Zinio GoGreen - News?

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Permalink Reply by Ian Hunter on September 30, 2008 at 9:12pm

Hi John

Not sure where you are going with this one or even where you want to go.
So I will reply on the assumption that Zinio has been in touch with Rogers Publishing to digitise your companies impressive portfolio of publications.
Your past replies to discussions I would consider puts you in the’ sceptic’ category to the value of Digital Publishing.
So to your question; (Is anyone seeing activity from the new Zinio program?)
Do you want to know about Zinio’s http://goreadgreen.com/ initiative or do you want opinion on Zinio as a digital publishing vendor and there subscription and library services.

As to the new Zinio program I new about it probably the day it was released, as yet not taken up the offer of the free one year subscription offer under this initiative and to be quite frank, probably, almost definitely wont.

Having said that; have just downloaded the latest edition of Viv Mag, http://www.vivmag.com a publication designed for digital with a close link to Zinio itself and as it happens the Editor in Chief is Anne Russell a member of this group.
You may wish to have a look at Viv and then preview these publications;http://www.organicstylemag.com/organicstyle/current/
http://www.canada-digital.com/

Publications designed for digital, two are presented using Flash and the other from a company called Texterity is presented in what they call Published Web Format.
You can make your own decision as to the value of these publications, for both readers and advertisers. And maybe get back to me on your decision.

As for Zinio and their Go Read Green program, great idea ‘free subscription’ problem they may have with that is their business model is based on Paid Subscription, and personally I don’t see a long term future in that model, the more barriers that are put in place to viewing digital publications freely, the more damage you are doing to this industry which is still evolving, the goal is for advertising to pay for the additional cost of digital publishing and when done properly this can be achieved. As I have said on one of my other posts, ‘digital publishing offers advertisers opportunities, unavailable not just to traditional publishing but opportunity's that outperform current web site advertising techniques and concepts’ if you have previewed the publications I suggested John you will I hope share my confidence in that statement.

John it’s getting late here so I will just finish of by saying if Rogers Publishing is considering adopting Digital Publishing, remember, you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole.

Ian

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Permalink Reply by John Matyskiel on October 2, 2008 at 12:18pm

Ian, thanks for the extensive reply!

Yes, I am a skeptic. Rogers Publishing has done some work with Zinio and other vendors, so we have a feel for digital editions in general. (I'm a VIV subscriber too.)

My query was more around that specific GoReadGreen program. It's a pretty ambitious attempt to get more people to try a digital edition, and to give digital editions a green identity. So I was just wondering whether there's been much subscription activity or industry buzz. (I guess I could just wait for a press release like everyone else.)

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Permalink Reply by Ian Hunter on October 2, 2008 at 8:35pm

John, yes it's pretty ambitious, and as I said, a great idea, the problem I have with their initiative is that they may achieve their goal, which is to create awareness of Digital Publishing, and my concern with that is that all they may achieve is more sceptic’s, like yourself, who’s scepticism of Digital Publishing I totally understand.
This industry is not ready for such a positive initiative.
This is my view my own personal opinion, this is where we may share something in common, other than the fact the company you work for has it’s roots in Scotland.
You said Rogers had done some work with Zinio and other vendors (there is something else we have in common, my mothers maiden name was Rogers) I assume this involved the usual ‘let us do a demo’ so you send your print PDF to the vendor they process it and there you have it your digital magazine.
So this is the bit where I believe you and I may share the same common view point.
You looked at the finished product and quickly realised this isn’t going to work, you cant read what’s in front of you without using this crazy zoom facility. Right. Wrong.
Well anyway, that’s what I thought, and I am glad Rogers has not jumped on the same bandwagon as many other publishers, what are these people thinking about? Who are they thinking about? Certainly not their readers as you commented on before, John.

You know it, I know it, the vendors know it, the publishers know it, you can not take a standard print PDF, process it through a vendor’s software and expect everyone to go WOW! Like what Anne and a few others are doing, you have to design for Digital, it isn’t that difficult ok there is an additional cost creating two different layouts but that could be easily recouped by additional advertising within the digital version.

So why is it that you and I are downloading Viv? Not exactly Anne’s targeted market.
I download it because I like to keep up to date with what is happening within the industry and Anne from Viv and the guys at Nextscreen are high on the list of people who are ‘pushing the envelope’ as Anne calls it. What’s your excuse John?

What was the question?

What time is it?

Ian

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Permalink Reply by John Matyskiel on October 3, 2008 at 9:05am

You sound a little tired, Ian. :) I watch Viv for the same reason as you, to see if advertisers are doing anything really different. We actually have one publication with ongoing digital subscriptions, and we have done one-off anniversary editions digitally as well. So we're a bit beyond the demo stage, but the learning is the same.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Hunter on October 3, 2008 at 9:35am

John, to save me the hassle of visiting every page on the Rogers organisation website; which publication has the ongoing digital?
Just out of curiosity, has anything I have said within this wee discussion made sense?

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Permalink Reply by John Matyskiel on October 6, 2008 at 9:09am

The main site is www. Macleans.ca, the purchase page is
https://w1.buysub.com/pubs/MH/MME/MME_Digital1_200607_1.jsp?cds_pag...

Sure, your comments made sense

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Permalink Reply by Ian Hunter on October 8, 2008 at 5:28pm

Hi John

Ok viewed the demo at Zinio, pretty much as I expected, print PDF processed through Zinio, could have been any one of a hundred platforms, same result.
I would say you are not doing yourself, your brand or your publication any favours here and I guess you would agree.
Why don’t you take the plunge and do it properly? All the content is already there, all you have to do is change the layout.
You wouldn’t be subscribing to Viv if your company was not interested in the possibilities of Digital.
John Bayne Maclean founded MacLean’s Magazine in 1905, originally a pocket size publication, I am sure if he was here today embracing this digital age, he would insist on his publication being designed and presented in the proper manner.

Anyway John, we seem to have steered away from your original question.
As a client of Zinio, can you not just contact them for feedback from their program?

Ian

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