Goodtoknow.co.uk – winner of Consumer Editorial Team 2011

Background 2010 was the year goodtoknow.co.uk launched a magazine off the back of its website – a first for the then online-only title.  The web team combined with a skeleton mag team and analysed search trends to create Goodtoknow Recipes Magazine – a monthly food title.

• The web team also trained 5 magazine teams to use its CMS, upload content and contribute to goodtoknow.co.uk.
• They relaunched gtk’s Family channel, led a design refresh on the site and were the first team at IPC Media to implement social media tool Pluck.
• They continued to grow goodtoknow’s Recipes channel, which at the time of writing was the third biggest recipes database in the UK (7,000).
• They started two Facebook groups which are updated all day every day to engage users and bring them back to the site.

What the team were working with Goodtoknow.co.uk is a team of 4 editorial staff, working across 6 content channels to produce up to the minute articles, galleries, video all in Goodtoknow’s mass market mum-friendly tone.. Goodtoknow Recipes magazine is a team of 3 editorial staff. The team has delivered amazing editorial results while tasked with reducing costs by 17% year on year, as well as delivering profit in tough economic times. The magazine made a six figure sum in profits in the judging period. Approach Planning meetings for Goodtoknow Recipes magazine are a joint affair between web and mag. Web’s job is to come armed with the latest Omniture stats from the site, Google trends and rising searches. Mag’s job is to turn these into delicious features that inspire busy mums to recreate the recipes. Chat, Woman, Woman’s Weekly, Woman’s Own and Pick Me Up all rely on goodtoknow.co.uk for plugs to their magazines, relevant content and polls. gtk in turn takes some of their key content. The goodtoknow team has worked hard to create an excellent working relationship with all 5 teams. They’re on hand to train everyone to use the CMS, answer questions and provide stats feedback. To begin with, web and mag teams spoke different languages, but through patience and perseverance, the goodtoknow team’s has shown how this can be overcome. Results In January 2010 gtk Recipes Magazine’s first cover was a stack of blueberry pancakes. The accepted knowledge is that everyone is on a diet. But search trends and stats from the site were saying people are already thinking about pancake day and want treats. It was the best-selling issue of the year.

• Page impressions up 66% year-on-year (103m from 62m)
• Unique visitors up 55% (12.6m from 8m)
• 1.2m UK visitors
• Recipes channel ended the year on 5m PIs for December (up 228%)
• Relationships channel averaged 2m PIs per month (up 456%)
• Family channel grew to 1m PIs per month (up 67%)
• Goodtoknow Recipes magazine ABC of 53,281
• 16.7m searches from Google (up from 9.8m in 2009)

The Goodtoknow team accepting their AOP Award with host Russell Kane  The 2012 AOP Awards are open for entry until 16 March - find out more here.