Nxtbook – Collectors Edition

Sadly, the WPA Conference has been canceled for this year. As a sponsor of the event, Nxtbook hopes the show comes back bigger and better next year. This year’s show guide (in Nxtbook format) should be considered a collector’s edition of what could’ve been and what we hope will be again.

Your Magazine Knows Where You Are: When World Collide

Here’s an interesting story from France about a magazine embedding RFID chips inside. Once activated with an RFID scanner (because we all have those sitting on the desk), readers can see multi-media content on their computer. While engadget asks what readers are supposed to do with this, let’s give Amusement credit for going where no magazine has gone before. Whether they should we’ll save for another day.

Publishing Expo (and Digital Magazine Symposium) Review

Nxtbook had the opportunity to sponsor the Digital Magazine Symposium at this week’s Publishing Expo show in New York City. This was the second time around for this event which was received with mixed reviews last year.

While the recession probably caused some vendors to pull out of sponsoring marquee events like the FOLIO Growth Summit this year, the lower costs and hoped synergy of two shows in one (Book Business and Pub Expo combined their exhibit halls again) helped keep the sponsorships from the digital magazine industry in this show near what it was last year. (As I recall, there was one vendor missing who sponsored this event last year and two additional who didn’t.)

This year’s symposium was chaired by David Renard, of mediaIDEAS, who brought a very broad perspective to the room.

The first panel included two publishers doing “Best of Breed” solutions and included both the New Yorker and the new Popular Science Genius Guide. Both projects were quite interesting, Mark Jannot of Popular Science admitted later that the level of cost and complexity associated with the new Guide might not be sustainable long-term.

Nxtbook take-away: Animation is cool, no doubt, but it’s often complex and expensive. In 2007, Nxtbook released Ad-Jolt, our low-cost, low-effort way to add buzz to your project. Granted, you can’t use Ad-Jolt to get to the level of animation in Pop Sci, but you can start (and go pretty far) for a fraction of the cost.

Next up was a panel on choosing a DME (Digital Magazine Enabler – as Renard likes to call companies like Nxtbook). This panel included Barry Green from Hearst (publisher of this Nxtbook) and Bob Fernekees (publisher of many Nxtbooks including this one) and Matt Carey of Rodman Publishing (who never bought a Nxtbook – what’s up with that, Matt?).

This panel was highly engaging, with lots of key take-aways for publishers. In the end, Renard asked them each what’s most important. Here’s what I wrote down (though if I got it wrong, blame me, not the speaker. It’s important to note I was under high doses of cold medicine at the time):

Carey: Don’t worry about the capabilities of the vendor at first. Instead, focus on your own goals for your digital magazine. If you do that first, it makes the evaluation much easier.

Green: Figure out how much work your production department can and will do, as different vendors have different requirements. (Ed. note: As a full-service provider, Nxtbook takes the same PDF you give your printer.) Also, watch out for nickel-and-dime charges. There’s lots of discussions about page rates, but some vendors charge a lot more for additional services. (Ed. note: Barry nails it on the head. At Nxtbook, we pride ourselves in including many of our services for the standard fee. First up, we feel it’s more honest. Second, we know that many of those “additional things” (like social media and RSS feeds) are critical for your long-term success.)

Fernekees: Ask the vendor to show you examples of other publications they’ve worked with a similar or identical business model to your own, which will show both the breadth of the vendor and demonstrated success. Also, with all of the buzz about social media, inquire as to how the product can tap into those possibilities.

The final panel was about Paginated Media: a Vision for the Future. The panel was supposed to include Darren Budd of the infamous Mygazines, though he was an unexplained no-show. Whether he was dodging papers or missed his plane from Anguilla is anybody’s guess, but the panel seemed none-the-worse without him.

Instead, attendees were treated to information about the soon to be released MyMag.com, which hopes to eventually allow readers to compile their own magazines, but is starting with celebrities doing a similar thing. (Think MTV cribs for digital magazines.) Stay tuned for coverage on that one.

