand went from one struggling news product to two complementary platforms – and in the process, gained a newfound lease on life.

The Monitor's website provides a window on breaking headlines, while the weekly edition cultivates the longer, more in-depth commentary which was a hallmark of the brand for more than 100 years. So far, the relaunch is working. When its weekly edition launched on April 12, 2009, there were 40,000 paid subscribers – a base that it has almost doubled, to about 77,000 paying subs. The conversion rate from the daily to weekly was an impressive 90%.

Although modest by some newspaper criteria, the Monitor’s demographic is an upscale advertiser’s dream: a median household income of $88,000; 80% college graduates; 47% post-graduates; and they're a worldly bunch, clocking more travel than the average population. So how are they taking to the brand's digital reinvention?Continue reading...