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Troy Young loves print. Still, it's been five years since he came to Hearst to build out the publisher's digital division--i.e., everything that isn't print. Today, as the global president of digital for a media empire that includes Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Elle, Good Housekeeping, Town & Country--the list goes on--Young is redefining what it means to be a 130-year-old magazine company. This interview, a transcript from a recent "Ad Lib" podcast, has been edited and condensed.
So, how are things going?
Five years ago, a lot of people warned me, "Eh, this will last a year, 18 months. Those transformational digital roles don't really work out for everybody." And, you know, I think it's really on account of the support of [Hearst Magazines President] David Carey that it's been a really incredible experience.
Five years ago, Hearst was a very different company.
The pressure on the print business has really escalated over that period of time. And, you know, certainly the hope is that we're growing digital businesses that offset that. I brought a sense of urgency. I brought a real focus on young talent.
Consolidation is in the air: You guys recently acquired Rodale. Meredith acquired Time. All within a month's span of each other.
There's just so many areas where the benefits of scale are obvious and necessary. Rodale, specifically, I always liked because they're service brands and they're enthusiast brands: Men's Health and Women's Health and Runner's World and Bicycling, Prevention. They're great category brands for the internet because you can really do well in search and in service.
It's a scale play but also when you talk about those enthusiast titles individually, they go narrow and deep.
We can deliver scale and we can deliver real specificity.
These enthusiast titles also bring to mind something that I know is near and dear to you, which is affiliate links. How is that working for you?
I'm completely infatuated with it. We've basically built e-commerce into our publishing platform, so that if you're an editor and you're looking for, you know, red jackets under $500, you just type that in and we deliver all the products back. And all the pricing and availability of those products are updated...