Ed McCarrick’s FOLIO Keynote & What it Means for Digital Magazines

Nxtbook was the sponsor of Time publisher’s Ed McCarrick keynote at FOLIO this morning. McCarrick offered up a lot of great info., which I’ll trust FOLIO bloggers to get to. Here’s the most important piece that digital publishers should embrace:

McCarrick talked at length about Time’s move away from circulation numbers toward more comprehensive audience size numbers. He said that circulation metrics are kind of like Nielen counting TV sets in the home as audience. We couldn’t agree more.

Even though we were a sponsor of the 2008 Gilbane Report, our biggest criticism of this study was how focused it was on circulation rather than readership. After all, why focus on the number of digital magazines you’re delivering when a reputable company can easily tell you how many people are actually reading them? This number is far more honest and far more relevant to advertisers than circulation.

At any rate, McCarrick said the same and implored the industry to follow Time’s lead. I’d expect adoption will be slow but as more and content (in all formats) goes digital, I think you’ll see more of this, which will be good for everyone in the end.

One other note: McCarrick’s math showed the average website visitor to Time.com stays about six pages. Keep in mind that the average Nxtbook reader will read 20 pages of content. We’re just sayin’….