Gilbane Research Report - Digital Magazine Editions - (Page 43) Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases computing applications such as Del.icio.us and Digg would be available to readers. The content display is more expansive and features a special sponsor bar at the right margin of the page. The cover has an animated contest feature to encourage readers to open the digital edition when it is delivered to their desktops. The Hearst team realized the value of providing their readers with links to other important industry information and developed an Analog News page that has links to content found in their competitor's publications. (http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hearst/projectanalog_200803/) Results Their digital editions are distinctive and hold readers' attention. Their session lengths are higher than the industry average. The sponsor bar has been a big success, generating a click-through rate that is four times the industry average. The Analog News page has been a big hit with readers and is one of the reasons that their subscribers are such loyal readers of the digital edition. Print is not dead!! Their number of print advertisers has remained constant as the number of digital advertisers has grown. Surprisingly, the urls found in the print ads are a major source of traffic for the digital editions. They have worked hard at building good relationships with major search engines and get solid traffic from them. Lessons Learned The digital edition and Web site work well together. The Web site promotes the latest digital edition and has breaking product news and a powerful product locator search feature. To serve global markets, sophisticated digital editions are essential. The speed of delivery of information is important to both readers and advertisers. The cost reductions yielded by digital delivery are substantial. Their new design features have helped yield excellent reader behaviors that help sell advertising. Given the success of the current digital editions, they are now considering a new set of digital-only products. Gilbane Group Conclusions Their bold decision to link to content in their competitor’s publications has paid off in more frequent reader visits as they become more fully integrated in their readers’ quest for finding the right information from credible sources at the time they need it. Their new design feels less like a digital edition of a print product and more like a modern Web 2.0 information application. The bookmarking features are easy to use and search is well integrated. These features enhance the readers’ experiences and build loyalty. ©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc. 43 http://gilbane.com http://Del.icio.us http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hearst/projectanalog_200803/ http://gilbane.com
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