But Wait, There’s More….

How much more? Check out our new video about our GoMobile plan to see how many devices Nxtbook supports.

 

Glenn Beck Draws the Crowd, You Reach the Audience

Glenn Beck’s rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Friday drew a crowd of tens of thousands of people. Protestors, supporters and gawkers alike came from all over to be a part of the action.

Wouldn’t it be great to have crowds like that become your readers?

Nxtbook Media client Destination DC had just that chance. And they didn’t have to spend a dime to get it.

Destination DC produces an Official Visitor’s Guide to the Washington, D.C. area. (Click here to see the most recent edition.) Having a digital edition meant when rally enthusiasts started planning their trip on internet platforms, they could promote and share the Visitor’s Guide with each other. For example, the guide’s link was posted on the Caldwell Tea Party’s website as a resource for the area (click here to see). Another reader posted the guide’s link to two freepublic chat sites (click here and here).

Going digital meant the Visitor’s Guide could not only be used immediately to respond to current events, but it could also reach an audience Destination DC didn’t even consider targeting. Best of all, Destination DC didn’t have to do a thing for this free advertising; their readers did all the work for them.

That’s a big plus one for the "going digital" category!

Straight from the Horse’s Mouth

 

 The following is an email CEO and owner Michael Biggerstaff sent to Nxtbook Media employees, sharing some good news:

 

We have received official notification, Nxtbook Media was named to the list of the Best Places to Work in PA 2010. So that makes the 3rd year in a row. Pennsylvania is a big state with thousands of companies. So we are very honored to be in the top 50. We won’t find out the actual ranking until the end of November.

To me the importance of this award is the recognition by everyone that Nxtbook is a special place to be and it is made special by each and every one of you. All of you working here make Nxtbook the wonderful company that is.

Congratulations to all of you!

Michael

Michael Biggerstaff | CEO | mbigg@nxtbookmedia.com


Nxtbook Media | 480 New Holland Ave., Suite 9000 |
Lancaster, PA 17602
1 717 735 9750 | fax: 717 735 9742 | www.nxtbookmedia.com  

The Man Behind the WIRED App

Here’s a very interesting profile on Scott Dadich, the man behind the design of the WIRED app. To be fair, it’s a bit over the top (one quote refers to him as "some sort of combination of Jesus and Pele," whatever that means), but it’s an interesting read.

For my money, my favorite quote wasn’t about Dadich, but about digital magazines, and was given by Mr. LongTail-FREE Chris Anderson, who said:

"You’re talking about finding a way to make digital magazines in parallel with printed magazines without going crazy… There are so many moving pieces with digital magazines. There are thousands of individual elements with portraits and landscapes and interactive elements and all that. You need to think like a spreadsheet to ensure that you get the product out the door." 

I honestly don’t know if you need an app with that.

For the past few years, we’ve been relatively anti-native app, feeling that the web app offers more benefits than the native app option. But, giving way to pressure, we’ve added the native app to the GoMobile plan.

Will it matter? I dunno. A recent commenter on our youtube video about our web app was aghast that we didn’t have a native app (we didn’t when the video was shot), yet this detailed reviewer of WIRED’s app doesn’t feel he needs an app. Who’s right? Quite frankly, I don’t know, but here’s the good news: We are one of the few digital publishers to give our customers both, with detailed metrics cooked into all versions. Within months, we’ll finally know which option is best for you.

Fastest Growing Companies Award

Nxtbook Media is proud to announce we’ve made the Central Penn Business Journal’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies list again this year!

According to the Central Penn Business Journal, "This prestigious event honors Central Pennsylvania’s most dynamic for-profit businesses and their contributions to the growth and success of our region." Read more about the award by clicking here.

The final ranking will be announced at an awards ceremony September 16.

To Stay in the Game, Move Forward

Sometimes, when tasked with doing something new, it’s easy to say, "That’s not how we’ve done things in the past." The trick is choosing to set that sentiment aside, to pursue the new and judge its worth. The reality of today’s technology completely changes the playing field; to stay in the game, you’ve got to keep moving forward.

For instance, if someone said, "I’d like to put an interactive game into my digital edition," it might be enticing to discard the idea because it seems impossible. But in fact, Nxtbook Media’s been able to put a game into digital editions since 2006. Click here to play!

