Thank You!

Thanks to all who attended our special Nxtbook 3.0 webinar today. Attendance was awesome, the questions rocked and you all sounded as excited as we are!

A few housekeeping tips:

1. The webinar and slides are going through the archive process now. When complete, we’ll send you the link if you registered.

2. We mentioned the web page where you can view the FAQ’s about 3.0 and download the new animation specs. Do that here.

3. Forgot to register/attend? Contact your Account Manager today to get the 3.0 details!

Our Need for Feedback has Reached Epic Proportions

It’s true. We can’t get enough of what you’re saying. Here’s just three ways to let us know how we’re doing:

1) How’s that revenue generation thing working out? Nxtbook Media is a proud sponsor of a study coming out later this year on digital magazine revenue generation. Our objective third party researcher wants to hear stories about you making money with your digital magazine. If that’s you, drop me a line at mgrimm[AT]nxtbookmedia.com

2) 3.WHAAAAT? If you didn’t hear, Nxtbook 3.0 launched this week. Feel free to join us for a special clients-only webinar to get a front row demonstration and to ask any questions you have during this exciting transition period!

3) No, seriously. How are we doing? Come on - you’ve got 3 minutes to tell us how we’re treating you. That’s all it takes. Please click here.

One Good Looking Digital Magazine

Be sure to check out the new digital magazine from Nurse.com, a great looking book that does a lot of things right:

Optimized text for easy reading
User-friendly tabs for easy navigation
Gobs of rich media for a dynamic experience

This one’s a winner. Don’t miss it!

It’s All About the Links, Baby…

So, LiNKED Magazine (the custom publication of Nxtbook Media) went live today.

Here’s what you’ll find:
A great story about how Family Tree is using podcasts.
How Parenting Magazine is using Twitter. (While it’s always sketchy to claim to be the "first" anything, online, this is the first we’ve seen a live Twitter feed put in a digital magazine.)
A Grand tale: Imagine going digital-only with your magazine if your target audience was grandparents?

BONUS LINK:
LiNKED Magazine has also been released to the UK. LiNKED - UK has a special feature about how the BBC is using digital magazines to take America by storm!

Everything You Wanted to Know About Digital Magazines

The next issue of FOLIO Magazine & Audience Development includes a special poly-bagged supplement on the 2009 State of Digital Magazines. The digital version of this don’t-miss supplement can be viewed here (in the NEW Nxtbook 3.0!). But if you’d like to see the LIVE version, register now for the upcoming FOLIO webinar on the same topic.

Last year’s writer Jane Zarem delivers an encore performance nearly as good as the original.

New Issue of LiNKED Magazine

The new issue of LiNKED Magazine (one of our custom magazines) is here. As always, the goal with LiNKED is to showcase media success stories. We want you to see how publishers are using digital magazines, rich media and social media to bolster their brand.

Despite our goal for the tales in LiNKED to always be positive, this time there is one unfortunate postscript. The dynamite article about the power of blogs features Sara Nelson, who was let go from Publishers Weekly recently. I’ve personally been a fan of Sara’s work for years. Layoffs are always difficult for those involved, though in this case I wonder if PW will suffer more without her than she will without them. She’s a top writing and editing talent and hope to see her work again very soon.

Nxtbook 3.0 Trailer Released…

Exciting changes are underway at Nxtbook Media. Soon, our 3.0 product will be released to a small number of publishers as the culmination of our beta phase. The 3.0 product is true to the digital magazine industry, further building affinity to a print-like product, but doing so in a way that embraces the realities of a web world. Sculpted by an award-winning interface design company with input from readers and publishers, Nxtbook 3.0 will go further to build digital magazine readership and revenue than any product in the industry to date.

In the coming weeks, you’ll learn more about 3.0 right here. But for now, be sure to check out the first trailer here.

 

Digital Magazine Webinar - JOIN US!

We’re excited to announce our latest webinar, and hope you can join us! Allan Brown from Graduate Prospects and Anne Drobish from NewBay Media will be on hand to discuss what they’ve learned from their digital magazine launches! This webinar is ideal for those considering adding a digital magazine leap and for those who’ve made the leap and hope to jump higher. You can sign up for the webinar by going here.

Case Study: Housing Giants decides to go digital only

Reed Business Information (RBI) is a business-to-business publishing company. RBI is quickly becoming an online media company with great print products. The company operates 75 brands in various vertical markets including construction, electronic, manufacturing, hospitality, entertainment, and retail spaces.

The company has been involved in digital editions for four years now. The company produces digital editions of 51 print magazines (48 are controlled circulation) using various technology platforms.

RBI constantly reviews new technology in the marketplace. To date the program has been a cost savings initiative. Last year the company deployed 2.8 million e-mail blasts and saved $1.5 million in print costs.

Housing Giants represents a new program for RBI and John Blanchard, Vice President of Manufacturing focused on the technology and manufacturing perspective about launching Housing Giants in a digital only format.

Housing Giants was a budgetary-challenged magazine. Due to the limitations, the publisher decided to make it a digital only product.

Housing Giants increased the frequency to 24 times and modified the editorial and created a list of 30,000 subscribers in a model based upon paid sponsorship and advertising.

