Fortune plans to expand its editorial franchises

Lucia Moses of Adweek writes that Fortune magazine wants to double down on editorial franchises in 2012 as it tries to build on the popularity of its Fortune 500 list to appeal to readers and advertisers.

Moses writes, “Starting in 2012, Fortunewill have editorial features for all 18 of its issues. The new ones will include ‘The Shape of the Future’ that will name the people, companies, and ideas that will most influence the world in the years ahead. ‘How it Works’ will explore the secret sauce of products and concepts. There also will be ‘Best Advice I Ever Got’ and ‘Venture Special,’ a look at small businesses.

“‘The big franchise issues score the highest when it comes to reader opinion,’ said Jed Hartman, publisher of Fortune. ‘They also perform great for advertisers, and they also have that third ingredient: They’re picked up by the press or they’re influential in the community.’

“Publishers also like franchises because they can easily be extended to other platforms, widening their advertiser appeal. This year, for example, Fortune launched Executive Dream Team editorial feature and got BMW to sponsor a complementary event.

“Andy Serwer, the managing editor of Fortune, said the franchise calendar carried another bonus. Because advertisers like franchise issues so much, Fortune can devote more editorial space to long-form journalism. ‘That means they’re fat issues, and then we can do all this other stuff,’ he said.”

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