In the future, we hope to save money with e-ink. For now, though, the plan seems to be to spend more and combine it with paper:

"…a forthcoming issue of Esquire will likely be the poster child for the
change. According to David Granger, Esquire’s editor in chief, rags
have generally "looked the same for 150 years," but all that will
change when 100,000 copies of the September issue arrive on newsstands
with a flashing electronic cover."

MinOnline is featuring the top The Top 5 Women’s Mag Website Picks. Nxtbook’s digital magazine of NYLON was named #2! Very cool!

Here’s a funny report that says B-to-B blogs are failing “mainly because returns… haven’t matched investment.” Considering WordPress is free, that means returns must be mighty ugly, indeed. (Yes, I realize that the B-to-B companies include time with investment (as they should), but it’s still an odd thing to say about blogging.)

The report goes on to say: Successful corporate blogs “talk openly with an authentic voice,” and
are “humble and honest,” two traits that run counter to many corporate egos, said Forrester’s report.

Well, as Meat Loaf croons, “Two out of three ain’t bad.”

The NY Times features Readius, the first roll-up e-paper display due to hit the market next year. At $359, we’re still nowhere near a price that the average consumer will pick one up and at five inches diagonal with black and white text, we’re still nowhere near the size or resolution it will need to be if magazine publishers are to embrace it, but no matter…. it’s the type of product that could birth the magazine of the next generation.

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.

For years, we’ve offered publishers custom Flash animation services. Some have taken us up on this, but many haven’t. When asked, there are typically two responses:

1) We don’t know what we want.
2) We don’t want to pay a lot.

Now, we have a product that answers both concerns. Ad-Jolt is a new service we’re offering that’s about as simple as Flash animation gets: We take your PDF and add attractive, tasteful animation. In short, we give your ad a “Jolt.” Ad-Jolt is perfect for the publisher with a PDF who just wants to give their product some sizzle.

We do this for the low price of $100, and include 3 free Ad-Jolts if you’re on our Platinum Pricing Program (available to magazine publishers in the US).

To see the Ad-Jolt sample book, please click here.

Sony just announced a prototype of the first full-color, flexible OLED display. The display has a size of 2.5 inches, a resolution of 120×160, and supports 16.8 million colors. It is built on organic thin-film transistor (TFT) technology and is only 0.3 mm thick. This technology is still a ways off, just like the other e-paper and thin displays I have been writing about on this blog, but this new announcement is more evidence of how the technology is steadily advancing forward.

A few weeks ago, Guardian Unlimited posted a good article about the experience of using an e-paper reading device.  I believe it is probably a fair assessment of the devices currently available for consumers. I have been thinking a lot about these e-paper devices and here is what I believe needs to happen before they will get any kind of penetration in any market: they need to be very cheap or have additional uses besides just reading.

Here is the problem that e-paper devices need to overcome: with other media, such as music, movies, TV shows, etc., we have always had to buy a device to watch that media. Televisions for TV shows, DVD players for movies, and cassette/CD/MP3 players for music. But printed media has never before required a device to read it. The device (paper) always comes with the content. Therefore, getting people to buy a device in order to read printed content will require changing a mindset that is very well ingrained in the consumer psyche.  I believe that those obstacles can only be overcome if the devices are very inexpensive (much less than the current $200-$300 price tag) and/or the devices contain other functionality beyond reading, such as playing MP3s,  PDA functions, or video playback.  If consumers don’t need to pay much or feel they are getting a device that performs tasks that they are used to paying for, then I think adoption of such devices could happen very quickly.

Devices that have e-paper features will eventually make roads into the consumer market, but it will take a few years before they can overcome the obstacles that I listed above.  That being said, you should pay attention to the development of this technology because it will eventually have a big impact on how we consume print media.

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.