RSSI Am Not a Believer in Digital Magazines
Okay digital magazine vendors: don’t freak out yet…read the whole post.
I moderated panel today hosted by ASBPE (american society of business publication editors) about digital magazines at the McGraw Hill Companies. I’d say the turnout was very good, the panelists were articulate, and, in general, we all learned a lot. I came away with three things that I’d like to share.
1. I am not a believer in digital magazines. Of course I know they exist, but, what I mean is, I don’t read them. Let me first say that my usage habits are perhaps not typical. I’m a print guy. I love holding magazines, reading them on the subway, in the john, etc. I like glossy covers, and photo spreads. I consume on the Internet, too, but not nearly as much. Really. But, you know what? My own experience doesn’t really matter (and neither does yours). To judge what our readers will want based on what we like is ludicrous. The key is to….
2. Survey your readers. The fact is, having a digital edition available can save you a lot of money in paper, printing, and distribution costs, as well as make you some money in added subs, especially overseas. But at least some of your readers will need to want one to make this work. I would guess that if you contact one of the vendors (NXTBook, Zinio, and Texterity are three that come to mind and that were present today), and tell them that you’d like to use them, but want to survey your readers first, I’m guessing they’d be happy to help. And why not survey your readers with help on the cheap?
3. Experiment. It probably doesn’t cost very much to make a PDF version of your products and find some way to distribute it to subscribers. I’m not saying that this will be a great revenue source, but if you don’t want to spend time and money investigating a full-fledged digital edition, and you still want to get into the game, this is a good way to start. Digital editions may not be huge now, but they might be in the near future, and do you want to go into that future with zero experience with the medium?
Of course, there was a lot more said at the session, and we all learned a lot, but, it’s Friday before Thanksgiving, and I think I’ll keep this short and sweet.
Ps - One last piece of advice: if you want to expand overseas, a digital edition is probably the best way to do it at this point: no time delay, no mailing fees, and limited startup costs. This might even be a good way to launch new products.
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Jeremy: Digital editions initially took off because of computer trade publications’ use, in addition to some digital consumer computer publications. While publishers want digital editions to increase because of costs, they had better check what their readers want, especially in international use. Many publications received outside of the US receive multiple readership as it gets passed around. And, they, like you, want the feel of a magazine. While it might seem obvious that everyone would want a digital edition outside of the US, that is not the case for many markets.
Gerry L. Ginsburg, Publishing Consultant
Good points, Gerry. I think that it’s very important to find out what your readers want (see point #2). In addition, you must also remember that what “readers” in general want varies widely from industry to industry and from type of publication. For instance, you say that many publications get passed around, etc. Well, this is definitely true for feature-y and analytic works. But do people “pass around” news rags? I’m not so sure.
I think publishers should take a hard look at digital magazines anyway for a few reasons, some of which I’ve stated. I’ll quickly restate:
1. cost savings
2. speed of international delivery
3. international reach
4. natural resource conservation
5. additional advertising inventory/opportunities
6. opportunities to offer readers rich media in a different setting
I’m sure there are more, but I’m getting a bad case of Friday night-itis.
Jeremy -
Great job moderating today. I think everybody learned a lot.
RE: pass around rate. The best digital editions have permalink, which serves the same purposed when posted to a blog or forum, except rather than sharing the content with person, you’re sharing it w/ many.
Marcus
Wow, it is Friday night. Same comment without typos:
Jeremy -
Great job moderating today. I think everybody learned a lot.
RE: pass around rate. The best digital editions have permalinks, which serve the same purpose when posted to a blog or forum, except rather than sharing the content with person, you’re sharing it w/ many.
Marcus
That’s a good point, marcus. Digital magazines offer a big advantage in distribution all around. One point we didn’t mention was the ability to distribute content to many users easily. One other opposite benefit, is that audience managers can keep proprietary data out of the hands of people they don’t want getting it–ie, non-paying readers,etc.
-jeremy
I am CEO of YUDU Media, a digital edition company and I too love print, so will refrain from freaking out!
As you point out, we need to let the readers decide how they want to consume content and not play out our own prejudices. Each audience and demographic group will no doubt return different results / opinions. There is no universal mantra that digital editions are always the right solution. In many cases, also shown in results from our own research, consumers like the look and feel as well as the simple, linear navigation of a digital edition.
In my opinion, rather than dictating the format of content to be served, companies should deliver the market friendly approach and give consumers a choice; print, digital edition or website content. The fact that these options even exist shows that there is demand for all three.
The power of Digital Editions is their ability to merge print, video and flash for a richer reading experience in a familiar format that is easy to navigate. Even as a true believer in the opinion that print will never die, I feel that interactive digital editions are the future and quite a different experience than that possible with print.