Texterity: Digital Magazine Trend Watch (White Paper)

WHITE PAPER

DIGITAL MAGAZINE

TREND WATCH

Co-produced exclusively for magazine publishers by

SEEN & HEARD Make magazine’s associate publisher Dan Woods on why he allows open-access to Make’s digital edition

Dan Woods Make magazine

“We didn’t start off thinking of going digital as a way to save money. In fact, it cost us money, because we were going to offer it for free to people who already subscribe. People would ask, ‘Why would you want to do that? You’ve already got their subscription?’ We did it because to us, it was a more rich experience and it was an experience that tended to fuse, in a meaningful way, their online experience at the Web site, with the print experience of the magazine.

We thought you ought to be able to share the entire digital edition with friends because that’s why people use magazines. You have a magazine, you like it and you wind up sharing it with friends, and so we thought for digital that ought to be the same. You just hit share, put in the person’s e-mail address you want to share it with, if you want to put in a little note you can, and boom, all they have to do is click on the link and start reading. We know from talking to people that an awful lot of people use that feature, and a lot of people tell us they wound up subscribing to the magazine because their friend was always sharing it with them. If they want to share it with someone else, chances are those are your most passionate readers and they probably know better than anyone who the rest of the passionate prospects are that we’re trying to reach. So why wouldn’t you tap into that? It’s better than any mailing list and it costs us very little—just a few dimes to pull that off. Today, Make is one of the most successful digital magazines published, with nearly 15,000 unique visitors to its digital edition each week.”

DIGITAL MAGAZINES 2.0 REVS UP

Digital magazines are quietly experiencing a period of growth. Both b-to-b and consumer magazines have seen a rise in their digital subscriptions. In the past few years, some digital editions have increased subsription numbers six-fold over previous years according to research by MPA and BPA.

With the rise in printing, production and mailing costs and the increased use of e-media products and personal mobile devices, it is no wonder so many readers are going digital and that publishers are following. Most publishers have a Web site, live events and a flagship print magazine. But there is an audience out there that some magazines haven’t prioritized thus far, and that’s the digital magazine reader.

COMBINING THE BEST

Sure, print magazines are engaging. Readers get enthralled in editorial, moved by design and photography and even enjoy and learn from the ads. They tear out pages of interest, copy down urls and save coupons found in ads. Did you know that all of these features are now available in digital? Readers can

search to find content quickly, receive RSS feeds when articles of interest are published, click hotlinks to additional content or advertiser Web pages, digitally archive articles of interest and more. While your print publication is probably your largest revenue source, followed by live events and Web endeavors, digital editions are rapidly gaining as a cost reduc-ton and revenue-generating program. The BPA estimates that 12-15 percent of subscribers prefer digital editions to print magazines.

Digital magazines are a hybrid media, offering a compelling combination of the best attributes of print and online media: They are engaging like a magazine and interactive like a Web site. A digital edition is not simply a replication of your print magazine, but an enhanced print experience that provides readers the opportunity to interact with editorial content, design elements and ads. “I see people going to the digital issue more for the magazine experience,” says Cottage Living online editor Rex Perry, whose title put out two digital editions in 2006 and plans to make every issue digital in 2007. “Magazines are visually encompassing, whereas a Web site is more utilitarian. I think when folks are going to our traditional Web

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DIGITAL MAGAZINE READER SATISFACTION

Over 85 percent of digital edition readers were very satisfied or satisfied with digital editions.

85%

25%

60%

12% 3%

Very Satis ed Satis ed Neutral Dissatis ed

DIGITAL READER RENEWAL RATES

Digital subscribers stick with their digital editions. Digital readers have a 5-to-1 subscription renewal preference when using digital editions versus print.