FM360°, the trade magazine that became a digital hub

Starting point

A trade magazine lives on three things: good content, paying readers and advertisers. On paper it is a well-oiled business, but online it quickly falls apart into pieces: articles here, subscription orders via a form there, ads as e-mail attachments, job postings nowhere at all.

FM360° wanted the other way: the complete magazine business in one digital place, read, subscribe, advertise, find jobs. Not a collection of isolated tools, but one system the editorial team can run on its own.

Solution

We built a website that carries the whole publishing business, five building blocks, three of them earn money:

• The editorial section

  Articles across all of the magazine's topic areas, published and maintained by the editorial team itself, without needing a developer for every post.

• The subscription shop

  Order print and digital subscriptions right on the website, with a shopping cart and order processing. Readers become subscribers, with no detour. One of the three revenue streams.

• The advertising

  Advertisers book their presence directly on the website, the second revenue stream, mapped digitally.

• The job board

  Job openings from across the industry in one place: a reason for job seekers to come back, and the third revenue stream for advertisers.

• The supplier directory

  Providers in the industry, listed and easy to find, the building block that turns a magazine into a meeting point.

Everything in one system, all of a piece, two weeks from the brief to the launch.

Result

A magazine became the digital hub of its industry: caretakers and facility managers read, subscribe and find jobs in one place, and the publisher bundles content, subscription sales and advertising in one system instead of isolated tools.

For us the project has a special appeal: we know facility management inside out from our own products, and that industry knowledge sits in every decision on this website, from the topic structure to the directory.

Timeline

1. Week 0Business model and building blocks defined: editorial, shop, ads, jobs, directory.
2. Week 1Editorial and articles live internally; the editorial team already works in the system.
3. Week 2Launch with shop, job board and directory.