Digital Magazines, 2008 - Supplement to Folio - (Page 18)

Digital-Only Magazines Can Bring New Life and a New Strategy to Print Brands that No Longer Thrive igital-only magazines are not common. Many of those that are popping up are custom publications or special sponsored issues that are produced as brand extensions of their print equivalents—often replacing promotional e-mail newsletters. Hachette’s Elle partnered with Project Runway, for example, to publish custom, digital-only mini-magazines focused on each episode of the show. And Yoga Journal is publishing a sponsored, digitalonly spa guide. Existing magazines that convert entirely from print to digital-only delivery are rarer still. Physicians’ Travel & Meeting Guide, a Quadrant HealthCom Inc. publication, moved from print to all-digital delivery effective with its January 2008 issue. “We’re a primary care journal,” explains Tom Cooney, director of multimedia strategy for Physicians’ Travel & Meeting Network. “In 2007, advertising revenue in the primarycare market dropped off signiﬁcantly—to the point where ﬁve primary care journals went out of business. Physicians’ Travel & Meeting Guide was one of the ﬁve.” Since the brand had been around for 25 years, Cooney didn’t want simply to cease publishing. “The economies weren’t there to print and mail 166,000 copies each month,” he says. “Digital delivery is a cost-efﬁcient format and a way to keep the brand alive.” Because there’s no print version anymore and, therefore, no expensive conversion required, Cooney can completely redesign the magazine in a full-screen landscape format and change the fonts to create a truly user-friendly experience. “If we had to redesign every issue to make it user-friendly,” he suggests, “that would also be a cost-prohibitive solution.” The other huge conceptual change for the magazine is to change it from a monthly to several single-sponsor specialty issues that limit the content—and the circulation— BUT IS THE LOSS OF PRINT AS AN IMPEDIMENT TO UNDERSTANDING THE OPPORTUNITIES? D 18 to the therapeutic category that the adver- play. We’re loading each issue with rich metiser wants to reach [see sidebar, below]. dia—streaming video, ﬂash ads, animation, Cooney acknowledges that the new concept and so forth. It’s a brand-new product.” is still in its infancy, but advertiser reaction “Clearly, the decision to convert the so far has been very positive. ITEM Publications publishes a digital-only Japanese edition “We’re starting to sell the of Interference Technology in conjunction with a Japanese single-sponsor issues, offerpartner. That makes perfect sense, because the magazine is ing full-screen advertising produced in Philadelphia. The subscribers, who are located in Japan, receive an e-mail link to access each issue. opportunities with video and ﬂash animation. The jury is magazine to digital-only was to signiﬁcantly still out,” he says, “but I’m very hopeful.” Reed Business Information took its reduce overhead,” adds Blanchard. “We also Housing Giants, a trade magazine for high- see it as an opportunity to sell a unique prodvolume builders that publishes 21 times a uct to advertisers.” year, to the digital-only format. “Last year, Despite the ﬁnancial headaches that Housing Giants—with a circulation of convinced these two publishers to convert 50,000—was a print magazine that was only their magazines from print to digital-only, marginally proﬁtable,” says John Blanchard, they can take heart from a comment made Reed’s VP of operations, “so, going forward, by Nxtbook’s Marcus Grimm. “Not one of the we’re pursuing a digital-only model. We’ve handful of our clients who have converted redesigned the magazine with digital tech- to all digital has failed,” he says. “It’s all or nology in mind, using appropriate font sizes nothing. So through focus and dedication, and optimizing the format for screen dis- they’ve been extremely successful.” l -JZ n its new digital-only format, Physicians’ Travel & Meeting Guide is moving from a traditional 12-times print magazine to an undetermined number of single-sponsored digital editions targeted to single therapeutic categories. All the content in a particular issue will relate to a single medical specialty. The editorial will be about travel destinations where meetings relevant to that specialty will be held in, say, the next quarter. The advertising will all be from a single sponsor interested in reaching that particular group of physicians. “And we’ll produce whatever number of issues the advertiser wants,” says Tom Cooney, director, multimedia strategy, for Physicians’ Travel & Meeting Network. “That could be four issues a year or more or less.” Each issue will be circulated only to those subscribers who have identiﬁed themselves as practicing in the particular medical specialty on which the issue focuses. That means each subscriber may get only a few issues a year. But all the meeting locations, all the listings from the publisher’s comprehensive database of medical meetings, and, of course, all the advertising will be of speciﬁc interest to the reader. “We focus on 40 therapeutic categories and hope to have sponsors for each major medical specialty,” says Cooney. “So we could have a lot more than 12 issues a year. In fact, we could be very busy.” l -JZ I Going All-Digital Spawns a New Business Approach 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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