Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review
In early 2019, when I was twenty-three and trying to break into journalism, a friend told me that The Strategist, New York magazine’s product recommendation vertical, was looking for an intern. Everyone I knew seemed to own at least one item that The Strategist had written about: a blue Matisse nude print, a pleated lampshade, a fisherman’s net for carrying groceries. I went in for an interview and made the case that I would be well suited for the work: upon moving to New York, I’d developed a hustle buying designer furniture at estate sales in New Jersey and Connecticut, ferrying my finds back to the city, and flipping them on Craigslist. I had an eye for merchandise, I said. I was hired.
Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review
One of the first things I learned at The Strategist was that it made lots of money. The Strategist had affiliate marketing deals with Amazon, Target, and Nordstrom; whenever a reader bought something from these retailers using a Strategist product link, The Strategist received a small commission. The amounts added up. “A good article can crack thirteen thousand dollars,” Alexis Swerdloff—then the editor of The Strategist, now New York’s deputy editor—once told me. During a meeting with the business team, Camilla Cho—then general manager of the magazine’s e-commerce, now senior vice president of e-commerce for its parent, Vox Media—announced that in 2018 The Strategist had netted around fourteen million dollars. The business team hoped to double that in 2019.
Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review
The Strategist was not the first product recommendation vertical, nor is it the largest, though it might be the most successful at leveraging its publication’s brand for profit. Contributors told me that, lately, The Strategist takes in at least two million dollars per month; without sharing specifics, Cho told…
Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review
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Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review
Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review
Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review
Under Review - Columbia Journalism Review