Editoriale Domus’s digital magazines deliver as traffic doubles

Facing a significant spike in traffic to online publications, Editoriale Domus needed to increase speed and responsiveness to drive digital revenue, cut costs, and continue to evolve its digital magazines. As publisher of a dozen print magazines, Editoriale Domus has gradually been going digital to satisfy readers’ increasing demands for online content. Knowing that website performance is critical for attracting subscribers and driving ad revenue, the company turned to Akamai to enable fast, seamless digital experiences for rich, dynamic content – even as traffic rose.

Editoriale Domus published its first print magazine in 1929 – the first step in its mission to inspire the future with premium content and experiences. Over the years, its commitment to creativity and innovation has kept the company relevant to the changing tastes of readers, expanding its focus from a single architecture and design magazine to mobility, travel, and cuisine. Today, the company publishes a dozen periodicals, including Quattroruote, its flagship automotive publication; Meridiani Montagne, devoted to mountaineering; Domus, the design magazine from which the company takes its name; and its popular and timeless cookbook series, Il Cucchiaio D’argento. The print magazines reach tens of thousands of loyal subscribers, and many readers still buy them at newsstands – just as they did nearly a century ago.

But times have changed. More people are reading content online – and where readers go, advertising dollars follow. To stay relevant for new generations of car lovers, outdoor enthusiasts, and home cooks, Editoriale Domus has spent the past decade building digital versions of its magazines, offering online subscriptions and adding rich, dynamic content to pull people in. The digital property of Quattroruote, the publisher’s top-selling magazine, is filled with in-depth articles, high-resolution photos, interactive content, and compelling video reviews of the latest cars. The content generates a lot of engagement, as readers comment on and share articles. It’s a popular destination for consumers who are in the market for a new vehicle, as well as all-around car enthusiasts, who can browse the site to their hearts’ content and imagine the thrill of a sleek new ride.

Making sure all that rich content loads smoothly without delays or timeouts is critical to keeping readers engaged. People won’t wait for more than a few seconds for a page to load, whether they’re researching fast cars or planning a meal at home. Any lag time in loading a recipe page or downloading a car review video could cause them to leave the site. For Editoriale Domus, speed and responsiveness are top priorities.

Ferracci is responsible for the web infrastructure, making sure it can support the company’s digital initiatives. Having joined Editoriale Domus five years ago, the company’s investment in Akamai predates him – and he can’t recall a single time when the products or the Akamai team have failed to live up to expectations.

“With Akamai Dynamic Site Accelerator (DSA) and Image & Video Manager, response times have always been remarkable,” Ferracci says. “The performance and ease of management we get through Akamai are the main reasons we’ve relied on Akamai all these years.” 

Ferracci turned to Akamai once again to try and optimize costs. The Akamai team worked closely with Editoriale Domus and quickly found a solution. High origin egress traffic was driving up egress costs for the company, and Akamai saw an immediate opportunity to bring those costs down for Editoriale Domus using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Interconnect, a cloud-first feature of DSA.

“By rerouting our origin egress traffic through the Akamai content delivery network, the Akamai team helped us take advantage of a discount for the majority of our web traffic,” says Ferracci. “That cut our egress costs by 35%, saving thousands of euros every year.” GCP Interconnect is one of the latest Akamai capabilities designed to help customers manage their cloud deployments – as more and more companies move to the cloud. By establishing a direct connection to Google Cloud, Editoriale Domus gained greater control over the exchange of origin traffic, routing it through Akamai for lower costs and better performance.

For Editoriale Domus, Akamai has made it easy to keep evolving at every level – with faster delivery and new opportunities for cost savings. Faster content delivery has meant more ad impressions and higher cost per mille (CPM), which has translated to more advertising revenue for the publisher. Content publishers can push updates faster through the content delivery network, which is crucial as magazines work to keep timely, accurate information on their websites. And system engineers can easily add new websites or change their configuration, setting up staging environments to test performance through Akamai.

That ease of management has kept Editoriale Domus focused on innovation and investment in areas with the greatest opportunities – creating a remarkable digital experience for its customers.

“Even during difficult times, we continue to advance our digital transformation because it’s the best way to thrive and win in this market,” says Ferracci. “We collaborated with Akamai to launch a premium subscription for Quattroruote, giving customers access to exclusive, in-depth content behind a paywall while reliably delivering the best possible performance.”

This premium online experience has helped Editoriale Domus continue its 90-year legacy of success, adding richer content to increase customer engagement, having Akamai at its back.

“Akamai is a responsive and strategic technology partner, helping us move our digital transformation forward,” Ferracci says. “We feel confident that Akamai puts us on a path to success by enabling us to deliver premium digital experiences to our readers — under any circumstances.”