Come One, Come All…

I realized this week that it’s been some time since I pointed out a couple of our most read Nxtbooks, which is always interesting to me, because of what they say about the market, or the industry as a whole.

Thanks to the economy, our Top 5 is still the home to a popular unemployment guide in France. While the topic is kind of a bummer, the optimized layout is rather pretty looking. With millions of page views, this particular book recently passed a Super Bowl guide we did as the most read Nxtbook, ever.

Used to be, people feared that digital magazines were only read by mostly young, mostly male techies. And yet, who shows up in our Top 10 Readership list but Love of Quilting?  Note, the use of video on pages like this one.

And in the Kudos to Consistency department, let’s hear it for Fibromyalgia Aware, which always finds itself high on the list, issue after issue.

And finally, the average Nxtbook reader stayed inside their digital magazine more than seven and a half minutes last month. How’s that compare to your website?

Finding #9: The Most Popular Digital Extra Is…

Welcome to Autumn! At Nxtbook Media’s corporate office in Lancaster, PA, Autumn is often associated with harvest. It’s the time when farmers are reaping the final products from their carefully cultivated fields. It seems appropriate to take a moment to consider what publishers try all year to reap: engaged audiences.

Consider these tips for growing and harvesting a loyal audience:

1. Use "digital extras"
Digital extras snag attention for articles which readers might ignore. In a recent survey, 44.6% of readers said that video, flash, and other digital extras extend the time they spent reading interactive magazines and motivated them to read articles they’d otherwise skip. In the same survey, the readers voted video as the most popular choice of digital extra, followed by extra photos and slideshows, audio, and flash animation. (Click here to get all of the survey results: 42 pdf pages.)

2. Create a good user experience
Have pages formatted for screens. Take advantage of live links to inspire reader-magazine interaction. Ask specific questions of your readers and provide an easy means for response.

3. Add digital only content
Give readers an extra incentive to read the digital edition, or try to make them feel like they’re getting a special value over strictly print edition. Create content just for digital editions; it could be new content, content that didn’t make it into the print edition, additional rich media to flesh out an article. Or hey, have a digital only publication and skip any concern about print/digital overlap!

4. Promote, promote, promote
Re-evaluate your e-mail campaign, and don’t be afraid to blast more than once to readers who might not have opened your publication the first time. Promote the digital edition on your website with large cover images, animated icons, or flashy text. Hop on social media and spread the word to your fans’ walls and profiles. Create a fan page, discussion forum, and special interest groups to connect with readers and to get readers to pull in others with similar interests.

For more tips on how to grow your audience and engagement, contact a Nxtbook Media representative. For additional research on what makes effective interactive magazines, download the Case Study by clicking here.

 

That There New Thing From Adobe

So if you’ve kept up on the news, Adobe has released the tool-set so you can build something like WIRED. Harry McCracken writing at FOLIO seemed to feel that the big news about Adobe’s product is that its baked with Omniture Analytics. Note to Harry: I can think of at least three major digital publishers – including Nxtbook – that have had that for some time. You might be wondering how it’ll effect digital magazines in general and – since you’re reading this blog – Nxtbook in particular.

To be sure, it’s a nice tool-set, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see our sister company, Talefoundry, using it for digital design. That said, there are at least 3 troubling components that we’ve observed at this point:

1) We don’t need no stinkin’ browser. From the reports I’ve read (admittedly few), it seems that the focus for these versions are devices and apps. In fact, there’s no browser-based version at all. While this might be the future of digital magazine reading, it’s not the present when it comes to share of your audience.

2) Fine, build it yourself. This is a self-service tool. Nxtbook Media has been – from the dawn of our time – a full service solution. While there are publishers who migrate from one to the other, y’all generally in one of those boxes for a reason, and new software doesn’t change that reason.

3) The pricing is off. This is a self-service priced where us full-service guys are. Generally speaking, there are two reasons publishers go self service: they want total control or they want to pay less. In this case, you’d only be getting the former.

All in all, it’s Adobe, so I expect it to make a dent in the marketplace, but probably not much of one among those publishers who appreciate and desire full service and a browser-based digital magazine.

 

Congratulations Connections for Custom Publications

If you read Talefoundry’s blog (and you should,) you heard Connections magazine won this year’s Pearl Awards. More specifically, they won an award in the "Best Web Writing" category for the article entitled, "Media Exec Faces the Ultimate Deadline." The Pearl Awards seek to highlight how far custom publishing has come and how connective it is with readers. According to their website, the awards celebrate "excellence in journalism, in graphic design and publication packaging," and "in the development and execution of integrated marketing strategies built around custom publishing."

