Bauer Media U.S. today announces the launch of Bauer Xcel Media – a new entity within the company focusing entirely on growing Bauer Media U.S.'s online brands and expanding its digital portfolio.
"After a year of incredible achievements in the digital space, we are thrilled to announce the launch of Bauer Xcel Media – catapulting our online presence to the next level," said Hubert Boehle, CEO of Bauer Media U.S. "Bauer is the market leader in print in many countries and the No. 1 seller of magazines at retail in the U.S. We are confident that Bauer Xcel Media will bring that same success to our online business as we continue to evolve and grow in all areas of media."
Boehle has appointed Christian Baesler as president of Bauer Xcel Media, formerly the VP of New Media for Bauer Media U.S. Baesler will head a team of 24 across editorial, technology, design, marketing and product management.
"I'm thrilled about the growth our extremely talented team has achieved in the last year. We are looking forward to building on that foundation as we search for even more talent and expand Bauer Xcel Media in the coming months," Baesler said. "Our mission is to transform the way stories are told and consumed online while building new, innovative products around our audiences' needs. We have many exciting projects in the pipeline that will disrupt the way people are consuming content online right now."
Bauer Xcel Media's first of many exciting ventures will take place in September with the re-launch of leading entertainment website InTouchWeekly.com.
Bauer Media U.S. digital properties have experienced explosive organic growth over the past year, initiated with the relaunch of core teen websites J-14.com, M-Magazine.com and Twistmagazine.com in June 2013. As a result, traffic to teen sites quadrupled, now engaging 4.5 million unique monthly visitors. InTouchWeekly.com unique users are up 514% since last year and LifeandStylemag.com has grown an astounding 814%, with 5.3 million unique monthly users coming to the site in July. Overall, Bauer now attracts more than 15 million unique monthly visitors across all its websites.
*Source: Google analytics, comparing unique monthly visitors July 2013 vs. July 2014:
Bauer Teen Group: 1,391,150 vs. 4,480,909 = 222%
InTouchWeekly.com: 722,656 vs. 4,434,885 = 514%
LifeandStylemag.com: 585,129 vs. 5,349,262 = 814%
Bauer: 3,432,738 vs. 15,567,533 = 354%
www.bauer-usa.com
