The 2020 Publishing Hot List: The Print and Media Brands Rising to Covid-19’s Challenges

Publishing has been one of the many industries bludgeoned by the pandemic, which shuttered many publications that had already been on life support prior to Covid-19. But the winners on this year’s Publishing Hot List quickly adapted to unprecedented conditions, evaporating revenue streams and rapidly evolving consumption patterns to create some of their finest work ever. Here are the 2020 Hot List winners in publishing: Publishing Executives of the Year Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best, Jairaj Sethi, Substack Last year, Substack’s only employees were its three co-founders: Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi. Now, the San Francisco-based startup has a bigger team—it’s up to 18 employees—and even bigger ambitions: trying to do nothing less than reinvigorate the flagging media industry. ... Click here for the full Publishing Executives of the Year profile. Publishing Editor of the Year Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg's attention to detail has served Goldberg well during his four years as The Atlantic’s editor in chief, a position he landed after proving himself time and time again as a talented reporter and remarkable writer. Adweek’s Editor of the Year has led by example, continuing to write thoughtful, provoking stories that break national news, even as he smoothly manages the newsroom during these chaotic times. ... Click here for Goldberg's full Publishing Editor of the Year profile. Hottest Magazine of the Year The Atlantic With its remarkable journalism, The Atlantic grew its subscriber base in a single year nearly three times what the periodical had projected to reach in two years. In the pandemic’s first two months, it added 70,000 subscribers, reached more than 200,000 subscriptions by June and now has 650,000 total subscribers. With coverage that ranged from how to stop a civil war at the beginning of the year to its own Covid-19 tracking project, The Atlantic has remained a clear, concise and accurate voice providing context and perspective while navigating a tumultuous year. —Sara Jerde Hottest Magazine Cover of the Year The New Yorker, Kadir Nelson’s “Say Their Names” George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. Tamir Rice. Michael Brown. Freddie Gray. Eric Garner. Trayvon Martin. The New Yorker, a magazine known as much for its rich imagery as its storytelling, implored readers, with breathtaking visuals, to say their names. In artist Kadir Nelson’s June 14 cover, Floyd, the most recent Black victim of police violence at the time, looms large, his body populated with the faces of other Black victims and icons, including Martin Luther King Jr., Emmett Till and Rosa Parks. The cover gained traction online, leading to 8.3 million social impressions, and the National Civil Rights Museum requested a copy of the magazine for its collection. —Scott Nover Hottest Design/Photography in a Magazine InStyle InStyle has managed to create eye-catching spreads even after celebrities and stylists began working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Socially distant shoots with Lady Gaga, Zendaya and Cynthia Erivo helped the brand maintain the familiar style and glamour readers are accustomed to. And who could forget its September digital cover star? Dr. Anthony Fauci wearing sunglasses by the pool garnered over 4 billion impressions. —S.J. Hottest Story of the Year Pandemic Coverage Most huge stories that dominate the news for weeks and months tend to be limited to a specific country or region and have an end date, such as Election Day. But the coronavirus pandemic has been a completely different beast, affecting the entire planet and with no end in sight. National publications including The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker and The New York Times, as well as their local counterparts, created new, prominent sections in their print editions and on their websites to keep readers informed. And social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter rolled out Covid-19 information centers and took steps to prevent the spread of misinformation on their platforms. —David Cohen Hottest Conversation Starter O, The Oprah Magazine The cover of the September issue of O did not feature Oprah Winfrey for the first time in the magazine's history, instead yielding the space to honor Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black medical worker killed by police in her apartment in March. The conversation—about how charges had not been brought in the case against the officers involved in the shooting—took off from there. The cover was designed by 24-year-old Black digital artist Alexis Franklin, and the editorial team revamped the entire edition in a few days to focus on social justice and equality issues. The company erected 26 billboards in Taylor’s hometown of Louisville, Ky., to bring awareness to her case and within two weeks, the issue became O’s best selling of the year. —S.J. Hottest Website of the Year The Atlantic The Atlantic’s crucial coverage of the Covid-19 crisis, and its decision to take down its paywall so readers could access the information, led to record-breaking traffic and subscription growth for the publication. With thoughtful and analytical pieces on the consequences of the novel coronavirus, the site saw 87 million unique visitors to the site in March and more than 168 million pageviews, according to the magazine. —S.J. Hottest in Business News The Wall Street Journal As other publications saw digital advertising spend plummet this year amid the pandemic, the Journal managed to log an ad revenue uptick of 4% over last year and traffic and audience growth of 86%. Meanwhile, the leading business newspaper has been steadily lessening its reliance on such revenue flows, growing its subscriber