Yesterday was my last day in NYC for the MediaBistro event that I was at since Monday. It was a pretty good content show. I had the privilege of seeing Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine and "The Long Tail" fame. I also got to see a conversation about the NY Times technology improvements with Jim Roberts, online editor there, and one of his colleagues (missed his name) that ran the special projects for the web. I also enjoyed Nicholas Carr of "Does IT Matter" fame as the last speaker of the event (he was interviewed by Business Week editor Jon Fine).

But, my favorite speakers/panelists at the event were Jon Wiley from Google and Robert Scoble from Fast Company TV. Wiley did a really nice job of explaining Google’s attention to user experience. Not only did he explain it as their number 1 focus in their list of "10 Things Google Has Found to Be True", I also enjoyed his definition of profit. He explained it more as a utility for the user, not a function of money making. He also showed a fun little research video that showed eye mapping technology with green lasers. That was cool in itself… but the user audio was awesome. It was of a clueless user that was trying to find a television. So, instead of narrowing his search through any number of ideas that he had spoken, he just searched for the word "television" instead. That was Jon’s way of saying that they still had work to do in making Google more intuitive/easy for the user. In his words (paraphrased), "It’s unacceptable to expect the user to learn how to search better".

Robert Scoble was a completely different experience. I enjoyed this presentation for the frenetic world that he must live in. At one point in the presentation, he showed his desktop with all the twitter "tweets" and people he was following and real-time conversations and video that he was recording as he spoke… My mind is spinning just thinking about it. It was simply crazy. His content was good… don’t get me wrong. But, I enjoyed his presentation for the manic quality it possessed. Very fun.

This event took place yesterday at the Publishing Executive Conference in NYC. Nxtbook was a sponsor and I was one of many speakers, so consider that my disclaimer. Here’s how I expect the media to cover this event:

14 Word Summary: Digital magazines don’t work for consumer titles. They do, however, work great for BtoB.

20 Word Summary: Digital magazines don’t work for consumer titles, unless the audiences are well defined. They do, however, work great for BtoB.

The detailed report:
The symposium was chaired by Peter Meirs from Time, Inc. If you know anything about Time, you know that they do consumer titles aimed at broad audiences. Thus, it should come as no shock that Peter was less than thrilled about digital magazines. Granted, he’s hopeful for the future and likes to look far down the road, but this time he was more interesed in talking about things that don’t work. Or rather haven’t worked. For him. Peter’s a brilliant a guy but even he admitted he wasn’t exactly a natural choice for the chair. However, mad props to the guy for admitting he knew "less about BtoB than anyone in the room." Peter’s upfront in saying today’s digital magazines don’t work well for him, but he gets that they work for others.

Next up was Steve Paxhia from the Gilbane Group, which is completing the first ever comprehensive study on the audience size and growth of digital magazines. Steve delivered a very similar executive summary to the one he delivered at our webinar last week and said the complete study would be available from the sponsors in the next few weeks. We’re one of those sponsors but - truth be told - I was hoping Steve would give up more of the goods yesterday. As MediaBistro demonstrates today, surveys coming from sponsors are often  not as trusted by the media. Regardless, Steve’s message was that things are great for digital magazines. When we see the study, you’ll be the first to know.

Next up was Gloria Adams from Pennwell. Gloria has been the pied piper for BtoB digital magazines for some time and while her show offered little new material for those of us who’ve seen her perform before, it’s always a good show and was freshened up with the latest data. We’re a big fan of Gloria - she’s a great cheerleader for digital editions.

Gloria was followed by Sylvia Sierra from Access Intelligence. Among other solutions, Sierra uses our Nxtprint product, courtesy of the YGS group, though I wasn’t aware of this until she told me prior to the program. I hadn’t heard Sylvia speak before and was extremely impressed. Great insight - well presented, and another big fan of digital magazines. Here’s the head-scratcher from her presentation, though:

Access Intelligence is the same company that publishes MIN’s BtoB, where writer Steve Smith has frequently made a habit of blasting digital editions. His favorite line is that they’re a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. In previous posts, I’ve accused Steve of being a lazy journalist because he rarely backs up his assertions with quotes and/our sources. Now - realizing that a publisher he writes for has such a vibrant outspoken supporter of digital editions - I’m not sure what to think, other than that the employees at Access Intelligence should mingle a bit more. (Disclaimer: I’ve written for MIN. Aside from Smith’s columns, I’m a fan. Alas, Smith is the one entrusted to the keys of the digital kingdom over yonder, so readers can expect to hear more of the same from him.)

