Power to the Tweets

Yet another great example of a publisher tweeting news of their new Nxtbook. Is this a homerun tactic? Absolutely not - but it’s a nice single up the middle. Online circulation growth is a game of bunt singles and Texas leaguers, and if you do that for nine innings, more times than not you’ll win.

Third String Good Enough for First Place…

With two booths out of town last week, we were forced to send the Nxtbook Media third string booth to the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce show. Still, the booth didn’t blink: instead coming home with honors as the Top New Booth at the show.

Nxtbook reps Duane and Shanelle probably deserve some of the credit - don’t these two just ooze approachable and knowledgeable? 

Where’s Bill?

A couple of years ago, Microsoft made a big splash with its WPF (Windows Presentation Format) by announcing the release of Times Reader, a pretty slick product for online readers of the NY Times. Bill Gates and some fella from the Times did a joint presentation: one of those old media meets new technology sorts of things. We did - and still do - think it was a pretty cool application. Still, the fact of the matter is that the WPF format - like it’s close kin "Silverlight" - has struggled to gather marketshare and wide adoption.

So perhaps it was no surprise at this morning’s Adobe Max conference to learn that a new version of Times Reader is launching, based on Adobe’s AIR 1.5. For the Nxtbook development team, this is unneeded (but certainly welcome) validation that our product development path is following the needs and desires of users and publishers alike. Not surprisingly, Bill Gates was nowhere to be found at Adobe Max. Perhaps he was shopping with Jerry Seinfeld?

 

Party Like It’s 1995?

According to this chart, we’re on pace to reduce office paper consumption in the workforce to the lowest levels we’ve seen since ‘95. The increased non-reliance of the younger workforce on paper is being credited with the change.

 

 

Pearl Awards from the CPC

Nxtbook Media was proud to be a sponsor of the Pearl Awards from the Custom Publishing Council last night. Nxtbook Director of Sales Eric Gervase was on hand to present The Best in Custom Award to Centurion magazine from American Express, produced by Journal International Verlag.

For a complete recap of the event, with all of the award winners, check out Joe’s blog.

From the People that Brought You Ad-Jolt: Page-Plus!

Here’s a new feature we recently debuted and response has been quite favorable. 

Let’s say you have a publisher that could only afford a 1/4 page ad in print, but wanted greater exposure. Or, you wanted to show them the benefits of a full page ad. Use our new Page-Plus feature. Readers click on a 1/4 page ad to open a full page ad. Very cool, and priced low - just like Ad-Jolt! All you have to do is submit the second ad along with your PDF!

Twitter and You…

How can you save money and get free promotion for your content even overseas? Simply by having a digital magazine. In this case, Website Magazine has a digital edition, which gets it into the hands of readers everywhere - even in Asia. One of those readers even Tweeted about it. Free promotion plus international distribution - just two great reasons to have a digital magazine.

Four Reasons Why Layoffs Won’t Slow Publishers’ Digital Growth…

FOLIO ponder if publishing layoffs will affect digital growth. Here’s four reasons it won’t:

1) It hasn’t, and the trend is usually your friend. We recently reported that October was our biggest month ever and though our sales team certainly deserves some credit, most of it goes to publishers’ realizing that digital magazines represent a cost-effective way to increase circulation while reducing costs.

2) Speaking of reducing costs, most digital initiatives do. Make no mistake: fully featured video production and other solutions can put a dent in online media costs, but more often than not, your digital dollar goes further.

3) Consider the alternatives: Invest more in print - a medium where costs are increasing? Not likely. Hunker down and wait for things to get better. That’ll work, a little, for some companies, for a while. Not long-term, though for anyone.

4) The tail might already be wagging the dog. FOLIO writes: "Layoffs at Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Fast Company, forced its standalone online group to merge with its print department." However, the actual press release says this: "Koten said that in addition to cutting 20 staffers, including three
of 12 executive committee posts, he would merge Mansueto Digital
into its two print departments, and that sales and editorial
staffers would handle digital as well as print." So if everyone is going to be doing digital and print work, how does this insinuate that digital won’t grow? All things equal, shouldn’t the cheaper, more immediate and more multi-faceted medium win?

Less Than One Week Until the Webinar!

Be sure to join Nxtbook Media customer Anne Drobish and Allan Brown as they present their digital magazine success stories at next week’s webinar!

links for 2008-11-11

• AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am Sponsorship Brochure 2009 - Page 6
  Flash rollovers are interactive to show different sponsorship options
  (tags: flash-rollover)

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