Time Inc. & Hearst Magazines Turn to Social Shopping Sites for Ad Revenue

We all know magazine publishers are looking for places to generate ad revenue. After yesterday we now have a better idea where they are looking and the answer, at least for Time Inc. and Hearst Magazines seems to be e-commerce sites in the form of social shopping sites.
 

Yesterday Time Inc. announced it acquired Stylefeeder.com, a personalized shopping site that will be included throughout Instyle magazine's Web site among others. The Wall Street Journal reports that Time Inc.'s strategy to replace traditional ad revenue is to "Invest in the biggest brands, double down on digital and get into third revenue streams."

Also announced yesterday, rival publisher Hearst Magazines digital media group relaunched Kaboodle.com, a similar social shopping site. Like StyleFeeder, Kaboodle.com allows users to find and recommend millions of products from jewelry to "Jug of Pickles" art.

In an interview from The Business Insider, Chuck Cordray, senior vice president and general manager of Hearst's digital media division, explained Hearst Magazine's 2010 digital media plans, which includes launching a few of their own new sites but doesn't include a lot of mobile apps; instead individual magazine publishers will decide if they want to build apps or not. Hearst has already launched nine apps so that readers can get magazine content from their phones.

Instead of focusing on apps, Hearst Magazines will "focus on increasing Web-based ad revenue, visitor stats and print magazine subscriptions."

What do you think of these digital strategies? Are Time Inc. and Hearst Magazines on the right track?