Catching AIR

The recommended off-line version of the Nxtbook is built with Adobe AIR. Though it’s the slickest performing offline book we’ve ever had (or that the industry’s ever seen), a few customers have been a little slow to embrace it. "Too new. Too different. Too…Too…Too."

And yet there’s word on the street that the much awaited iTablet from Apple may very well be running…. Adobe AIR. If true, this means that all Nxtbook customers will have to do to have their content on what some are considering to be the digital Moses for magazine publishers is…. well, nothing. Your content might show up on that device right out of the box.

More Good Looking Nxtbookers….

In our newest video, we asked some of the Nxtbook team what makes them happy. Their answer in a lot of cases? YOU!

 

So New We Couldn’t Fit it On the Website.

Guess what? Nxtbook Media has a new product. How new? So new we don’t even have it on the website. So new I can’t send you a brochure about it. That new.

The product is called NxtSync. You might use it in your digital magazine, but you might just as easily use it on your website.

Here’s how it works: You sell keywords to advertisers. Keywords in your content trigger cool display ads. Pretty simple eh?

OK, there’s a bit more to it than that, so why not join us for first-ever webinar on NxtSync. See it in action. See how publishers are using it to leverage revenue, and see what’s "nxt" from Nxtbook Media.

The Coming Age of Digital Magazines

I was a big fan of Josh Quittner when he was as Business 2.0. Heck, I was a big fan of Business 2.0. These days, Quittner blogs a lot about digital magazines, which is kind of like saying John Madden is doing some play by play for your local football team.

Here’s an interesting quote from a recent post:

I had one tiny epiphany I wanted to share, however. I was invited to attend an in-house conference at Richemont, the company that owns some of the world’s best-known luxury brands.

Throughout the day, the digital brand managers were showing off some of their Web-based projects and, as I watched some of the really gorgeous, cinematic stuff that they were doing, I realized that one day soon, these sorts of things will evolve from being Web pages to being the ad pages that adorn digital magazines.

This is actually a very big deal. It means that display advertising will work again.

Right now, the model doesn’t work because you have to go to, say, Van Cleef & Arpels’s website to see its ad. But what if the ad came to you, just as it does in a magazine. Only it’s way better than a magazine
because it’s animated and compelling. Imagine reading your favorite magazine on a tablet, and you hit this leopard (Now, on the Web, you’ve got to let it load first; that won’t be a problem on a downloaded e-mag.) How could you not stop and interact with it? Advertising will work so much better in the tablet-mag world.

Two things of note here: 1. Quittner obviously doesn’t read enough Nxtbooks to know what type of Ads many of you are doing. He should read our map. 2. Quittner points out that display ads in a delivered magazine are totally different than a web ad on a page waiting for someone to show up. And he’s absolutely right.

Can You Tell Me About Anyone Else Who Did This?

Case studies. It seems like once a week we get a request for a case study from a prospect. And when we do, the requests can be awfully specific, eg: Can you please show me a case study for a quarterly magazine for red 4×4 owners living in California that’s using their digital magazine to make money?

But the reality, we have case studies for lots of industries but very likely, not yours. As Seth Godin writes:

Sure, the industries change, the goods/service ratio changes, regulation changes, names change. Doesn’t matter. It’s all the same.

People are people, and basic needs and wants don’t vary so much.

Put aside your need for a step-by-step manual and instead realize that analogies are your best friend. By the time there is a case study in your specific industry, it’s going to be way too late for you to catch up.

Can’t I Just Push a Button To Do That?

Are you a member of FOLIO MediaPro? Chances are, you should be. All the cool kids from publishing hang out there.

At any rate, an interesting question was posted this week, so I’m posting it (and my answer) here:

The question:

Anyone know of a tool that parsed magazine PDFs for syndication to
eReader formats plus iPhone, Android and other mobile readers? If not,
would it be valuable?

My answer:

At this point, software can’t do this. We create BlackBerry, iPhone,
accesible versions for the visually impaired, and Kindle-friendly
versions. In a nutshell, there’s some overlap, but each version
requires massaging to various degrees.

Would it be valuable? It depends where your audience is.

If you’re a BtoB publisher, for instance, more and more of your emails
are being delivered to Blackberries. If you don’t have a BlackBerry
friendly digital edition, you’ve just lost a reader.

Until e-Readers are color, the fashion magazines probably can ignore them.

