America's Test Kitchen Media Network Case Study

ARTICLE SNIPPET - Boston Common Press, the Publishing Company that Produces PBS TV Show America's Test Kitchen, Uses the Show's Viewership to Drive Traffic to its Free Website, Building a Large Database in Which They Market Their Various Print and Online Products

America's Test Kitchen is a weekly television show on local PBS stations, but it is more than just a cooking show. The TV program and its companion website, AmericasTestKitchen.com, serve as the hub of a well-designed network for Boston Common Press, which produces the show. The program directs the show's 2.9 million viewers to AmericasTestKitchen.com, where, by requiring registration, the company builds an enormous permission-driven database in to which they market their various products. This strategy makes America's Test Kitchen one of the most successful practitioners of the Mequoda Network that we have found.

Products the company promotes to its database include two bimonthly print magazines (Cook's Illustrated and the recently launched Cook's Country), three membership websites and several cookbooks. America's Test Kitchen effectively feeds all these business units—all of which are very much intertwined and interdependent—resulting in an integrated system of product sourcing and support for the parent company, Boston Common Press.

Chris Kimball, publisher and editor, says he feels that publishing business is increasingly becoming a database business. That's also how he views the business side of what his company does, and the way to market to people with an interest in cooking. While access to AmericasTestKitchen.com is free, visitors must register in order to view the recipes. The result is a rich database of qualified individuals for the company to use to market its other products. Additional ways America's Test Kitchen leverages website traffic is through eNotes, a free monthly e-newsletter—tips, techniques, recipes and other items, along with links that bring the recipients back to the site—and promotional ads on the site that encourage subscriptions to the company's other websites and its magazines.

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