Digital Magazines, 2008 - Supplement to Folio - (Page 16)

viewed,” explains Graham Kilshaw, ITEM president. “The technology converts the email address to a Web address to protect the individual and avoid any problem with the CAN-SPAM laws. Then, we send each digital advertiser a monthly report.” Indeed, tracking is a valuable tool both for publishers with regard to ad sales and for advertisers in terms of knowing who spent how long on the ad page and who clicked through to a particular landing page. “Digital technology allows you to know how sticky things are,” says Steve Bernstein, president of Zenbu Media, which developed its own digital technology, called Zenditions, for its own magazines and now licenses it to others. “It’s like an instant reader survey.” l -JZ continued from page 14 ost young people don’t read print magazines—preferring to spend their time looking at a screen. The folks at Spin have looked to MySpace as a way of leveraging that activity and getting that desirable demographic interested in a continuous reading experience that is more involving and more engaging than print. By clicking on the Music tab on MySpace, users view an offer for Spin and can register to preview the digital edition. The publisher thereby gathers e-mail addresses to use judiciously to build valuable direct relationships with these young people in hopes that M Spin Reaches Out to Young Readers they will ultimately subscribe. The initiative began in March 2008, so results are not yet available; but it’s an example of how one publisher is using this channel to engage and inﬂuence its otherwise elusive target audience. l -JZ 16 f e-paper comes to market the way that some people think it will, the digital publishing market will explode,” declares Marcus Grimm, marketing director at Nxtbook Media. “It will be bigger than anything we’ve seen so far.” The e-paper market deﬁnitely is something to watch, as more and more publishers become interested in ways to leverage rich, high-speed digital delivery into multiple channels. The deﬁning moment will come when a device becomes available that is not only inexpensive and portable but has a quality, high-resolution screen. “Screen technology will get to a level of quality where reading a magazine on the device will be a very comfortable user experience,” predicts Cimarron Buser, VP of marketing and product planning at Texterity, “but the ﬁrst-generation devices available right now are not yet there. Their screens are black and white, with a couple of shades of gray, and that certainly doesn’t offer a magazine experience.” In addition, the format should be relatively open. “People complain—and rightfully so—that the formats of the Kindle and the Sony e-book readers are proprietary,” says Grimm. “The true epaper home run will be the one with a completely open format.” I What About E-Paper? And Mobile Delivery? WILL MOBILE DELIVERY COME FIRST? Everyone’s talking about mobile and lining up to deliver the content, according to Rich Maggiotto, CEO of Zinio, but mobile really hasn’t taken off from an economic standpoint. “Mobile has a big future in publishing,” he says, “but, again, the device must ensure an experience that’s a step forward, not backward. When a small mobile device with a large, crisp touch screen and high resolution gets to the point of ubiquity, that will create the mobile publishing platform. The iPhone raised the bar for all the device manufacturers, and I expect we’ll see a lot of imitators in the next year or so.” Since the iPhone is a visual device, with a large screen and a very good browser, it’s possible to post a whole magazine in a visual way. Since most other mobile devices have very small screens, that’s pretty exciting. Texterity, in fact, is already producing an iPhone solution for some of its clients—and the response so far has been “very positive,” according to Buser. Of the 800 or so digital publications that Texterity currently produces for its clients, nearly 70 do an iPhone version. It’s primarily considered a merchandising tool by these publishers, though, since generating revenue from mobile delivery has been difﬁcult—so far. Meanwhile, Zinio Labs, the research and development arm of Zinio, is working on the economic model and looking to understanding reader interests. Mobile delivery is still relatively expensive to accomplish, as well. Most magazine publishers— even some of the bigger publishers—can’t really afford to turn all their material into articles and feeds for mobile distribution, according to Buser, even though they certainly have the content available to be leveraged on mobile devices. l -JZ Special Supplement to FOLIO: and Circulation Management

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Magazines, 2008 - Supplement to Folio

Digital Magazines, 2008 - Supplement to Folio The State of Digital Magazine Delivery, 2008 Printers Extend Their Services to Digital Key ABC and BPA Audit Rules for Digital Editions What Drives Publishers to Use, and Readers to Read, Digital Magazines? The Art of Enhancement: Digital Magazines 2.0 Spin Reaches Out to Young Readers What About E-Paper? And Mobile Delivery? With Growth Comes Many Competitors Digital-Only Magazines Offer a New Strategy for Former Print Titles Going All-Digital Spawns a New Business Approach

Digital Magazines, 2008 - Supplement to Folio

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