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I use Google Alerts to get up to date information on topics I enjoy. If you haven't checked it out just Google "Google Alerts" and have Google deliver links on topics you are interested in. It's really great.

I got a Google Alert today on nxtbook. They create digital magazines. They posted the following on their blog yesterday regarding the results of a recent webinar. Enjoy!

Why a digital magazine?
by Marcus

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

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:

50% Cost savings
25% Revenue generation
12.5% Circulation building
12.5% Brand extension
0% Environmental

Where’s Greenpeace when you need them? But seriously… the cool thing about a digital magazine is that by doing any one of the other four options, the environment automatically benefits. In fact, the really cool thing about a digital magazine is that many of our publishers enjoy all five benefits. But when we made publishers choose just one, that’s how the results played out.

Here's the link: http://nxtbook.com/blog/2008/06/26/why-a-digital-magazine/



Question: do you as a publisher agree with these results?

Tags: alerts, digital, google, magazine, survey

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Of course cost savings are important, but I think many organizations are responding to the increased demand of being "in the know" with Web 2.0/new media. Based on what I'm hearing, companies are really trying to show that they're new media-capable by developing blogs, FaceBook accounts, Twitters, etc. to get their name in the Web universe and to branch out online.

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David-

Thanks for posting that. I appreciate it.

Katie-

I think you're right in that companies do want to seem "in the know." What's most curious to me, though, is how the use of social media for both websites and digital magazines are helping to drive traffic for publishers. I always scratch my head when people ask about monetizing social media because I think it kind of misses the point. If the publishers use these new tools, they inevitably (and inexpensively) drive traffic to them, which leads to higher CPM's, leads or however else the publisher is seeking to make money. Social media isn't a money play (for the most part), but it's a play that primes the pump for other revenues.

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Interesting.. Texterity did a similar USER survey and 51% said that they like digital editions because they are environmentally friendly. So it seems publishers and their users disagree on the advantages, but hey, as long as the reader is happy!

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Good point, Amanda... I think if we'd let publishers choose more than one in the webinar, the results would've been quite different. It was fun to see what happened when we painted them into a proverbial corner. :)

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Interesting Marcus. We did a similar survey, albeit somewhat less formal than yours, and found the results mirrored yours almost exactly. Cost saving and revenue generation.
The "green" aspect is top of mind and certainly helps steer their decisions but we found it takes a back seat to the basic need to save/generate cash.

Pierre

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