Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions - (Page 110)

Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Buyer’s Guide In addition to clickable URLs, most digital editions offer publishers the ability to embed rich media content, including audio, video, and animation. This could be extra editorial content or advertising. Another important aspect of the user interface to consider is security: whether it requires username/password access, and whether you want to prevent subscribers from making unauthorized copies of digital editions. The question of password access is, of course, closely related to whether you charge for your digital edition, give it away to print subscribers, etc.; more on that below. Digital rights management (DRM) capabilities, which inhibit unauthorized copying, should be considered in relation to the business objectives for your digital edition. For example, if you want to maximize exposure for your brand or advertisers, DRM may not be a good idea, but if you want to maximize subscriber revenue and protect valuable intellectual property, DRM might make sense. Advertising Although some publishers treat digital editions as “value adds” for their advertisers and do not charge extra for digital edition ads, other publishers treat them as opportunities for incremental ad revenue. Digital editions can offer several features that are salable as ad or sponsorship inventory, such as: Clickable links in ads Real estate above or below pages Tabs that lead users to special pages Gatefold pages Bellybands (digital equivalents of paper ribbons wrapped around the magazine) Toolbar sponsorship (logo on digital edition toolbar) In addition, some digital edition providers can support e-catalog functionality, in which a user can click on a product description and get an order form or shopping cart. Some vendors implement full e-commerce functionality for e-catalogs, while others will simply generate order information to be processed offline. Tracking and Reporting A major portion of the value that a digital edition offers to publishers is the ability to track how users interact with it. Many publishers are not used to the idea that they can track users’ interactions with their publications in great detail; therefore, it’s important to choose a digital edition vendor that offers flexibility in tracking and reporting. Many digital edition providers offer Web sites with usage reports. Some typical reports offered include: Traffic analysis, e.g., unique visitors per month. Page view data: how many users viewed which pages. Time spent reading the digital edition. ©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc. 110 http://gilbane.com http://gilbane.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions

Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section One: The Data
Section Two: Best Practice Cases
Nxtbook
Bentley Systems
Graduate Prospects
Hearst
Information Today
Marine Log
Vendor Description
Section Three: Buyer’s Guide
Section Four: Visionaries
Section Five: Conclusions
The Authors
About the Gilbane Group, Inc.
Our Sponsors

Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions