‘Taste of Home,’ ‘Family Handyman’ Report Biggest Digital Numbers Ever in April 05/21/2020 – MediaPost Communications

Many publishers are seeing a spike in both digitaltraffic and print subscriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Trusted Media Brands Taste of Home and Family Handyman.

In April, the brands reported recordnumbers during their biggest month ever, with TasteofHome.com recording a 66% increase of monthly unique visitors year-over-year at 32.2 million. FamilyHandyman.com recorded a 44%increase year-over-year at 9.6 million.

Each brand saw traffic spike between March and April, too, with Taste of Home reporting a 22% increase and Family Handyman reporting a38% increase.

The increase in traffic is due, in part, to the brands quick pivot early on in the pandemic.

When news of the virus spreading in the U.S. startedaccelerating in early March, we anticipated that more people would be staying close to home, Beth Tomkiw, Trusted Media Brands Chief Content Officer, told Publishers Daily. Sowe came together as a group to identify the content categories and topics Taste of Home could organize around in a way that is true to the brand and our audience during thecoronavirus.

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That meant tapping into already popular topics, like comfort foods and baking and freezing and preserving food. They also looked at ingredient substitutions with pantrystaples and cleaning and disinfecting tips.

Following its first meeting, Taste of Home content director Jeanne Sidner put together a task force of stakeholders from distributionchannels, including search, social, newsletters and partners.

The goal was to meet daily to look at real-time content performance data, share ideas and use our learnings to boost visitsand engagement across all channels, said Tomkiw.

The team currently meets once a week to checking our brand stance on new issues that arise and creating relevant new content,while moving away from topics that are slowing down.

Some of the most popular collaborations across the Taste of Home teams include one focused on bread baking, which has seenthe brands Basic Homemade Bread recipe clock in 4.4 million visits since March 1. The newsletter team created bread-specific sends, while the social team create a Homemade Bread Challenge.

The brands culinary team members created Cooking from Home videos that repurposed the basic recipe to create mini breakfast pizzas, apple dumpling pull-apart bread and cinnamonrolls.

After reviewing data that revealed banana bread was among the most popular recipes in the U.S., the Taste of Home team created a My Bakeable Challenge themed around it. Thechallenge had the highest engagement for any Bakeable challenge ever.

Taste of Home has also seen success with gardening articles, which experienced a spike in late April thatcontinues.

For its part, Family Handyman has relied on its service journalism and calm voice during the pandemic.

The brands direct-to-consumer product DIY Universityreported a 53% increase in transactions year-over-year in April, with a 72% increase in revenue year-over-year, as it provided readers with how-to stories, such as How to Power Your Homewith Renewable Energy, How to Build a Backyard Shed and How to Build a Deck."

Noted Tomkiw: We have forward-thinking brainstorms and discussions about wherewe need to go next. Being a journalist is fantastic these days because you have data to help inform decisions and data to demonstrate what works and what doesnt.

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'Taste of Home,' 'Family Handyman' Report Biggest Digital Numbers Ever in April 05/21/2020 - MediaPost Communications