Why a Digital Magazine?

At today’s Webinar, we asked publishers if they had to pick one reason to have a digital magazine, what would it be? The choices given were: Revenue generation, circulation building, cost savings, brand extension or environmental. The wimpy "multiple" option was not allowed.

 Here’s how the percentages break out:

• Cost savings: 50 percent
• Revenue generation: 25 percent
• Circulation building: 12.5 percent
• Brand extension: 12.5 percent

The cool thing about a digital magazine is that by doing any one of the options, the environment automatically benefits (even though no one voted on it). In fact, the really cool thing about a digital magazine is that many of our publishers enjoy all of the benefits. But when we made publishers choose just one, that’s how the results played out.

Show Me the Money

Can publishers make money from digital editions? According to this Nxtbook customer, they can:

In 2007, ITEM Publications saw $180,000 in digital publishing revenue
and $70,000 from optional digital ad revenues. “It’s not huge but it’s
not a difficult sale to make and it comes with high margins,” says
Kilshaw.

 

Grazers V. Super-Users

Dan Blank has written a great post about the variety of media we’re all consuming and the differences in how we react to it:

It’s a fascinating distinction because it crosses the line of
“content-creators” and “audience.” Super-users may create as much
content as they consume. Grazers may be similar to traditional
audiences, but even less engaged as they stream through massive amounts
of media, constantly filtering.

There’s an interesting challenge for magazine publishers here - and particularly publishers of digital editions - as most traditional magazines are formatted for grazing, as Dan defines it, and aren’t naturally hard-wired for interaction. Why does this matter? There’s at least two reasons:

1. By not encouraging interaction, magazine publishers are missing out on creating a "stickier" brand and because web analytics will continue to move more in the direction of engagement, stickiness will continue to be more important.

2. When people interact with your content, they post links to it, and links are the currency of the Web. It’s the simplest way to generate more traffic to your content and also makes your digital edition content that much more yummy with Google.

Simple ways to build interact inside your digital edition:

1. Make sure you’re promoting the RSS feed of your digital edition, which is free with Nxtbook Media.

    Why this works: Those who use RSS readers are much more inclined to be Super-Users.

2. Post links to your digital edition content on forums.

    Why this works: Ditto #1. While there are "lurkers" and grazers on forums, that’s also where the Super-Users can be found.

3. Blog about (and obviously link to) your digital edition content.

    Why this works: Ditto #2