base to 3 million this year (2.2 million digital-only). The quality of its business journalism remains top-notch, with the publication leading coverage on stories like investigations into Amazon’s dealings with sellers and how Google manages its search algorithm. —Patrick Kulp Hottest in Celebrity/Entertainment People Even in an unprecedented year in which celebrity coverage inevitably changed, People has managed to stay relevant and popular. The brand produces a daily average of 135 digital stories—across verticals including human interest, crime and royals, and it's seeing record-breaking success: Traffic to People.com reached 102 million total digital unique views, according to the brand. That reach has helped land exclusive interviews, including the first sit-down with the Democratic 2020 presidential ticket, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. —S.J. Hottest in Sports The Athletic The Athletic went against the grain when it debuted in 2016, betting that hard-core sports fans would pay for more in-depth content. The gamble has been successful so far, with the site and app topping the 1 million subscriber milestone this year. Its staff is producing roughly 1,200 stories per week, and 90% of its subscribers are engaging with that content on a weekly basis, opening the app an average of four times per day. The Athletic also leaned heavily into podcasts, debuting over 100 offerings in under one year. Plus, two of its Major League Baseball writers, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, broke the year’s biggest sports story about the Houston Astros stealing signs electronically during the 2017 season. —D.C. Hottest in Health The New York Times The New York Times first reported on the novel coronavirus on Jan. 6, long before it was characterized as a pandemic and weeks before the world even knew the unprecedented international health crisis was developing, presciently likening the “pneumonia-like illness” to the SARS epidemic that started in 2002. As the virus spread across the world and into the U.S., the Times created a hub of real-time Covid-19-related information outside its paywall to keep readers updated with its crucial coverage. To date, the Times has published around 12,000 stories from more than 1,100 journalists in 20 countries and dispatched its top-rate data journalism team to create clear, informative and easy-to-use graphics that benefit readers and experts alike. —S.N. Hottest in Food Allrecipes Home cooking skyrocketed as people began sheltering in place due to the pandemic. For Meredith’s Allrecipes, that led to a record 62 million unique visitors in April, up 54% year over year. New print subscriptions jumped 176% between mid-March and mid-June compared with the same period last year, and the site’s total audience has grown 8.3% since the spring of 2019. Recipe views in August for canned foods increased 210% year over year, while air fryer recipe views jumped 229% during the same period. —Andrew Blustein Hottest in News The Washington Post Before Covid-19 dominated news coverage, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump in December 2019 and the Senate acquitted him in February. The Washington Post led that coverage with steadfast reporting, a live blog and an expanded 5-Minute Fix newsletter, which went from three days a week to five and grew its audience by 69% year over year. Soon after, the Post’s political reporters adjusted to covering an unrelenting and ubiquitous pandemic in the midst of a tumultuous election year, but the outlet’s noteworthy impeachment coverage will undoubtedly be referenced for many years to help contextualize the Trump presidency. —S.N. Hottest in Social Media The Washington Post Dave Jorgenson, the face of The Washington Post’s TikTok account, has a different mission than many of his colleagues in the newsroom. While reporters dig for truth in all corners of the world, Jorgenson and his team, backed by executive producer Michelle Jaconi, work to make the Post accessible and approachable to its more than 700,000 followers on the platform—many of whom are in the hard-to-reach Gen Z demographic. The Post has also used the channel as a marketing tool, often encouraging followers to subscribe to the publication. If "Democracy Dies in the Darkness" remains a battle cry for the Post’s reporters, its TikTok is a cool handshake and an inside joke for legions of young users and future subscribers. —S.N. Hottest in Podcasts Spotify In the crowded and ever-expanding podcast space, Spotify’s savvy deals with powerhouse influencers like Kim Kardashian, Joe Rogan and Bill Simmons—as well as major acquisitions such as Gimlet Media and Anchor—have solidified the music streaming service’s status as a leader in the arms race among podcast platforms. Those moves have been paying off with steady growth in the emerging podcast market. As of Spotify’s most recent earnings report, 21% of its monthly active users engaged with podcasts, up from 19% the previous quarter and 16% the quarter before that. —P.K. Hottest in Branded Content Mel Magazine You would never know Mel Magazine is owned by Dollar Shave Club unless you checked out the website’s “about” page. Instead of writing about shaving tips for men, the publication covers what it’s like to be a modern man of varying sexual identities. The site’s traffic grew by 50% in 2020 to more than 4 million monthly users thanks to nonshaving-related articles such as “A Very Modern History of Just Walking Around,” “The Guys on a Mission to Fact-Check the Size of Every Porn Star’s Penis” and “An Oral History of The Onion’s 9/11 Issue.” In August, Mel Magazine had 500,000 pageviews from sexual health-related queries alone. —A.B. Hottest in Subscription Services The New York Times The Times reached a milestone this year: In Q2 2020, it earned more money from its digital products than its print offerings for