Congratulations, Connections, for meeting these qualifications! Connections is a digital only publication which embraces custom publishing and screen-centric layout to make connecting readers with the material seamless. It has proved excellence in journalism with articles spanning national interests (see interviews with Seth Godin, Laurie Ruettimann, and Temple Grandin) and Chambers of Commerce – specific perspectives.

Nxtbook Media had the pleasure of being a part of the Connections booth at the Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. (Follow the trade show conversation in retrospect by following #BizExpo2010 on twitter.) Because this publication is digital only, Connections and Nxtbook were able to show off, just a little, with a special supplement edition. If you read Marcus’ coverage on this, or if you attended the trade show, you know we made the edition 3D.

Why? Because when you’re dealing in digital only, you can really up your game to get people excited about your publication and to get readers involved with the pages. Think outside of the box: videos, live links, and animations are key, but there’s always more you can do. Add custom media, like 3D!

For more information or to scope the magazine, connect with Editor-in-chief Jasmine Grimm (@jasminegrimm) or with Connections via twitter (here or here) or facebook (here).

“Flipboard Treatment” Isn’t a Euphemism

Quite frankly, when I read that someone was giving the "Flipboard treatment," I thought it was a euphemism for something mean. Something involving rude gestures and angry investigators. In reality, it alluded to Catalogs.com’s new iPad app which puts products and links on flipping pages, much like Flipboard laid tweets and status updates in a magazine layout with flipping pages.

Catalogs.com got a couple things right. For instance, they obviously understand that reading on an iPad isn’t like reading on a computer. Catalogs.com (the website) is links-heavy, and pushing through a webpage on the iPad screen can be cumbersome. Having a plan for disseminating important product information on a mobile device or tablet is necessary. Similarly, having a design and layout created specifically for an iPad screen is a great idea if that is where you expect to find your audience.

However, this new app misses out on a few key details publishers with digital edition strategies can capitalize on. For instance, having flipping pages is only the very first step toward interactivity. As mentioned in Peter Houston’s blog: "The page flip was a nice gimmick in 1999 or whenever… Now it’s anachronistic and a stale hangover of publishers’ attempts to mangle digital magazine technology into old-school print publishing paradigms." Page flipping continues to provide a paper-like feel readers can enjoy, and it provides distinct breaks in the content which websites can’t achieve. But page flipping isn’t what makes catalogs interactive for the reader any more than flipping a page in a print magazine can be considered "interactive." Instead, interactivity necessarily includes items that will keep your readers in your catalog and flipping to your next product. Videos, rich media, web windows for purchasing sites, scrolling for additional content, and slideshows are just some solutions to this task.

Another thing to consider is that while Catalogs.com’s app does address one issue of how to present your product in a simple layout for a tablet device, it does not address issues of circulation or revenue generation. It loses all of the social media and user-interactivity aspects heralded as revolutionary with the original Flipboard concept.

So, it’s a start. It’s a nod to the fact that catalog publishers do need to reach their consumers on portable devices, because that’s what today’s buyers expect. But if you’re looking for a 360° approach to your digital catalog, I’d say you can do better.

Creating Commerce with Digital Catalogs

In one week, Nxtbook Media is sponsoring a webinar with Internet Retailer entitled Creating Commerce with Digital Catalogs. Donna Lowe from Henry Schein, Inc. and Alexis Geslani of TechSoup Global will be giving their tips and ideas for using digital catalogs to increase reach and revenue.

CLICK HERE to register for the event, which is taking place Thursday, October 28, at 2:00 pm ET. During this webinar, you’ll learn:

1. Why going digital works: Discover why Henry Schein, Inc. and TechSoup, Global decided to go digital, and how their digital catalogs work with – and surpass – other media.
2. How to make buzzwords calls to action: Get a sneak peak into how these companies use the popular tools of today, such as social media and mobile platforms, to increase circulation and commerce capabilities.
3. How to create super-catalogs: Want to seamlessly integrate print with exciting rich media? You can do it using audio, video, shopping carts and animation to maximize returns.

 

 

 

 

Where WIRED Is.

So after 100,000 downloads of their first iPad issue, WIRED is now sitting at less than one-third of that per issue. What’s that mean for you?

