Is Your Digital Edition All it Can Be?

A new magazine, Blogger & Podcaster, is hitting the stands and the screens this week. We say that because the magazine is being offered in three formats – print, a digital edition and a podcast version.

While we agree with other bloggers in that the magazine itself – and the triple distribution – are a great idea, as digital edition publishers, we were disappointed in this particular version of the debut issue.

Why? Well aside from two advertisements (one of which sounds like it was voiced by Cindy Brady), there is no audio inside the digital edition. This, despite the fact that the magazine is also going to be available in podcast format. So, the digital edition is lacking the podcasts which we know are already being created for the magazine. That’s somewhat strange.

This does a couple things. 1) It makes the reader work. They can read the content – or listen to it, but they can’t do both. Or choose which one to do with both in front of them. 2) It sends a mixed message out about digital editions. The reality is that magazine publishers can and do embed digital editions with podcasts, giving readers the choice of how they want to consume content. But when a podcasting publication doesn’t put podcasts inside the digital edition, what’s the reader to think about digital editions with audio?

Here’s hoping Blogger & Podcaster leverages the strengths of all their media in forthcoming issues. The content is dynamite and the market is right for this publication.