Bauer Media relaunches mobile-first Dolly with a focus on video and a presence on Snapchat
Bauer Media has officially relaunched its teen magazine Dolly as a mobile-first, digital offering complemented with a bi-monthly “re-imagined” magazine.
The relaunch of the magazine, which had been struggling with circulation, was announced in January when the magazine publisher closed iconic magazine Cleo.
Speaking to Mumbrella, Dolly publisher Marina Go said: “One of the things the magazine industry needs to do is take a hard look at the purpose of magazines now within the new information age, and people are acquiring information in different ways, particularly teenagers. We looked at the research and what we know of the way our audiences are interacting with our brand, which is primarily through the mobile version of the site through a smartphone.”
Go: “Dolly in the format it was in was becoming less relevant to the lives of teenage girls”
And THAT’S the way to relaunch a print brand in the modern age, with a total focus on your readership and where they are and how to be there with them. Well done Marina!
Publishers are in the unique position in which they have an intimate understanding of their audiences. Why has it taken the industry so long to meet their audience where and how they are consuming content. They could have taken this kind of initiative 5 years ago and they could have prevented the damage to their mastheads which has occurred as a result of refusing to believe there was a channel beyond print.
“The new Dolly.com.au will feature breaking celebrity news, fashion, beauty and lifestyle content and and will also have new features including a custom quiz platform and emoji reactions.”
Sorry, but there is already so much of this type of content out there — how is Dolly’s stuff going to get heard above the noise? What is special/different/unique about it vs all the other celeb,fashion,beauty and lifestyle content already out there? The problem for Dolly is that as a brand, it has already lost most of its relevance for its target audience. Even with the belated focus on digital channels, it will be hard to win that back….
Dear Dolly (& Girlfriend and every other rag in Australia catering to females)
You can change from paper to pixel but your content still sucks.
Stop treating your readers like idiots.
Stop preaching “girl power” and then putting the entire emphasis of your content on how your audience should look
Stop thinking like its 1955 and filling your platforms with nothing but superficial/ shallow/ 1 dimensional articles/posts about Fashion/ MakeUp/Beauty/ Celebrity Gossip/How to please your boyfriend/lover in bed
Start making content that ADDS VALUE to the lives of your audience (Not just white upper-middle class girls/women either… FYI, there’s a big bad world outside of your publishing ivory towers and they include girls/women that don’t live in cities, don’t happen to be white, don’t happen to be hetero, and are interested in things like maths/science/technology/entrepreneurship/trades.)
Signed,
Every woman who is finding their fill of great content on platforms that don’t belong to you
Drivel. Agree with the above comments. This is nothing new and only what other more forward thinking publishers did years ago. Good content, in various formats, online. Reads like yet another desperate Bauer press release to prove to marketers that titles such as DOLLY have any relevance today for readers or brands. No innovation or unique offering here. I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
Signed,
Every agency with half a clue.