Alex Iskold has a great article up about the Social Media integration practices of traditional media outlets. He writes:

It appears that we are nearing a tipping point for the mass adoption of prominent web 2.0 services, like digg and del.icio.us. Endorsement by mainstream media opens these services up to millions of people who otherwise would either not know about them, or not take them seriously. So these are not just links, these are literally endorsements - or recognition of additional value for mainstream media. 

As the only digital edition provider with built-in integration to Digg and del.icio.us, we whole-heartedly agree with Alex’s assessment.

• Alumni Magazine - Winter 2007
  Nice magazine, includes welcome video and custom tool bar buttons.
  (tags: digital+magazine video toolbar)

Ok, make that $100, off - of a pass to the FOLIO: Publishers Summit this March in Chicago. Woohoo! It’s going to be a great show, featuring some outstanding speakers and programs. And if you’re wondering what else you can do while in Chicago, feel free to check out their Official Visitors Guide for Fall/Winter 2006.

• Small Spiral Notebook - Vol.3 Issue 2
  Great literary journal. Uses a custom color background and links colors that match up with the background.
  (tags: custom+background)
• B2B Marketing Trends - January/February 2007
  Article on page 5 lists digital magazines as one of the top 5 types of branded custom media. Also a great article on competitive intelligence on page 12
  (tags: competitive+intelligence custom+publishing)
• REACH - Your Guide to Custom Publishers 2006-2007
  Looking for a custom publisher? This book lists them all.
  (tags: custom+publishing)
• Mexico - 2007 Collection
  Mexico brochure features awesome tab navigation.
  (tags: tabs)

We’re pleased to announce the launch of a new microsite, dedicated to Social Media. Hosted by Folio magazine, this portal includes articles about magazine publishers embracing MySpace, blogging, Digg, del.icio.us and more. We’re thrilled to be able to offer this microsite to you and invite you to visit it here.

Telling people to embrace social media is kind of like telling your spouse-to-be that she’s going to love all of her new family. Truth is, she won’t. She’ll love some of them, tolerate most of them and likely detest a few of them.

Social media is the same way — and deciding which elements fit for your publication requires a hard look at both your content, your audience and the available solutions.

Or, as this post says: So keep this in mind, in the end, it isn’t about writing for Techmeme verses writing for Digg - it’s about writing great content for your audience that keeps them coming back for more.  

Wondering what’s up on the e-paper front? Dr. Joe Webb and Vince Naselli take a rather comprehensive look at the current players in the marketplace in this fine review which looks at the Sony Reader, iLiax iRex and others.

The authors do a great job of showing you what’s good about the technology (battery life) and what isn’t (gray scale only). All in all it’s a fine piece of writing as the “review” section is wholly objective, with the authors leaving their opinions on the space until the end, which is:

Regardless, our outlook for electronic paper as a display technology is quite bullish, but we feel that while the first-generation devices are impressive, the real application for electronic paper will be incorporated into next-generation PDAs, cellphones, MP3 players—or whatever omnipurpose device evolves out of the merging of all of these disparate gadgets. The combination of a flexible or rollable e-paper display with a device that can access the wireless Internet and access updated content is a killer app waiting to happen.

And the people said, “Amen.”

Have you seen the ATM for books? Due to debut this year in libraries and bookstores, this machine will print and bind books up to 500 pages. Imagine if it were used for magazines - very cool!

On Tuesday, Adobe released a Linux version of the latest Flash Player, which is currently at version 9.0.  Linux users had been without an upgrade to the ubiquitous player since Flash Player 7 was released for Linux a few years ago.  It is a good sign of the commitment Adobe has made to make Flash applications truly cross-platform.

One of our favorite bloggers, Scott Karp, has a great post up over at Blogherald titled If No One Reads What You Write, That’s Because it Sucks. It’s a great article, looking at the different metrics in play that affect online readership.

That being said, if we wanted to apply these concepts specifically to digital editions, we’d have to say that - in addition to Scott’s points - there are at least two other factors which can have a negative impact on digital edition readership:

1) Your audience - For those of us chained to our computers, it’s hard to imagine that some people aren’t, but guess what? There are niches out there that don’t spend their days (or much of their nights) online. Tradespeople for one - you won’t find a laptop with wi-fi around where people pour cement and when these folks go home, they’re more interested in food and sleep than logging on the Web. Yes - this is somewhat stereotypical and I’m sure we could find a "blogging mason" somewhere - but if you’re going to build an audience, stereotyping is part of the process. Point being, if your audience isn’t online, great content won’t help.

2) The medium - this is a corporate blog, so here’s the part where we tell you a little bit about how NXTbooks can help your readership. Most digital publishing companies don’t offer permalinks and most Flash-driven solutions aren’t indexed by search engines. To the publisher, this means your content can’t easily be shared by those who do find it, and can’t be found by search engines - neither of which help readership. NXTbook Media is different - our page-specific permalinks help your content get shared and our Hybrid Indexed Flash helps Google and Yahoo to find your content.