So that was panel one - 3 people saying digital magazines saved money and generated revenue being moderated by a guy who had little good to say about them. A wee-bit off-center, but successful never-the-less.

Panelists shifted a bit the second time around, with myself and a competitor joining the panel along with Marta Worhrle. All went well and I don’t think I said anything that I haven’t spouted on this particular soap box before.

Was this event better than the Digital Magazine Forum from 18 months ago that we had less than flattering things to say about? I’d say yes and no… 18 months ago, there was no clear delineation between who was successful and who wasn’t. Yesterday, the line was drawn pretty clearly: Digital Magazines work for BtoB and the jury’s out about whether or not they work for BtoC, but if you’re going that way, go after a narrow niche.

Though that makes for a good story, I’m not 100% certain it’s the whole story. Keep in mind that the lion’s share of consumer titles run through Zinio. And keep in mind that just when people were embracing browser-based EVERYTHING four years ago, Zinio rolled out a downloadable product. In recent weeks, Zinio finally turned that particular ocean liner around and released a browser-based solution. While far from perfect (in our Nxtbook opinion), it’s a big step in the right direction. This wasn’t even discussed in yesterday’s sympoium but it crossed my mind: is the lackluster performance of general audience BtoC digital publications due to the audience or the horse the publisher opted to ride at the time? Only time will tell.

Though the audience for the event was skewed in the BtoB corner, I wished I had the opportunity to bring up this point to the BtoC crowd. If you see a BtoC publisher who attended the symposium, send this post their way.

Of course you do! Well, if you’re planning on attending the Circulation Management Show in June, here’s your chance. Just use this $100 off coupon and you’ll save a whole Benjamin on the cost of the show.

And at the show, be sure to join us for Preview Magic, our own workshop, where we’ll go over how to best tease your readers with content. One lucky attendee will also walk away with their own iPod shuffle! View the entire CM Show brochure here.

Back from the FOLIO: Summit - what a great time learning from and along side some of the brightest minds in the publishing business! A great time was has by all.

From our perch at the back of the E-Media room, here were some of our highlights:

1.) Our keynote VIP luncheon with Yahoo’s Matt McAlister. Matt took the audience all the way to the edge of publishing technology and the group was excited about the view. The most common question after the presentation? When can I get a copy of the PowerPoint show? The answer: Soon!

2.) User generated content forum, which included Nick Palazzo from Stack Magazine, Daniel Orum from IDG and Derek Powazek from JPG. These guys have totally figured out not to just how to get feedback from their audience but how to develop content wrapped around that feedback.

3.) A great RSS forum featuring Robyn Peterson from PC Mag. When you’ve been doing RSS since 2003, you’ve got a lot of great data about adoption and Robyn shared it all with the crowd. Most interesting? Unlike previous shows, the size of the crowd for this show seems to indicate a firm realization among publishers that the time is now for RSS. Personally, we found no publishers asking us to explain RSS, but many asking us to explain how our solution works with RSS - a pleasing change, indeed!

4.) Bo Sacks. Need I say more? There’s simply no better cheerleader for the reality and the possibility of the magazine industry.

As always, a big thank you to Kerry, Tony, David, Kelly, Gina, Meredith, Jennel, Carrie, Allyson and the rest of the Red7 Media crew for yet another show that surpassed all expectations. Well done!

One NXTbook Media booth hit the road yesterday and more crates hit the bricks today. Here’s where you can find us in the coming weeks:

Niche Magazine Conference, Austin, TX - March 5-6

CalTIA Show - California Conference on Tourism, Sacramento, CA - March 11-13

FOLIO: Publishing Summit - Chicago, IL - March 19-21

ACCM Show - Boston, MA - May 21-23

We’d love to see you there!

