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By Steve Smith
The total makeover of Harvard Business Review's online site in mid-December was timed to coincide with the Jan./Feb. print issue that also enjoys a top-to-bottom rethink. The various content bits and pieces, from book stores to Web site and magazine previews, have all been reorganized under the HBR.ORG brand.
Harvard Business Review has been one of the quiet magazine success stories online. It more than tripled its audience in the last three years, now to over 1 million unique users. In that time a hybrid paid and free content model evolved that leverages the popularity of more than 30 HBR bloggers and a full slate of artfully-made products. There are daily e-mail series for Management Tip of the Day and The Daily Stat (all on Twitter, too). There is a robust YouTube channel of video discussions that has had over 300,000 views. There is a mobile Web site (MOBILE.HARVARDBUSINESS.ORG), and it has a sponsor. Even the Facebook page has 46,000 "fans." In other words, a big think, quasi-academic magazine brand is already doing on the Web what many consumer magazines are still struggling to understand: paid content, mobile, social media, multimedia.