The New Yorker Rolls Out a New, Star-Studded Virtual Event Series, The New Yorker Live

Virtual events—once a stopgap solution—have graduated into becoming the main attraction, and even the august New Yorker is not immune to their new-age charms. This morning, the 96-year-old publication announced its first-ever New Yorker Live event—a virtual event series available only to subscribers—featuring conversations among a half dozen of the most alluring political and literary figures in today's cultural climate. In-person events still unlikely On March 29, the poet, activist and author Amanda Gorman and the playwright and producer Jeremy O. Harris will discuss art, race and expression with The New Yorker’s Lauren Michele Jackson. Then, on March 31st, Rep. Joaquin Castro and author Karla Cornejo Villavicencio will discuss immigration and the politics of the southern border with The New Yorker’s editor-in-chief David Remnick and staff writer Sarah Stillman. With in-person events still months away, publishers are rethinking their long-term strategies for virtual events. Rather than offering free experiences rushed to market, publishers like The New York Times, Bloomberg Media and Verizon-owned-TechCrunch are tying virtual events to subscription products as key acquisition and retention drivers. Ancillary to that are other benefits, like collecting first-party data on attendees and sponsorship revenues. The impetus for The New Yorker Live stemmed from the publication’s success with its seven-day virtual New Yorker Festival last October, where the brand was able to sell 23,000 tickets. This demonstrated the viability of a fully remote event, where a larger audience might be found than in-person. The New Yorker Live is a perk for subscribers But prior to the pandemic, executives at The New Yorker worried that the technological barriers to entry were too onerous. Now that those impediments have disappeared, the prospect of recurring online events not only makes sense, it offers an entirely new appeal to subscribers. Unlike the ticketed Festival, which was available to both subscribers and non-subscribers, The New Yorker Live will only be accessible and free to The New Yorker's 1.2 million subscribers. The decision to limit attendance adds further value to a New Yorker subscription, which currently costs $99 per year for a digital-only version. The New Yorker Festival Has Been a Thing for as Long as David Remnick Has Been Editor By making attendance a perk of a subscription, The New Yorker hopes to boost retention and acquisition efforts, said Monica Ray, the executive vice president of consumer marketing and revenue at Condé Nast. "We’ll measure the success of the event by looking at engagement, and then we’ll look at our retention levels,” Ray said. "We don't expect a huge increase, but we are hoping to move it up a little bit." By eschewing tickets, the publication also dramatically increases the number of potential attendees, which can help The New Yorker strike more lucrative advertising deals with its sponsors. The publication can also collect more data on its attendees, a subtle benefit of digital events over in-person ones. Better audience data The ability to collect audience data—such as how long someone watched a panel or what kind of questions they asked—can be as valuable to a publication as the sponsorship dollars it nets, says Jena Andres, the head of marketing at Welcome, a white-label virtual event platform. "We're starting to see significant return on investment from the data that can be pulled from virtual events," Andres said. Advertisers, who were initially wary of virtual events, have warmed to the concept after recent improvements to the technology surrounding the ecosystem. Sponsors can track consumer actions more easily than at physical events, and branding can be interwoven into multiple mediums. Ultimately, virtual is neither better nor worse than in-person events, they're just different, said Eric Gillin, the chief business officer of Condé Nast's culture division. “Sponsors know that they have an audience that is deeply engaged, and we are able to help them craft a brand message,” Gillin said. "It’s a little bit different, but we are able to satisfy it." The Washington Post Amps Up Its App Strategy to Drive More Subscribers