*End of answer

I didn’t want to get all preachy and salesy in the forum, but what I didn’t say was that if you are evaluating digital editions, you should be asking all providers what they’re doing for these devices because I guarantee you that a portion of your audience is migrating to a portion of these devices, and the reality is that you’re not going to see a self-service product that seamlessly converts and uploads to all of these devices.

Some digital publishers will ignore this trend. That’s fine, so long as you don’t mind losing those readers.

Other digital publishers will give you tools so that you can convert all of your content into each format. That’s fine, too, so long as you have people sitting around with nothing to do.

And then there’s us. Our plan? Figure out how to effectively convert your content for all of these devices on our time, so that your content can find your readers, wherever they are.

Nxtbook Barbershop Quartet + 2 Entertains Crowd…

Well, at least we felt like singing.

Nxtbook was stoked to be named the Central Pennsylvania Business of the Year at a gala event in Harrisburg this past week. This was our first time winning this one (heck, it might’ve been the first time we heard of it?), but it was a great event, nevertheless.

 The "official release" follows:

The Central Penn Business Journal honored 30 businesses and nine business leaders who
have made significant contributions to the growth, strength and success of the
Central Pennsylvania region during the sixth annual Business of the
Year Awards gala at Hilton Harrisburg on Monday,
November 9, 2009. Nxtbook Media is proud to announce that they were
named the winner in the Business of the Year (1-50 Employees) category.

 

The finalists and winners were selected by an independent
panel of judges consisting of: Dr. Edna V. Baehre, president of Harrisburg Area
Community College; Tom Baldrige of The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce &
Industry; Hank Christ of E.K. McConkey & Co., Inc.; Gordon Freireich with
the Newton Group; David Moore of D&E Communications, Inc.; and Nancy
Sacunas of Sacunas. Eligible companies were privately-held, for-profit entities
headquartered or with significant operations in Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin,
Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and/or York counties. Winners were revealed at the
event in each of the six categories: Business of the Year (1-50 Employees),
Business of the Year (51-100 Employees), Business of the Year (101+ Employees),
Emerging Business of the Year, Executive of the Year and Corporate Citizen of
the Year.

 

“Rarely do the women and men behind this great game of
business get the recognition they deserve; recognition for being the backbone
of a community and this nation,” said David A. Schankweiler, CEO and publisher
of the Central Penn Business Journal and
event emcee. The crowd gathered to honor these individuals and companies for
creating jobs, making a difference to their customers and their communities,
and for propelling our region.

 

The Business of the Year Awards event is a program of the Central
Penn Business Journal and is presented by
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC. It is sponsored by Capital BlueCross,
McKonly & Asbury LLP, M&T Bank, and Penn Venture Partners. For more
information about the program, including a digital publication, visit www.CentralPennBusiness.com.

All I Want for Christmas is a Digital Edition…

Well, that title’s probably pushing it. Still, more than 2.2 million people read a Nxtbook in October, the biggest month ever. Heck, e-mail delivery was even strong, with 45% of our digital editions being delivered by the gray lady of the Net.

As always, you can watch people reading digital editions live on the map. It’s a nice visual for anyone who says, "Nobody reads anymore!"

And lest you think I’m kidding about the holidays, here’s the first Nxtbook I’ve seen this year offering holiday greetings, complete with a white Christmas.

What All the Trendy Guys Will Be Doing Next Month…

Esquire’s at it again with a magazine that talks to your computer (assuming you first go the Esquire website to download the software).

While the tech in me spent a fair amount of time ooohing and aaaahing at this video, the storyteller in me was none too impressed. What appears to be missing – at least in the limited amount we see in the video – is the two million dollar question: Why did you do this?

Understand, I guarantee you that Esquire could’ve used the technology to give the readers more depth, emotion, etc. than what was available on the pages, but in this limited demo, I’m concerned the reason they did it was simply because technology allowed them to, and that’s not really good enough.

Understand: readers want videos in your digital magazine. They crave podcasts and Flash animation but if – and only if – you’re making the experience more enriching because of it. If you only care about the technology, you’re feeding your ego, not their brain. So while Esquire delivers on their promise of "Augmented Reality," perhaps they should’ve been shooting for "Enhanced Reality."

 

One Good Looking Group…

As a service company, your Nxtbook Media Account Management team is here to help you build readership and drive revenue. But like the wizard behind the curtain, you probably wonder what they look like. Here’s a great video of four team members talking about their jobs and their customers.

 

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