Six O’Clock Comes Early in Chicago…

This morning, Nxtbook Media sponsored 3 and 5 mile guided tours of Chicago, hosted by professional guides from City Running Tours. We had more than 40 runners and everyone I spoke with had a blast. It was just a very neat way to start the last day of the outstanding FOLIO show, which has announced it will be returning to Chicago next year.

Thanks to all of the runners who joined us and for those who didn’t, there’s always next year!

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’….

Nxtbook Partners Enjoy the INC. 500 Conference.

Michael, Rox, Jim & Spencer had a blast at last week’s Inc. 500 conference, where we were named the 303rd fastest growing privately held company in the US and the 38th fastest growing company offering business services. We were the only company on the list offering digital magazines, which made it all particularly special.

Here the team celebrates with famed Inc. writer Norm Brodsky.

Nxtbook Celebrates National Run-at-Work Day…

Or at least most of us did. Here’s a pic. of many of the running crew, though I counted another 4 members who were out of the office today.

No, we don’t run in our jeans. A few people run before work and a few more run after work. The pic was taken during lunch, so you can see who runs then.

 

Back By Popular Demand - The Robot Pen!

Just in time for the fall tradeshow season, the Nxtbook Robot Pen is back and ready for action!

There are at least four ways to get your hands on one of these babies:

1) Visit our booth at any tradeshow, like next week at FOLIO.
2) If you’re a customer, just ask your sales rep or account manager.
3) If you’re a prospect, tell your sales rep you’ll buy if they’ll throw in a robot pen. (Our sales reps will fold like a cheap card table for this request!)
4) If you’re not a prospect, become one. Then, see #3.

See You at Fipp/ABM or FOLIO!

Nxtbook Media is a proud sponsor of next week’s World Magazine Conference in NYC. If you’re in town, be sure to visit the crew.

And while we’re talking about shows, don’t forget to check out this year’s FOLIO: Show agenda — yet another action-packed event. If you’re attending FOLIO, don’t forget to join us for "We’re Running FOLIO," including a 3 or 5 mile guided running tour of Chicago — super, super cool!

 And if you’re going to FOLIO, don’t miss your chance for a FREE Nxtbook sample.

Just go here and fill out the form!

Nxtbook Customer Nominated For Digital Media Innovation Award!

We just received word that Nxtbook customer Bodas USA La Revista digital magazine was nominated for the Top Hispanic Digital Media Innovation Award, to be given out the Second Annual Hispanic Digital and Print Media Conference and Networking/Awards Dinner in NYC, Altman Building on Oct. 9. 

Congratulations on the nomination and good luck! You can view the Summer 2008 issue of the magazine (with a great intro video) here. 

The Nxtbook Robot Pen — In Action!

As we move into the fall tradeshow season, there’s always a lot of buzz at the Nxtbook farm (ok, inside my cubicle) about what our show give-away will be. There’s a fine line between cheap junk and cool stuff your kids will thank you for bringing home. We take that line seriously.

How will be know if our give-aways are a success? Easy: if somebody video-blogs their Nxtbook trinket, that’s a sure sign it’s a winner.

DISCLAIMER: I just found out about this video, which is more than a year old. Sadly, the robot pens are no more, though there is an underground movement to bring them back. Stay tuned!

Thought provoking event, MediaBistro Circus

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.

Digital Magazine Symposium Review

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.

 

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