As a Gold Sponsor of the upcoming FOLIO: Publishing Summit, we have the honor of hosting a key-note luncheon speaker. We searched long and hard to find one who could speak eloquently about social media in a way that traditional print publishers could relate to.

We’re thrilled to announce that the key-note luncheon speaker on Tues. March 20 will be Matt McAlister. As a senior product manager for Yahoo, Matt is intricately involved with social media and how people use it. But as important, the man has ink in his blood, earned from previous gigs at InfoWorld and The Industry Standard. Here he reports on how traditional publishers are employing del.icio.us. Simply put, he’s the right man for the job.

And if that’s not reason enough for you to join us at the FOLIO: Publishing Summit, how about $100 off your ticket?

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.

When we were asked to sponsor (yet another) trade show in the Spring, we originally hesitated… While we love trade shows, there’s only so much exhibition hall air one should inhale in a given month.

But then Carl Landau told us how his show was going to be different - how it was going to be fun. How it was going to be in Austin! And how it would include activities like bowling and speed-networking.

Frankly, he had us at bowling. And the fact that one of our publishers is speaking is the cherry on top.
So we’re thrilled to be a sponsor of this March’s Niche Magazine Conference. How about you dust off that bowling ball and join us?

The Folio: E-Publishing Strategies Roadshow makes its next stop in Chicago next week. As always, we’re a sponsor of this event, which includes Rex Hammock and Scott Karp, two of our favorite bloggers. If you’re in the Chicago vicinity, don’t miss this one!

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of sponsoring and attending the Digital Magazine Forum in New York.

This is always an interesting event – a smaller, shorter show than most we attend, but also heavily focused. There’s plenty of talk on digital editions – what they are and what they should be.

It’s also interesting because unlike most trade shows which are produced by trade show companies, this one is produced, directed and hosted by one of our competitors. It’s not completely unlike paying your competitor to put on a day-long sales call which you get to attend. Nevertheless, the content is always interesting and the attendees are always interested, so we were glad to participate.

There were seven presentations throughout the day, ranging from the big picture – “What is ‘the magazine’?” to technology “Microsoft’s Vista – the New Frontier?” to one on VC firms talking about where they’re currently chasing the money in the digital media space.

I’m not a reporter and this blog doesn’t pretend to be wholly objective. That being said, I’ve decided to present a long list of quotes and observations throughout the day. Through reading this, I hope you’ll learn much of what we learned yesterday and – where appropriate – what the “NXTbook response” is to certain observations from within the industry.

The first panel included Peter Meirs from Time, Inc. & David Klein from the Ad Age Group. We’ve blogged about Meirs before and love the fact that he’s always pushing the fringiest stuff out there, including Idiomag, which we blogged about several weeks ago.

Meirs – like some – continues to show a lot of disdain for “digital facsimiles” of magazines, because they attempt to recreate a portrait reading experience in a landscape environment. While Meirs is 100% correct in that this is something that all digital publishers must strive to improve upon, the reality is that until this type of technology is both cost and time-efficient, this format will be out of the reach for many small publishers.

Your move if you’re a publisher: Creating a dynamic user experience is paramount to digital publishing success. Choose a digital publishing company that knows where the technology must get to tomorrow, even if it’s not wholly practical today.

Meirs next said something that we consider to be gospel at NXTbook: “The goal of a digital magazine is indifference.” His implied message was that if people are too hung up on the technology, they’re not focused on the content. In that statement, he’s entirely correct. What could’ve been highlighted, though, is that even though Meirs has been saying the same thing for some time, in many cases, digital publishers have already succeeded.

Here are two examples where bloggers are talking about the content of a NXTbook and have absolutely nothing to say about the format at all. We’d call that glorious indifference.

David Klein spoke next about Ad Age’s experience with Zinio. Klein said that Ad Age has only converted 7.8% of its international readership to digital. He would’ve liked to explain why his numbers were so poor, but admitted that Zinio provides him with no tracking data.

