iMirus Digital Editions – 2.1 Magazine Software Releases to Rave Reviews

Interview By Karen Johnson, Editor, Emerging Tech Media

This month, iMirus officially announced the release of its much-anticipated version 2.1 of its online digital edition reader. The 2.1 release includes some new and unique features I have not seen from other digital-edition companies. New components to the suite include: a private-branded digital newsstand – iMirus calls a microsite; a try-before-you-buy magazine preview that integrates with the publisher newsstand or 3rd party fulfillment house; a slick banner advertising program that pulls leaderboard ads dynamically on top of the digital magazine - providing publishers with a new way to generate additional ad revenue; a text-to-speech (TTS) and language-to-speech (LTS) integration engine (think of having the articles read to you from the digital pages in either English, French, Spanish or German); and a content-navigation and social-networking engine all integrated into the new 2.1 iMirus online reader.

During the interview with iMirus’ President and CEO, Chris Riggs, I felt like I needed a tech BINGO card to keep all the definitions straight! But all kidding aside, it’s clear their development team has been burning the midnight oil, and their current customer base is reaping the benefits of this unique platform. Mr. Riggs shared that one of their weekly-title publishers have grown their paid digital-subscriber base by over 618% for one title, and 798% for the other since their launches in March of this year. A key to this growth is the integration between the publisher’s digital newsstand and their main Web site.

In my phone interview with Mr. Riggs, he stated, “We are very pleased with all of the new features and functionality associated with the suite of products. Many of our publishers have been utilizing these new components in beta for the last several months, and the feedback has been very positive. During this beta phase, we have continued to make improvements with the direct help of our publishers. As excited as we are about the 2.1 release, we are equally excited about the 2.2 release of our online reader, scheduled for Q1 of 2009. We’ll be adding an array of new advertising and other revenue-generating products and programs that will also be tightly integrated into our online reader and publisher microsites.”

As part of the interview process, Riggs showed me two new hip consumer magazine titles, Giant and Tokion, both based in New York. The first thing that struck me was the clean design and intuitive interface of the 2.1 online reader. With the example of Tokion, a sponsored advertisement was prominently displayed next to the cover, and various video ads streamed into the first several spreads of the magazine instantaneously. I have attached the URL to microsite below, which is hosted by iMirus. The Tokion microsite will be framed into Tokion’s main Web site in the coming weeks.

http://tokion.imirus.com

Riggs continued to help me with my tech-definition BINGO card, and took me through the entire new 2.1 online reader feature set. The first thing Riggs showed me was the “Content Navigation and Social Networking” engine, which was very impressive. From the digital edition toolbar, a consumer can click the “Navigate” button, which provides a menu of content sites set by the publisher. In both magazine demos, with one click, I could visit their YouTube and MySpace sites, and/or their blogs and main Web sites. Then, with a single additional click, I was back into the digital edition. Riggs shared that publishers completely control these content destinations, and they can be changed from issue to issue.

Riggs explained, “Publishers should not look at themselves as magazine creators, they should look at themselves as brand builders and content creators. The magazine is just one of the media to convey their branded content to their readership. Today, readers want information, when they want it, where they want it, and how they want it, which means different media — print magazines, Web sites, blogs, podcasts, RSS, e-Newsletters, mobile, and digital editions.” Riggs continued, “Our publishers have been telling us – it would be nice for our readers to be able to move back and forth between the digital edition and all the rest of our digital content – so we built it. This is what the power of the “Navigate” and “Share” functionality does in the new 2.1 release,” This made sense to me.

In addition, to the content navigation, Riggs showed me the “Share” functionality, whereby I could easily send the digital edition to a friend, or post the current pages I was viewing into some of top social networks (or my favorite sites.)

Another nice set of features in this new release included a “Browse” tab, whereby a user can view the magazine’s table of contents, browse the thumbnails of each page, browse the advertising index with clickable links taking you directly to their Web sites, and browse through all of the audio and video contained inside the digital edition – all of this from one Browse tab.

As I got caught up in playing with all of the “bells and whistles,” I forgot I was conducting a phone interview. I looked at my BINGO card and threw a series of questions at Mr. Riggs, to catch up where I should have been at that point in the interview. I stated in a very tech-savvy way, “Mr. Riggs, what is the try-before-you-buy magazine preview feature, and what is a private-branded publisher newsstand or microsite as you called it? Why should publishers take this route versus signing up with someone such as Zinio?

Riggs simply took a breath and answered as if he was reading from a book. “The try-before-you-buy magazine preview feature is primarily designed for paid circ titles. It allows publishers to mix and match any pages from the print edition, put them together as a front-of-the-magazine preview, and at the conclusion of viewing these pages, the user is prompted to either log in, purchase the single issue, or subscribe. If the user clicks on the shopping cart button in the toolbar, it will direct them to their digital newsstand, which can be framed directly into their Web site. We also call this digital newsstand we build for all publishers – their private-branded microsite. We believe that all of the publisher’s digital tools should be integrated directly into their main Web site. This includes taking subscriptions to print and digital editions, or purchasing digital articles and single issues. Our ability to create these private-brand publisher-centric newsstands, and host them for publishers is unique to us,” Riggs explained. “I can’t speak for Zinio’s model, but we have engaged with many publishers that currently are customers of Zinio, and we have been told that a significant percentage of subscription sales are redirects from the publisher’s Web site to Zinio’s online store. Our feeling is if the consumer is already at the publisher’s Web site, and wishes to purchase an issue, subscription or article, why should the publisher give up a significant percentage of this revenue. This should stay with the publisher.”

“With all of this said, I am a big believer that publishers should extend their brand into the social networks, and utilize other retail agents and shopping sites to help sell additional subscriptions, generate revenue, and grow paid readership. iMirus has partnered with some of the largest online shopping sites, and our latest partnership is with Market America, one of the fastest growing shopping portals on the Web. They currently have over three million active online shoppers that generate over $2.7 billion annually,” declared Riggs. “The launch of the Market America Newsstand begins just before Thanksgiving of this year, and management predicts first-year annual sales through the 2009 holiday season should be between $50 and $100 million.”

If these numbers are true, this could be a nice little shot in the arm for all publishers that participate. Riggs stated that any publisher can join the Market America newsstand for free, and that publishers could sign up through the iMirus Web site – www.imirus.com

Although the large digital edition vendors such as Zinio, NxtBook, and Texterity seem to get most of the press, it is clear to me after viewing the demonstration and talking with Mr. Riggs, that there is a new kid on the block in the growing world of digital editions. I also guess I will need to update my tech BINGO card come next Spring when we learn more about the release of iMirus’ online reader version 2.2.