Call us egotists, but we love it when a serious Digger diggs a NXTbook. In this case, DiggKat has given a thumbs-up to the North Shore Long Island 2006 Annual Report. Our page-specific permalinks and channel agreement with Digg and del.icio.us make it easy for readers to find and recommend great content!

Congratulations to Barry Green from Hearst Business Media. Barry was the winner of the 2007 Circulation Career Award from ABM. Barry’s a supporter of NXTbook, and we’re a big supporter of Barry. 

I have a hunch this post is going to come off sounding defensive. Hopefully, you’re one of the readers who’ll read it with the objectivity in which it was intended.

Last week, Time Inc. released a digital edition special of People. Though this digital edition lacked many features found in NXTbooks, it wasn’t a bad book at all. In fact, it was kind of cool and received a mostly nice write-up in AdAge.

But not entirely nice. When asked about digital editions, Brad Adgate said a couple things, but closed with this:

"This could be a template for future initiatives or this could be something along the lines of New Coke."

To which we say, "Huh?"

New Coke lasted three months. At NXTbook Media, we’ve been doing digital editions since 2003. Every year, our circulation and revenues have skyrocketed. And while there are many reasons for this, the simplest is that - unlike New Coke, which came to market to replace Old Coke - a well crafted digital edition can serve as a tremendous addition to an existing print strategy. Whether it be special content or added sponsorship, the "risk" involved in creating a digital edition is zilch compared to what Coca-Cola went through in 1985.

Writer Nat Ives also wrote in the article that "People can’t claim to be first with a dynamic, soundtracked,
video-packed e-magazine; the Europeans are ahead of us on that front." That’s an interesting comment, too. While not designed for the consumer crowd, we’ve produced video-packed Source Guides for Streaming Media in both 2006 and 2007. 

Ah, the cutting edge. Sometimes, it’s a lonely place to be. :) 

We love it when our customers make the news! Today’s b2b Online makes mention of CMP title DB2’s brand new digital edition, produced by NXTbook. Check out the first issue (reg. free but required) here.

• Shine - Summer 2007
  This great looking NXTbook shows how clients can easily customize the book for their own style.
  (tags: custom+toolbar animation hover)

Pay special attention when our del.icio.us account pushes out its special NXTbook today. The featured book is SHINE - the real hair magazine and includes a long list of customizations the client requested to give the book their own look and feel.

Here is a list of the customizations:

• Loading windows changed to use bird animation
• Custom toolbar; including hover message of some buttons
• Text and button changes to help window
• Text changes to send window
• Custom email template
• Tools menu closes automatically when mouse pointer leaves it
• Intro page animation is timed to start when cover page animation finishes

Because this book was produced for our friends in Canada, SHINE was also published in French.

• Invasive Cardiology Digital Edition June 2007
  Masking sample
  (tags: masking)

Last week’s announcement from CMP included the line announcing that circulation of EE Times was changing from 150k print to 100k print and 30k digital.

These 30,000 digital subscribers receive EE Times via NXTbook. The good news for CMP is that boosting their digital circulation is a zero risk proposition. EE Times has been with NXTbook for a long time time now and is keenly aware of how well their audience will accept the format through rigorous evaluation of our product tracking. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to serving these customers.

Here’s an interesting new trend — the commercializing of high school sports. Here in Pennsylvania, an innovative marketing company is helping school districts sell sponsorships to the big game. Here’s the marketing collateral they prepared for Hempfield School District.

Wondering how to market your website to search engines? Look no further than this great article from the Marketing Times.

And finally, how’s this for terrific branding? NXTbook customers get free background colors and a free logo loader. Notice how cool it looks on this sample of the Durango Official Travelers Guide.

We keep a close watch on our search traffic here at NXTbook. After all, it’s important to note where the heck y’all are coming from. At any rate, we’ve noticed a recent surge in traffic from a website called “A Couple of Chicks.”

Needless to say, we were curious, and when we popped on over to the website, we found all sorts of marketing and sales goodness. Very cool stuff, and very well organized with feeds galore. The reason for the referrals, though? The chicks had posted a link on their site to a very cool magazine called Online Revealed. Though marketed to the Canadian crowd, it’s a great pub., regardless of where you call home.

Consider the content:

How Facebook Will Change the Summer Tourism Season 

The 4 M’s of Social Media Marketing

Great content = happy readers = referrals to NXTbook Media. So we owe a big thanks to the Chicks!