The problem with this admission – in the first program of the day – is that it sets up would-be digital publishers with the idea that it’s difficult to get tracking data. The reality is that any reputable digital publisher can provide you with more data than you get on your website. A lack of data isn’t a digital publishing problem. It’s a Zinio problem.

The next panel discussion asked what digital magazines of tomorrow will look like, and was led by Bob Sacks (Bo to those who know and/or read him.) Though I’ve read Bo, this was the first I had a chance to hear him speak, and all I can say is, “Wow.” Entertaining. Dynamic. Enlightening. What perhaps came across most of all in Bo’s speech was that the technology will continue to get better. But waiting until it does is not a strategy. All of that being said, I wish Bo put more of his content into his RSS feed…

On the same panel was Paul Gerbino from the Thomas Publishing Company. Gerbino is one of those guys who puts out content in many different formats so that the reader can choose how they wish to receive it. He feels that access to his content is a key differentiator today and also spoke about the increasing need to get users to interact with the content. Great presentation.

The same panel also included Dana Fisher from Questex. Dana has been a NXTbook customer for several years now. As Dana shared, Cadalyst Magazine has 15,000 BPA certified digital subscribers, many of them overseas.  Readers love the content. Dana loves the numbers. We love Dana.

Next up, two quick insights from the session entitled “How Print and Electronic Content Work Together.”

At one point, moderator Jon Fine asked the panelists about the smartest and dumbest thing they’ve done online. Forbes.com VP-Chief Advertising Officer Bill Flately had no trouble naming their dumbest: their short experiment with in-text advertising from IntelliTXT. If you missed that story, here’s a good rant from Paul Conley about IntelliTXT.

And here’s a cute banter between moderator Fine and Jason Pontin of Technology Review:

Fine: “Can you convince me Zinio is a good solution?”

Pontin: “No.”

The next couple hours included technology talk by Bill McCoy from Adobe, Ron Hawkins from Sony, Bob Larson from the NY Times (who worked on the Times Reader project), Mike Cooper, Microsoft (Ditto) and Arturo Duran from CanWest.

As techies, we loved these couple of hours. That being said, for publishers the Adobe and Microsoft tools are totally beta-ware and will be for some time. One wonders why publishers were being shown things they can’t use yet and won’t be using anytime in the near future. (Not that this kept McCoy from encouraging publishers to use them… )

Microsoft did a very cool job showing how WPF works and why it’s neat. However, there was a nary a mention of the fact that using it to design ads will require new software, new skill sets and existing PDF ads will be worthless in the WPF environment.

Your move if you’re a publisher: If you’re considering a digital-only publication, WPF will be mighty cool. But Adobe’s Bill McCoy thinks that in five years, digital edition revenue will be 25% for the average print publication and we tend to think that Bill’s a pretty smart guy.  For 25%, does it make sense to learn an entirely new advertising package? (from Microsoft?)

I have little to report about the last two forums, simply because I enjoyed them without critiquing them. Dorian Benkoil did a great job moderating a panel that included Om Malik (Business 2.0 hasn’t been the same since he left) and Peter Rojas (who was kind of meek as a moderator but rocked the house as a panelist!), which was followed by three venture capitalists talking about money (although the highlight for me was that one of them was Tony Schneider, CEO of the firm that wrote the software this blog is written on as well as the firm that prevents spammers from trying to sell Viagra via the comments on this blog).

And finally, a slightly out of left field comment:

Dan Schwartz, CEO of Qiosk was the moderator for many of the panels and as I mentioned at the beginning of this report, Qiosk is one of our competitors. While Dan did a decent job of making the day relatively objective, many in the audience – including us – were taken a bit by surprise to hear him say, “Rich media has no place in a digital magazine.” As we’ve seen from many of our favorite projects, the inclusion of rich media in a digital edition is an exciting, vibrant way to make the user experience powerful and we side with the dozens of people in the crowd who were scratching their collective heads at that moment.

So, all in all an interesting day with lots of interesting people.