Can Publishers Make E-Tail Pay? | Adweek  Can Publishers Make
E-Tail Pay?  To succeed, print brands need to take risks  In an
age where print media is trailing digital growth but display ads
still aren’t pulling their weight, publishers are looking to
e-commerce to drum up some extra revenue.  But while plenty of
media companies are making an effort—whether it’s Harper’s
Bazaar launching e-boutique ShopBAZAAR last fall, Better Homes
and Gardens’ new shopping channel or Lucky recently
restructuring its executive team to focus on digital
commerce—many are still struggling to find a profitable model.
Veterans of the space say it’s a lot harder than it looks.  One
fatal flaw of many media-driven e-commerce sites is that they
lack a merchandising strategy as meticulous as their editorial
strategy, said Ben Lerer, the co-founder of Thrillist, which
bought men’s flash sale site JackThreads three years ago.
“Understanding editorial and merchandising curation is not the
same,” he said. “Most of these media companies d