The other seat on the panel was taken by Andrew Degenholtz, who spoke at length about eMagazines.com, a platform-agnostic digital newsstand available to Nxtbook Media customers. It was an interesting juxtaposition of one really out-there idea and one less sexy one that just makes a lot of common sense.

Attendance for the Symposium fluctuated from 25-40 throughout the panels, which was about the same as last year. However, there was definitely a greater sense of hope and possibility than last year, which ain’t a bad thing to be sharing during this wintry economic season.

Accolades should be given to the Publishing Expo crew for pulling off the Symposium. Last year, they successfully pulled in sponsors for the first iteration of the show and delivered some decent content. This year, they held the line on sponsorships and delivered better content.

It’s anyone’s guess whether Media Business or FOLIO will remain content to let Publishing Executive produce the only significant live event for the digital magazine industry, but after two successful airings, Publishing Executive may be positioning itself as the go-to event for digital magazine industry changes. How long their competition allows them to do so remains to be seen.

So Much for Sunday…

If you’re keeping score, we sent out last week’s newsletter on Sunday, due to the FOLIO Growth Summit and a curiosity as to whether open rates are truly better on Sundays.

At the end of this isolated experiment, we’ll say no. Open rates for our top newsletter in March were 38% and our Sunday issue were just a hair behind at 36%. Good enough to know that Sunday deliveries are far from a waste, but not good enough to warrant change.

Thank You For Being Our Guinea Pig…

Did you know that some research shows that Sunday is the best day for e-mail open rates? Obviously, your mileage may vary depending on content or audience, but it’s a strange thing to consider.

But here’s the thing — our usual Thursday e-mail newsletter didn’t go out due to the FOLIO Growth Summit taking up our well-spent time. Rather than wait until next Thursday, we’re pushing this week’s issue out on Sunday and seeing what happens.

The Upside of the Downside – FOLIO Growth Summit Review

This year, Nxtbook Media has a staggering number of events we’re going to exhibit at. Thus far, at everyone of them, the nervous sales rep who convinced us to exhibit has said some variation of the same thing:

"We’re expecting less quantity, but more quality."

I’m not knocking the reps who say that. In their shoes, I’d probably do the same thing. But the reality in most cases is that less usually means less. Less usually means fewer people at your booth. Fewer people asking for demos. Fewer people asking how others are being sucessful with digital magazines. But this week, the FOLIO Growth Summit was the first show I’ve seen this year that truly delivered more quality with less quantity.

While attendance was down over last year, as an exhibitor we couldn’t tell. Our booth was busier, the publishers had more questions and the people we talked to had no interest in waiting out this recession. Somehow, FGS managed to attract the fighters and innovators – those publishers who may inevitably lose this battle, but have no interest in surrendering to it, as well as those publishers who are using this opportunity as a way to kick the competition when it’s down.

Early on the last morning of the show I had the opportunity to run a few miles with one of those publishers along Lake Michigan. It was a great conversation because it was mostly about how both of us are doing things radically different. It’s a shame to say, but would we be so innovative right now if the market weren’t forcing us to be? Maybe, but maybe not, too, so that’s a good thing.

There’s a line runners are taught to remember at the end of a tough race: If it’s hurting me, it must be killing them. At FGS this week, all the winners were on hand, even those who are hurting right now.

Tony Silber said it better than I, though. Don’t miss his analysis here.

Plastic Logic Presentation @ FOLIO: Growth Summit

Visitors to this week’s FOLIO Growth Summit had an unexpected surprise when they came to hear the Plastic Logic lunchtime keynote. Though there was an unexpected speaker change, the replacement speaker came with a working prototype of the Plastic Logic E-Reader device!

Anusha Nirmalananthan, Product Manager, User Experience & Software was a last-minute replacement speaker, but you couldn’t tell by the reaction of those fortunate enough to attend the exclusive luncheon. Anusha spoke about Plastic Logic’s plans for their E-Reader device, and then answered a slew of questions from a highly engaged audience. Some of the highlights:

* The Plastic Logic difference at this point seems to be their desire and willingness to have an open platform.

