About Twenty-First Digital

The idea for Twenty-First Digital as an audience development agency, serving publishers, media companies, and niche brands came about accidentally. After spending 5+ years at D Magazine and a total of 12+ years in regional and niche publishing, Melissa Chowning realized that publishers were being left behind in their efforts to grow and sustain meaningful relationships with their audiences. And at the same time, the tried and true audience development efforts that had been staples of the industry were beginning to lose their luster. Direct mail, newsstand sales, and even social media exposure became expensive, elusive, and consistently plagued by factors beyond the publisher’s control.

Around 2013, Melissa started believing that publishers had no choice but drastically evolve their audience development strategies to stay relevant and thrive. Her time at D Magazine provided a fantastic playground to experiment with different areas of that evolution. At D, she launched the company’s first universal audience database, including audiences from the website, newsletters, print subscriptions, contests, award programs, and even active sales relationships. On the 21st floor of a building emblazoned with the D brand logo, Melissa incorporated these beliefs into all areas of the business...and saw results. Cost per acquisition decreased, subscriptions increased, web traffic increased, newsletter lists grew, and event attendance soared. She knew right away that she was on to something with her approach.

Twenty-First Digital was born in January 2018, with a name that gave nod to the 21st floor in downtown Dallas and where Melissa developed the forward-thinking and never-satisfied-with-the-status-quo leadership-style.  

Today our mission is the same, but the strategies continue to progress. 

Email marketing, paid search, social media, and search engine optimization all make up the base of our ecosystem... but we’re not done yet. The beautiful thing about growing your audience is that no business area is immune. Content, UX, design, event marketing, and branding go hand-in-hand with discoverability and growth. And that’s why we believe the job of the audience developer must always adapt and evolve.