Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Gimlet isn’t alone here; there other prominent examples of media companies with an emphasis on long-form that are attracting millennials – VICE and Netflix docu-series come to mind.  (It should be noted, even BuzzFeed, the king of snackable content, has invested in and attained recent success with long form.)

So why is this?  What are these companies doing that allow them to build large millennial audiences against the conventional wisdom that shorter is better?

For your consideration, here are three reasons why long-form is actually the ideal format to reach millennials....

Caroline Little, CEO CEO of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), says despite what cynics say, the future of newspapers is bright. In an article published Friday, she shared some NAA research:

"Our audience has grown with the shifting digital landscape, and we’re seeing increased levels of audience engagement and new avenues of consumption. We made the first gain in circulation revenue since 2003, with revenue rising by 5 percent — from $10 billion to $10.5 billion — as digital subscriptions grew dramatically.

The number of unique visitors engaged with U.S. newspaper digital content hit a new high in September 2013, totaling 141 million adults — an impressive increase of 11 percent since just June. We’ve changed with the times to fit the needs of our audience, from print to website to tablet to mobile, adapting our content and strategies for delivery. And it’s working. Across all digital platforms, 71 percent of adults in this country engage with newspaper content, and 55 percent of those visitors consume newspaper content on mobile devices"....

I love the NYT, it has always been one of my favorite publications I've read daily since I was a kid. However this opinion piece on marijuana reform is without question the single worst thing I think I've ever read on the site.

...Clearly many of these people are  out of touch with our culture. Opinions of those stuck in their ways, afraid of change and in no way reflecting reality. But it isn’t just age. You can be old and informed on issues and present a balanced opinion.

This is another reason many bloggers have risen so quickly: their words resonate with what’s actually going on. If you have opinions, it’s still a huge opportunity for you to balance those from an alarmist, afraid, homophobic, intolerant and increasingly irrelevant era.