Squeeze new life out of your existing content

Your content is valuable.  You spend lots of time and money developing white papers, articles, and other pieces of content for your website and other electronic offerings.  But how often do you let your content go stale?  Once it's finished and published, that shouldn't be the end -- it should be the beginning of the process.  There are so many ways you can continue to use content that's already been developed.  Repurpose it!

A great example is Time Inc's new custom magazine, called MINE.  Readers can sign up to receive five free issues of MINE, which contains re-purposed editorial content that previously appeared in one of Time Inc's or American Express Publishing's magazines.  Interestingly, it's a custom publication that's specifically designed for each reader.  A reader has eight magazine choices -- from Sports Illustrated to Golf Magazine to Food & Wine.  The reader chooses which five magazines they're interested in receiving content from, and the custom publication is sent to them.  In addition, readers can choose whether to receive their custom magazine in a printed or digital format.  Think of it as a remix of a magazine.

It's an interesting model because it:
1) Capitalizes on previously developed magazine content that would've otherwise been generating little interest in Time's archives, so it's inexpensive for Time to do.
2) Satisfies Lexus, the sponsor of the whole initiative, because it generates leads (from the MINE registration form).  It also helps Lexus position itself as a brand that listens to customers, since it's giving them a free subscription to a customized magazine.
3) Gives the reader what they want -- a mix of content they're interested in, but might not have otherwise been exposed to.  Chances are good most readers aren't receiving five different Time magazines, so this gives the company a chance to showcase several of its other titles to an audience that might not have otherwise seen them.  For example, I chose Travel + Leisure as one of the titles in my custom magazine -- a brand I've never interacted with in the past.  This could help Time get readers hooked on new titles and interacting with brands they were previously unaware of.  In short, it's a clever circulation initiative too.

Is this the future of magazines, where consumers can choose the content and "bind their own"?  Probably not.  I think publishers would quickly find the costs to be too high to do this on a large scale.  But it's an interesting custom project when it leans on repurposed content from past magazine issues, as Time and Lexus are doing.

Think about this model.  Are there new and different things you can be doing with your content?  How can you repackage your content and bring it to the audience in a different way?  Maybe it's not a huge component of your overall content strategy, but why not squeeze a little more life out of your existing content?  After all, you already paid for it.

Photo by jrob86