* Though beta tests will continue throughout the year, the official date of release is currently slated for January 1, 2010.

* Though the technology is expected to envolve with readers being able to interact more with the devices, the main intent is for a "lean back" reading experience.

* No word on price point, but the goal is to build as much value into the product as possible.

* For Plastic Logic, color is two years away and motion is four years away.

After the great presentation, Anusha pulled out a demo unit and invited the group to come forward and try the unit for themselves. Roughly half of those in attendance did just that, including the writer of this blog.

My impressions? Pretty cool, fairly buggy (as you’d expect from a beta/demo unit). They’ve nailed the size with it and the idea of carrying a slew of documents in a device so small is definitely intriguing.

While the resolution’s nice (Kindle-like, I’d say), it’s a tough call whether or not consumer magazine users will fall in love with it. The more cerebral the content, I’d venture, the more likely that the audience will be forgiving of the gray scale. In short, for magazine readers, it’s way better than the Kindle, though probably a notch below what readers want. For that reason alone, pricepoint will be important, though less so depending on what users will actually be able to do with the content. As a reader of fifteen or so magazines per month, would I give up color to have them all with me on the device? Absolutely. Would I pay $600 to do it (as some have speculated)? Probably not.

No question, though: we were all treated to a glimpse of the future at the presentation – and it’s pretty bright.

The Content Forward Interface – And Why It Matters.

At the FOLIO Growth Summit this week, we had the opportunity to preview Nxtbook 3.0. There are a host of new features in the platform, but the most obvious to the reader is the Content Forward Interface (CFI), which is designed to keep the reader’s attention on the content, NOT the interface. To quote Kevin Kelly:

"Since the measure of a technology’s success is how invisible it becomes, the best long-term strategy is to develop products and services that can be ignored."

Though Kelly wrote those prophetic lines in 1998, releasing the CFI in 1998 (even IF we had high-speed Internet back then) would’ve been disastrous. Back then, we were all still figuring out out to Google. But now, we’re an army of power-readers, with an arsenal of keys and tool bars to get us where we want to go. The CFI is there to give you the tools when you need them and to get out of the way when you don’t.

Try it for yourself. Here’s a link to next week’s Publishing Expo guide – ready to go in Nxtbook 3.0.

The Luxury Digital Magazine Market…

So the other day I was reading an article at PubExec that claimed that VIVmag has produced an animated cover, "a first for the luxury digital publication for women." At first glance, I read a first for A luxury digital publication for women, and I thought, "Surely that can’t be right?"

I wasn’t the only. Joe Schmitter replied, "We publish a local Home & Lifestyle magazine targeted to affluent women and our current cover is animated as well.." (Schmitter in another comment admitted to enjoying what VIV had done.)

At any rate, I was just thinking how neat it was that the industry’s mature enough for multiple digital luxury mags for women when I realized that Schmitter’s publication is in fact a Nxtbook, and a cool looking one in fact. Check out the animation here and the use of video here.

Nxtbook 3.0 Beta Update…

Last week, the first Nxtbook went out in the new 3.0 beta. This marked the first time that the product was released to thousands of readers en masse. Readers of the magazine also had the option to complete a short survey about the experience.

The results of the survey were overwhelmingly successful, with the vast majority of readers feeling better about the magazine brand due to the stunning new interface.

As we’ve mentioned before the purpose of the new interface is to keep readers’ eyes focused on the content of the publication – it’s what we call our "content forward interface". How did the CFI perform during its first test? In a word, splendidly.

In fact, the average Nxtbook 3.0 reader stayed in the publication for 24% more pages than the average of the magazine’s previous four issues. 24%! Moreover, the page count bested the magazine’s best issue over the previous four months by 21.5%!

We’ll continue to release 3.0 data as more beta tests are completed in the coming weeks. And if you’re looking for a link to a 3.0 book, you don’t have long to wait! The first link will be posted here next week in conjunction with FOLIO’s Growth Summit!

 

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