1) Even percentage-wise, that’s actually a little bit better than most publishers can expect. 30k of their 750k rate translates to 4% of their audience. As we’ve said many times, you should probably expect 2% of your circulation base to consume content via a mobile device or tablet.

2) It’s all relative. While 4% of WIRED’s customers are downloading the iPad app, truth is the vast majority of audiences couldn’t tout 4% iPad ownership. This is a new and growing device but if you’re going to highly invest in it, you better know how much of your readership can even consume content that way.

3) Remember that key word: investment. Thing about the WIRED experiment is this: it’s taking them more time and energy to produce an iPad-friendly version of  their magazine. With Nxtbook, we take your same magazine, and get you directly into the iTunes store with your own branded app for far less. In short, your results won’t likely be as great as WIRED’s, but neither will your investment, so your overall ROI can be just as good, if not better, while positioning you to embrace this growing market.

You Kind of Have to Be There….

So let’s say you want to do something with your digital magazine that’s never been done before, like create a special 3D edition. Guess what, you can do it. 

For a tradeshow this week, Nxtbook’s creative services arm – Talefoundry – produced a special 3D edition of Connections Magazine, offering tradeshow attendees, who were armed with 3D glasses, a view like no other.

If you happen to have a pair of those 3D glasses (the red and blue ones are ideal), do check out Connections3D.com. And if you don’t, but can think of a cool 3D idea for your publication, drop me a line at mgrimm [AT] nxtbookmedia.com and we’ll ship you out a pair so you can see your digital publication in a whole new way.

Heard the Word about Questex Redesign?

Have you heard the word about Questex Media’s plans for redesign? Next January, Questex is renaming and redesigning one of its magazine, Hotel & Motel Magazine. (Click here to see the current digital issue.)

Folio’s article covering the change quotes the magazine’s Executive Director, Stacy Silver, saying:

"’Our new format and editorial emphasis will … look more toward the future on how the industry can invest in, own and operate hotels to achieve higher returns. As part of this transformation… we are ‘reinventing’ the way that we communicate with our audience and have refined our focus on the topics that matter most to them while analyzing the events that shape the future of our industry.’"

 Also mentioned in the Folio article, Silver’s new role as executive director was just one of several position shifts within this magazine’s management team.

Hotel & Motel Management’s digital edition has a strong history of utilizing the Nxtbook platform, adgen features, addtional inserts and iPhone accessibility. Looking to the future, it will be exciting to see what Questex comes up with as they revamp their magazine!

5 years + 10 hours = 2 weeks

You might know him as Brent Hughes, Art Director at Nxtbook Media. You might even know him as the formative behind the Syndicator (video). You’ve definitely seen his work, either in demos, ads (such as this one), or our Nxtbook Media logo.

But do you know Brent Hughes, volunteer extraordinaire?

"I believe volunteering enriches the person doing it more than [it enriches] the organization they are doing it for. It’s a win-win situation," says Brent. It’s this attitude that Nxtbook rewards with a pay-it-forward sabbatical plan.

Nxtbook Media’s agenda of social responsibility extends to its employees: five years with the company and ten hours of community service qualifies employees to a two week sabbatical.

5 Years With The Company
How would you describe what you do at Nxtbook?

I go where I’m needed. I provide a certain amount of design and graphical expertise, and I’m also able to work with multiple departments to provide support with whatever project they need me to do. There’s times where demos go haywire, and then I’m all about that. There’s times when I’m needed in marketing, and then I go do that. Primarily, I do things related to graphics and design.

10 Hours Of Community Service
Where did go for your community service?

I did my community service at the Delaware National History Museum. They had me working with their collection of preserved birds in their bird department. The purpose of the work was to help maintain accuracy in their database for bird species. I think they have somewhere around 67,000 bird skins alone. They also have bird skeletons and full birds preserved.

2 Week Sabbatical
Where did you go for your sabbatical?

I went to Disney World with my family. If you’ve never been there, I recommend it. It’s one of the last havens for customer service. Like, we bought balloons for my two boys, and they were $10 a piece. But when we were leaving for the airport, they offered to deflate them and advised us how to re-inflate them for when we got home. Customer service is absolutely important to me. I think it’s the primary reason I choose to deal with certain companies, and it makes me very aware when I deal with people I want to go above and beyond because that’s what I would want."

 

Brent Hughes, Art Director

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