We Hate to Brag, But People Find Us More Engaging Now…

One month ago, we started transitioning our customers to the new Nxtbook 3.0. While there were many reasons we did this, the one that we’d have to wait to see proved was the idea (supported by rigorous beta testing) that the new interface would be more engaging for readers.

A month later, we can say, "Yay! It worked!"

Comparing the 30 days since 3.0 launched with the 30 days prior to that:

1) Visits to Nxtbooks were up 7.24%. (This should be considered the control. The new interface doesn’t get more people into the book, exactly, though the new archive panel DOES make it easier to find back issues.)

2) Pages viewed of Nxtbooks during the same period were up 16.06% and pages viewed per book are up 8.23%. In other words, people read more of the content in 3.0.

3) They’re staying longer, too… In fact, the average person stayed inside a Nxtbook 3.0 for nearly six and a half minutes – 8.53% longer than in the previous 30 days period. Keep in mind, that’s the average: many titles have average readership of fifteen minutes or more. But if your website is used to one minute, six and a half minutes is pretty groovy.

4) Search engines seem to like the new 3.0, too, as referrals from search engines were up more than 22%, including a greater than 50% boost from the big boys at Google.

The 3.0 transition continues and Nxtbook customers can move to 3.0 at no additional cost. Check with your account manager for details!

It’s Not Killing Trees if They Don’t Scream….

Wouldn’t you think that an article about how to make your magazine green would include at least a mention of a digital edition? I would, too, unless it’s written by a printer, which this one is. Read it anyway. Every little bit helps.

Finding a Face(book)

Here’s the deal: If you’re not using Facebook to promote your content, you’re missing out. In less than two years, Facebook has become the third most popular way people find a Nxtbook, after e-mail and your website. Simply put, people care what their friends are reading.

There are two ways a business can use Facebook: either through pages or groups. In a nutshell, you should use pages, not groups. This article tells you why.

Buy This Book

Andrew Losowsky has a new book out. We Make Magazines: Inside the Independents, a new book produced by two of Colophon’s curators, highlights and celebrates the best of the world’s independent magazines.

You can read an interview with Andrew about the book here. We’re always fans of how Andrew covers the magazine space. He finds creative titles doing creative things to be successful. In this environment, that doesn’t just make for fun reading: it makes for essential reading.

That’s One Small Step for a Digital Magazine…

So earlier this week was the 40th Anniversary of man landing on the moon, which is pretty amazing considering the computers they used (and I use that term very loosely) didn’t even have mice.

Uber-blogger Rex Hammock wrote a great post about various moon-related activities with lots of cool links. However, he missed the digital magazine dedicated to the Anniversary.

EETimes issued a special digital-only magazine called Apollo:, which featured tons of great articles on the engineering behind the Apollo mission. Special features included a video by Ken Mattingly (played by Gary Sinise in Apollo 13) and a slideshow of Apollo 11 circuitry.

Revenue-wise, Apollo: used ad-serving technology, bringing in a variety of sponsors just as you would on a website. Using the Nxtbook this way was a first for EETimes, and we’d call it a moonshot-worthy effort.

One small technical clarification: Apollo: was completed in the Nxtbook 2.6, not 3.0, because many of the animations were completed ahead of time in AS2, whereas Nxtbook 3.0 requires AS3. To quote an engineer from Apollo 13, "You’re telling me what you want. I’m telling you what we have." Regardless, the book rocks.

New to the Media Industry: Product Recalls

Recalls happen all the time. Whether voluntary or involuntary, companies frequently call back defective product. In the worst cases, this results in gobs of lost income and bad will toward the brand. In other cases, the brand gets heralded for being proactive.

Last week, Amazon – in essence – recalled books from the Kindle. A publisher had uploaded content to the Kindle store that they didn’t own the copyright to. People bought the content (assuming it was legally available) and downloaded it to their Kindle. When Amazon discovered this, they performed a seamless (if abrupt) recall: they deleted the content off Kindles that had it and returned the money to the customers.

As you would expect, there’s been some backlash to this and we’ll be the last to say what Amazon did was the perfect solution.

But there is a definite silver lining here. Let’s suppose, for instance, that you needed to recall your magazine. In print, that would be crazy expensive at best, impossible at worst. But in this case, Amazon was able to do it, simply and quickly. And while a product recall would never be good for your business, Amazon at least demonstrated a way to minimize the pain. Given the current economic realities in place, that’s not the worst thing in the world.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me… Silence?

Let’s suppose you have a digital magazine. Like many publishers, you’ll probably send out an e-mail to your readers inviting them to read it. But more and more, the readers don’t get these e-mails on their computer, but on their smartphone. If you’re not using Nxtbook Liberty, that link won’t load, and you’ll lose a reader.

And as this post from Dan Blank shows, people are increasingly staring at their smartphones. The question is, are you making sure they’re staring at you?

It’s a Collaboration, Not a Cage Match

Dave Hendricks has written an interesting essay over at Min, regarding the difference between device makers and content providers. For the most part, it’s a solid representation of what each brings to the table.

That being said, the premise rings a bit odd, at least to me. Hendricks writes, "Death Race 2009 has two contestants. One—the device maker—is represented at the Sprizon Wireless phone store, Best Buys and Apple/AT&T nexus of evil. The other is available on newsstands, on TV, in airports and on all the gadgets sold in aforementioned retail addiction outlets. According to numerous blogs and prognosticating prevaricators, they are in a herculean struggle from which only one will profitably emerge."

From "which only one will profitably emerge?" Would that our world would be that dramatic.

But how does a content device even hope to succeed without content? When the Kindle came out, despite a flurry of differing opinions, there was pretty much one common voice about why it could succeed: because it was tied into the Amazon store. The gadget, warts and all, has succeeded BECAUSE of content.

On the other hand, publishers have long wondered if they could be profitable delivering to such devices, but reader habits are changing at the same time the costs of print have been escalating. For these publishers, the gadgets represent an opportunity to continue to distribute content at a lower price.

No doubt: the same business model probably won’t work. Saying you could succeed the same way as before might be as simple-minded as saying that only content providers or gadget devices will profitably survive. Truth is, things are a lot more complex than that.

Consider the iPod. A few years ago, people were saying that Apple was making all the money while the artists were going out of business. And many of them did. But guys like Trent Reznor figured out that the iPod wasn’t his opponent and he leveraged it to be successful. In a nutshell: he gives away a ton of stuff and charges a premium price for limited edition work (Last year, Reznor offered a $300 limited edition compilation. It sold out in three days.). Moreover, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if musicians on the iTunes store were to disappear, the only people left buying iPods would be Apple fan boys, and even they would probably stop after one or two versions.

In the end, the only problem with Hendricks’ essay is the suggestion that it’s them against us, with only one survivor. Truth is, our collective survivals might hinge on the success of each other.

Google Reminds You That You’re Not Powerless…

Google does a nice job reminding publishers that you have the power to block search engines from seeing your content.

Perhaps so they don’t sound self-serving, they don’t remind you that it’s probably a bad idea to this, though.

Technically speaking, you can do this to your Nxtbook, too, so that your digital magazine isn’t visible to search engines. Realistically, though, we wouldn’t ever recommend it. It’s very easy to let Google serve up a preview and still provide any level of DRM you wish (preview pages, issues, etc). In doing so, you can get the best of both worlds: promote your content AND protect it.

These days, the Web isn’t so much about what you can do but about what you should.

If You Didn’t Have a Website, Would You Be Better Off?

I didn’t pose the question. I’m just reposting it. 

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