Finally, during the event itself, all Vogue properties globally housed Met Gala content in a centralized hub on its website, so visitors looking for anything found everything in one location. The title also increased its overall content output by 8% year over year, according to Yabsley.

Translating traffic into revenue

Both domestically and globally, Vogue took in a traffic windfall during the Gala.

In the seven-day period following the event, Vogue properties brought in 26 million total visitors, and its U.S. domain attracted 3.6 million readers to its red carpet gallery article—making it the most-read story in Vogue history, according to Yabsley.

To monetize the influx of readership, Vogue struck sponsorship deals with brands including Starbucks, eBay and Chanel, and the publisher created custom assets for the event.

In addition to advertising, the publisher placed a greater emphasis this year on growing its nascent digital subscription product, which it launched only six months ago. (Its Vogue Club membership, a distinct offering, is two years old.)

Met Gala coverage remained free to access the entire night, but if readers moved to explore other content, some would encounter a dynamic paywall.

Last year, Vogue had no digital subscription product, so it focused on presenting visitors with a registration wall to increase its pool of logged-in readers. This year, readers hit a proper paywall, and the number of digital subscribers it produced was 44% higher than the number of registrations it generated in 2022, according to Yabsley.

In addition, the publisher generated a nearly identical number of general newsletter sign-ups—100,000—as it did last year, further expanding its top-of-funnel audience.

“The Gala is always about engaging existing users and engaging new ones, but this year we really made headway in diversifying what that acquisition looks like,” Yabsley said.