the first time. Digital subscriptions have become the driving force behind the Times’ business (it had 669,000 net new digital subscriptions in the second quarter). Out of its 6.5 million subscribers, which represented three-quarters of all revenue last year, 5.7 million are digital-only. Pair the Times’ first-class journalism with separate subscription offerings like Crossword and Cooking, and you’ll find a robust, diversified media business keeping "the Gray Lady" at the forefront of the industry. —S.N. Hottest in Ecommerce GQ With in-person shopping paused or severely constrained by the pandemic, GQ opened the virtual doors to The GQ Shop in August, receiving roughly 500 orders averaging $83 each in its first week for the line of branded merchandise designed by the magazine’s editors and art directors. GQ said daily subscriptions spiked over 60% on the site's launch date, and a special $100 shirt hand tie-dyed by editor in chief Will Welch sold out within four hours. The GQ Shop joined the magazine’s curated collection GQ Recommends, where affiliate revenue doubled year over year, and the GQ Best Stuff Box, which has seen a 160% year-over-year revenue spike. —D.C. Hottest in Home and Lifestyle Good Housekeeping, Hearst Magazines With more time than ever to spend at home, many readers turned to Good Housekeeping’s trusted recommendations for health and wellness, backed by its proprietary GH Institute labs. The brand kept breaking records this year, beating its overall traffic record four times so far in 2020. Its website had its best month ever in May, with 44.3 million users, according to the brand. —S.J. Hottest in Virtual Events Axios When Covid-19 threw a huge curveball at the events sector, Axios was quick to adapt, producing more virtual events in 2020 than it had in the prior two years combined. Of the 56 events the company had produced as of Sept. 30, 52 were virtual, with big-name participants including Cory Booker, Jeb Bush, Mark Cuban, Amy Klobuchar, Kevin McCarthy, Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Yang. The pandemic didn’t keep the sponsors away, either, as large brands including Anheuser-Busch, Bank of America, Pfizer and Lilly, Qualcomm, Salesforce and Slack reached for their virtual checkbooks. —D.C. Hottest Series in a New Format The 1619 Project and the Pulitzer Center, The New York Times The Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning series, The 1619 Project, has new life thanks to a partnership with the Pulitzer Center. Together, the two entities developed a curriculum that teachers can use in the classroom to provide an accurate representation of the nation’s history after enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. The partnership gave new meaning to how the Times’ journalism can be adapted for other applications. —S.J. Hottest Medium Expansion Explained, a Netflix series from Vox Media Studios Vox Media Studio’s successful expansion into new programming areas is perhaps best illustrated by the Netflix series Explained, which has already had two noteworthy seasons on the streaming service, walking viewers through topics ranging from K-pop to the future of meat. The partnership continues with Whose Vote Counts, Explained, which focuses on voting rights and features celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and John Legend. —S.J. Hottest Pandemic Pivot NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts NPR’s in-office concert series, a YouTube staple that throughout the years has featured artists including Alicia Keys, Lizzo, Yo-Yo Ma and Maggie Rogers giving intimate performances in a cramped space, has seamlessly pivoted from putting on concerts in NPR's D.C. office to showing performances from artists in their creative at-home setups. Six months after NPR announced it would be streaming performances from home for the foreseeable future, the BTS Tiny Desk (Home) Concert set a record in first-day views within its first 25 minutes. And just 10 days after that September BTS show, NPR Music’s YouTube subscribers increased by 10% to more than 4.8 million. —A.B. Hottest B-to-B Publication JAMA JAMA has survived outbreaks of measles, whooping cough, typhoid, the HIV-AIDS crisis, two flu pandemics and now Covid-19. In fact, The Journal of the American Medical Association has been informing physicians and healthcare professionals since 1883 and has had just 16 editors in those 137 years, all of them medical doctors. The periodical quickly established a Covid-19 resource center in February, and made its coronavirus content free to the world, like most peer-reviewed medical publications. Article views are up 71% from last year and its podcast program has had nearly 4 million downloads through September, a 92% jump from 2019. —Chris Ariens Hottest B-to-B Newsletter Law360 Law360’s daily newsletter succinctly summarizes the publication’s headlines so readers can catch up quickly on its robust legal coverage every day. In a difficult year for media, Law360 has only grown as it expands and doubles down on its journalism for legal professionals. —S.J. Hottest B-to-B User Experience Politico Pro As Politico’s audience proliferates during an election year, the publisher has seen notable growth in Politico Pro, the paywalled b-to-b news service it sells to businesses and organizations that need to stay up to date on policymaking in Washington, D.C. Politico redesigned the platform earlier this year to prioritize personalized dashboards, a space for project management and group workflow, and those changes are already paying off. Politico Pro’s renewal rates improved by 20% and revenue grew by double digits year over year in the first half of 2020. After it debuted in March, the redesigned site drove 50% more traffic to the Pro homepage and a 33% uptick in average monthly pageviews. —S.N. Click here to check out all of this year’s Hot List honorees.