E-Editions

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Maverick G. Greissing on January 5, 2009 at 10:18am

I do not agree... not because I have a different opinion but simply based on experience. If you do a digital spin-off, brand extension, companion or whatever it is nevertheless the same mag... which should already have achieved good target penetration.
What we have done is to CARRY ON publishing the print magazine (as a print magazines) and have LAUNCHED A TOTALLY NEW digital magazine (that has been conceived and esigned as a digital magazine) AND BOTH TARGET THE SAME AUDIENCE.
So we still have the ad revenue of the print mag (that is stable) and we now ADD to that the advertising revenue of the digital magazine (in which we sell ads and NOT impressions, PVs or CTRs)
Futhermore I don't agree with the simplistic assumption that "...if you have converted 10-15% of your audience to a digital edition....advertiser would be missing out if he didn't go after it..."
Although I am the owner of the busienss I regularly visit clients and sell adds and it's simply not that simple... there are competitors out there too...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eric Gervase on January 5, 2009 at 10:49am

Maverick... that's awesome. Well thought and executed plan. In fact, we've had a number of publishers who have been very successful with digital-only publications as well (mostly in the custom realm).

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been successful with a print magazine with a digital companion. But, we do have publishers who have been. They do experience the challenges that you have laid out. But, it's worth it to them because they don't have to spend the time and energy creating a new brand for the digital edition.

Kudos to you for spending the energy... it obviously is working out for you. Unfortunately, not everybody is willing to create a unique brand for the web like that. That said, your proof of why it might not be a bad idea.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Maverick G. Greissing on July 3, 2009 at 6:48am

fo course digital magazine work as companion to print magazines but they only generate MARGINAL revenue... mostly subs
I really don't believe advertisers get exctied about the marginal realdership of the online editons.

Stand alone, online only NEW mags ar the future ofr digital mags.

Europe is several steps ahead of the US in this

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tom Overton on January 21, 2009 at 8:17pm

We have just launched a PDF edition of our journal, and though we are subscription supported rather than ad-supported (we don't accept outside ads), we've been successful in getting people to pay extra to have both versions, and to get people to subscribe to the PDF only version.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ben Levy on January 21, 2009 at 9:04pm

We use Blue Toad right now and provide the issue for free on our site. Though our print edition has been free to date we are switching to a paid model. We have a couple of advertisers who pay a lower rate to advertise in a digital only edition. Blue Toad is the right price for us ($3.50 per page). We are having some trouble getting our site traffic to read the digital magazine in abundance. It's been tracking somewhat slowly, maybe a few thousand readers per issue so far. We are on our third.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sachin Ghodke on January 26, 2009 at 3:58am

We produce e-Editions of the magazine and catalogs, however, for your advertisers if you provide them with links to their website through these e-editions it would help you generate some revenue. Instead of people just putting the print magazine away and abstaining from immediately responding to the ads, this e-edition will help in this regard. Also it needs to be seen that the web links the advertisers provide you are accurate to their advertising exercise. We can do this for you, regularly.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jasmine Grimm on January 30, 2009 at 2:38pm

Digital magazines can be monitized.

Here's an example of our latest issue: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/lancasterchamber/connections0109/#/0

It's a digital only magazine.

It's Web optimized and chock full of hyperlinks. Truth be told, I've received nothing but positive comments about it.

As far as advertisers, they've said they enjoy the idea that they can add flash, video, and audio. They dig the interaction.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Breana Green on March 12, 2009 at 3:49pm

e-editions are quickly becoming more and more interactive. Turning a print magazine into something that the reader can interact with is different from simply offering it online. Technology is advancing to allow publishers do do this. For example, we are using eMagCreator's newly released API edition, allowing for conversations within the mags, videos, games, shopping carts, and so many other features that we are yet to explore. The reader tracking included with the software has indicated that readership of our digital editions have doubled and time spent reading has increased by 300% in two months.

I strongly believe that advertisers would be willing to pay extra for this, as long as digital editions are taken to the next level

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eric Gervase on March 12, 2009 at 4:01pm

Justin,

If it's any help.. speaking as a digital-edition vendor, I wouldn't recommend this for virtually anybody. Not because you couldn't monetize it, but because of the function of both products. Not only is the website for trying to draw people to your brand through your content, it is also a "home" for your brand. If you get rid of your website for a digital edition, that will effectively have to become your home.

Although you could customize your digital edition to do some of the same things that your website does... It is probably a case of square peg, round hole.

Now... if you are wanting to convert print circulation for digital circulation and reduce operational costs, that is an opportunity. Also, new custom products could come out of the digital edition (think digital-only custom publishing) that would be possibly create new revenue streams.

But, I don't think the idea of replacing a website with a digital edition is a good one.

-Eric

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Maverick G. Greissing on March 13, 2009 at 1:24pm

Yeah.. we do. It's a online only mag

http://cde.cerosmedia.com/rivista-eMOTOmagazine/1K499d254918f17012.cde

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eric Gervase on March 13, 2009 at 4:37pm

To clarify... I'm not saying that a digital-only title is a bad idea. We've done quite a few of them too. And, quite successfully.

See sample here- http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hearst/projectanalog_200808/

Maverick... do you maintain a website for ad rates, more newsy editorial, community building, magazine contact information, etc? Just curious how that works.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Maverick G. Greissing on July 3, 2009 at 6:52am

we have a website but it's just a landing pad

the mag is where all the action and business is.

as the web site ad sales metric is views and impressions I'm not interested... I prefere selling the ad pagines in the magazine by offering the added value premium of rich media ads and beingable to charge a rate card fee

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last