Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions - (Page 11) Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: The Data reading experience. First-generation digital replica editions failed to take full advantage of the features that distinguish digital media. Rich media can make editorial content come alive by offering video interviews, instructive models and simulations, and interactive illustrations. Rich media can make advertising much more exciting and thereby increase response rates. And by offering readers that ability to act on advertisements while reading the publication, purchasing behavior increases as well. Archiving and searchability add tremendous value to publications where readers wish to save and access information for future use. Making search more context sensitive and broadening the domain of the search beyond the content contained in a specific publication helps readers learn more about topics that have captured their interest. Adding links within digital editions to content found in other issues or to other respected publications adds tremendously to the value of a publication as a place to begin explorations within a specific subject matter. Adding social bookmarking and content sharing features also enhances the publication’s value to the reader – as a more “scalable” version of recommendations that colleagues make to each other about printed content – even as such features also help to increase awareness and penetration. Making digital replica editions better integrated into the overall Web strategy helps cross-promote different offerings by allowing readers to access content in methods suitable to their information needs at any given time. o Patience is required. As described above, if publishers continue to improve and promote their digital editions, participation will grow at a steady rate. That rate can be further accelerated by functionality as described above. And as young readers come into the subscriber pool, the number of readers who prefer digital editions tends to increase. While the scope of this study did not include gathering data from digital subscribers, there are two recent studies that have gathered pertinent data: Gloria Adams, Senior Vice President at Pennwell Corporation, commissioned a digital-magazine study with the cooperation of Texterity. Here are some highlights of the findings from digital subscribers of primarily B2B publications: − Subscribers open their digital magazines within several days. − 70% of readers spend between 15 and 45 minutes reading each issue. − Archiving, sharing, and discussing content is very popular with subscribers. − Readers appreciate the capability to go directly to advertisers’ Web sites. − Most readers read key articles and browse all pages. How satisfied are the current set of digital subscribers? o ©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc. 11 http://gilbane.com http://gilbane.com
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