Not necessarily. Hindsight’s 20-20, but here are some basics that BtoC publishers – by and large – haven’t done. These are features standard to Nxtbook but – to be frank – are widely available today:

*Browser-based products. I’m of the opinion that if Zinio would’ve been browser-based from the beginning, circulation figures would be much higher. Just my opinion, but I think this one aspect prevented explosive growth.

*Flexible DRM allowing people to browse selected pages of protected content. Protected content has been largely walled off from everything Web 2.0 until Nxtbook and Texterity came out with these features in the previous year.

*Content indexed by search engines. No explanation necessary.

And while larger is definitely a relative term, the costs to do digital magazines via enhancing a PDF are quite small, relative to a custom created Flash project.

My opinion: A consumer title using a replication model (low investment in terms of time and money) in a browser-based environment, indexed by search engines with flexible DRM that allows the publisher to simultaneously monetize and market their content could be “successful,” given proper strategy and execution. And while success will always be relative, it would be a noble experiment that would cost a fraction of many of the experiments I’ve seen publishers attempt.

Publishers like Time Inc. view this model with opportunity cost in mind. Why invest in a model where the industry leader has captured far less than 5% of readers per issue when you could put those incremental dollars toward online where traffic is measured in the millions and the revenue stream is proven?

The BtoB success stories go far beyond audience, in my opinion. These publishers have demonstrated a focus and dedication to the medium, rather than simply just run it up the flagpole and see who salutes, which seems to be what most of the lackluster BtoC titles have done.

Moreover – per the last paragraph of my post – the early adopters among publishers of BtoC titles often went with downloadable readers (pointed out by panelists as being a bad idea) and offered readers no way to view content from the publishers’ websites, which is the way most consumers begin their brand interaction with the publisher.

As a technology provider, we’re tasked with relentlessly improving our products and will continue to do so, but if so many BtoB publishers are being successful, perhaps the reasons many BtoC titles haven’t enjoyed similar success go further than audience, and include more business-centric reasons, such as technologies chosen, strategy and execution as well.

Several months ago, we instituted a 30/60/90 day plan to help publishers set up good digital magazine strategies. Other providers do something similar via “best practices” groups. The point here is that – just like everything else we do in business, the product doesn’t succeed without a well executed strategy and launch, and when we talk to publishers who’ve had less than stellar experiences, a lack of the former is often part of the problem.

Again – not discounting the need for the product to improve at every turn. Just saying many factors are to blame when lackluster results occur.

M

Marcus and Cimarron both did an excellent job supporting their model in their remarks and I have nothing but respect for the technologies and expertise they bring to publishers. These technologies obviously work great for BtoB and selected BtoC markets and I truly support using facsimiles for sampling, first copy delivery, catalogs, etc. I wish I had made that clearer in my presentation.

I want this to work and I think it can but we need to recognize that the consumer is the ultimate validator and it seems they are still waiting for a better alternative to print. NXTBook, Texterity, Olive, Qmags and Zinio are great partners and resources for publishers that have an audience that fits their model but it’s time for some new ideas!