(My high score is 500. You’ll have to email me to get my embarrassing lowest score: jcurtis@nxtbookmedia.com)

Adding a game might not fit your content and digital edition strategy. But it is proof publishers can do some creative thinking to enhance their digital editions.

Case in point, the editor of Connections magazine tied readers to one issue by using click-able surveys which showed live results. (Try it out here.) This technology encouraged an entire – albeit short – conversation between the content and the reader: the content provided information, the reader responded, and a return reply was given.

And did you notice the ad on page 10 with scrollable content?

Whether adding a game or an interactive survey, the point is to keep thinking about how you can make today’s technology work for you. Nxtbook Media offers digital solutions to make publishers’ editions far more than a digital copy of a printed issue. It’s time to do a little creative thinking and decide how you will use your digital edition to keep in the game.

 

The App Has Arrived

Nxtbook Media is proud to announce the approval and release of the Nxtbook newsstand app in the Apple iTunes store. Click here to download the app now! The app is free. Include this link in e-blasts and alert your readers to the new feature.

With the app, we are paving the way for our publishers to reach new readers in a dynamic reading environment. Nxtbook can now syndicate your content to both web-apps and native apps.

To celebrate the new addition, we have developed a ground-breaking plan which we’re calling "GoMobile!"

"GoMobile represents the most comprehensive platform offering available in the market today," says Nxtbook Media Owner Michael Biggerstaff. "It includes more devices, plus a branded native app for the iPhone, iPad and a Kindle version as well."

Customers who choose GoMobile receive the following:

1. Web-app versions for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android and BlackBerry
2. Nxtbook newsstand native app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
3. Branded native app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
4. Kindle version suitable for uploading in the Amazon store
5. Accessible version for the visually impaired

GoMobile! is the culmination of Nxtbook’s long-stated goal to deliver content to as many devices as possible. "We believe many digital publishing companies are making the mistake of choosing to hitch their wagon to one or two platforms," says Biggerstaff. "While this is easier, it ignores the fact that readers are fracturing into a myriad of devices. GoMobile! is our way of making sure you can reach readers on their terms with a minimum of effort."

So celebrate with us! Native apps are a great gadget for getting your digital content to Apple devices. With the new GoMobile! plan, publishers can be fully equipped to get their content to readers everywhere.

The Web is (Un)Dead: Just Another Vampire Story

Yesterday I read the shocking news that someone has killed the Web. What was more, people were debating whether users killed it, or if corporations and media moguls were to blame.

The crux of the argument, however, depended upon what is arguably a very misleading graph:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/

At first glance, it’s easy to see where Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff of Wired concluded that the Web is headed for the grave. Truly, it looks like the Web peaked in 2000 and has fallen downhill ever since.

The key is to note this is a share graph, not a traffic graph. What this image actually conveys is in proportion to the total traffic between 2000 and 2010, more internet users were found using peer-to-peer, video, and other platforms. It does not show the actual number of users to use any particular platform.

Because in reality, the total number of Internet users has increased drastically during this same ten year time frame. Rob Beschizza points out in his article on the topic, "According to Cisco, the same source Wired used for its projections, total internet traffic rose then from 1 exabyte to 7 exabytes between 2005 and 2010."

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/17/is-the-web-really-de.html

Cisco also projects that global Internet traffic will quadruple by 2014. Such stats denote a very un-dead Web.

So what is the graph really saying?

Proportionally, Internet users are changing how they approach the Web. Though traffic is increasing exponentially, visitors are using multiple platforms – Web browser, email, peer-to-peer, video and other – to get their information.

Publishers, your audience is fractured, and this trend isn’t about to change. To get content to readers, you need to have a plan to reach them across a broad spectrum of platforms. Including the Web.

I said I wasn’t going to write about this anymore.

After my last post complaining about nonsense surveys in regards to digital magazines, I vowed that would be my last word on the topic for a while. Unfortunately, as he often does, Seth Godin expressed my opinion better than I did. On his post, When Technology & Tradition Diverge, he writes:

When the secret ballot was introduced, it just wasn’t possible to count the votes in less than a few days. So a tradition was established, driven by the technology, not because it was the best way. Now, of course, the technology doesn’t need that tradition any longer, but it’s still here.

One by one, traditions that supported technology are falling as the technology changes.

Simply put, we no longer need surveys that ask people how they read. So why are we still doing them?

 

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