The design of the new publication was intended to take advantage of the platform’s digital capabilities incorporating streaming video, flash animated advertising created internally and by ad agencies. Font types and sizes are modified for optimized reading on the Internet.

Additionally the company is using Nxtbook Media statistical tracking system to track the opens, page views, click through rate, and the length of time spent on each page.

• RBI received feedback from readers and digital vendors. The company learned how to optimize print legibility and make it so readers wouldn’t have to zoom to read the content.
• Search features and navigation tools and mouse over zoom on content made it better for advertisers.
• The table of contents helped with branding, direct links to digital edition conversions and Web site links.  
• Open rates, across the board, were better than e-newsletter products.

• Digital editions are a transitional product to guide readers from print to online editions.
• The editions save on postage increases.
• E-tear sheets help companies be more efficient in house.
• RBI used digital editions to reach international customers in Asia and Europe.

Note: This study was excerpted from the 2008 Gilbane Report. To view the archived Webinar, click here.

Case Study: Subiesport leveraged digital editions to find new subscribers

MediaSpigot Publishing focuses on niche titles that appeal to auto enthusiasts. Ryan Douthit, owner and publisher said the company is in all the major newsstands and has a large subscriber base.

The company’s products include Subiesport Magazine (Subaru), Mazdasport Magazine (All-Mazda), and Forever MX-5 Magazine (Miata-Specific) amongst others.

Subiesport launched a digital edition in December 2004. The title is small, but profitable, with 10,000 paid subscribers. The newsstand is a high sell-through with an average of 55 percent. Subiesport is the leading title in make-specific magazines. The average reader is net savvy. Customers and are between 25-45 make more than $70,000 annually.

Subiesport has been active in online promotions with YouTube and Subiesport.com. Subiesport has been leveraging the power of social networks including Myspace and Facebook to build a community around the title because it is free marketing for events and promotions.  The company has more than 4,000 friends on Myspace.

Subiesport also creates digital content products such as blogs, email newsletters and as of December 2004, the digital editions.

MediaSpigot Publishing wanted to successfully leverage the digital edition of Subiesport.

Subiesport approached the idea of a digital edition with the mindset of, “What are our subscribers going to get out of it?”

The magazine decided there should be no additional cost for their print subscribers.

Additionally, the decision was environmentally conscious. This decision meshes well with Subaru brand values because the company prides itself on being environmentally sound.

Subiesport thought the digital addition would be a strong product for international readers especially for the U.K. and Australia because there are large groups of Subaru enthusiasts.

The ability to preview the issue appealed to the magazine because potential subscribers were able to preview a subscription before decided to subscribe. It gave Subiesport the option of having a free trial subscription without being bogged down by postage delays. This, in turn, kept subscription costs reasonable.

The publisher anticipated the following benefits on their behalf:

The company could expand readership without generating more waste.

Subiesport wanted to increase customer satisfaction and retention because subscribers don’t want to wait for their publication.

Advertisers wanted a cost effective option to gain more exposure.

Since Subiesport prides itself on being “report junkies” the company wanted to find out which articles people are interested in and can tailor the editorial to suit the demographics.

After reviewing all of the pros and cons, they knew they needed to find a company that would fit their final requirements.

The company had to have a non-subscriber preview option with the ability to share issues electronically. It had to have a payment processing option.

The digital edition had to be available offline for Mac and PC users and Subiesport wanted to find a company that would fit well into their existing workflow where they could upload a PDF Press File and still maintain a $2,000 per issue budget.

• Advertisers loved it because they received additional exposure with no additional money.
• Advertisers considered “spiffing up” their digital ads. They wanted to know how they could better use that tool.
• The “ma and pa shops” wanted to learn how to increase their ad values to grab readers’ attention.
• Subscribers loved getting the digital addition as a supplement to the print edition.
• Existing subscribers gave away passes to forum friends.
• Subscribers enjoyed the rich “magazine like” experience.
• Postal delay complaints were reduced.
• Sold 25 straight digital editions without promotions.

• For digital only subscribers, Subiesport learned it need to make the transaction process to be smooth. There was no way for subscribers to look up their own status and it was hard to troubleshoot errors because we used a hosted solution.
• Few isolated log in issues were reported.
• A few cases of subscribers have received the digital edition and then expect the printed edition to arrive promptly thereafter. Subiesport learned it needed to educate customers about the process.
• Learned they were aiming for new subscribers, not conversions.
• Product needs its own unique promotion.
• Need to reassure customers they will receive a print edition also. It’s a constant education campaign.
• Looking forward, the company is thinking about adding digital editions to other magazine under the publishing umbrella.
• A new digital edition magazine is in the works.

• Subiesport was able to find a company that would fit well into their existing workflow where they could upload a PDF Press File and still maintain a $2,000 per issue budget while receiving an unexpected 25 requests for digital only versions of the magazine.
• Subiesport was able to appeal to advertisers because they received additional exposure at no additional cost while postal complaints were reduced because readers were able to receive their content promptly.
• The magazine was able to obtain information of what articles grabbed readers’ attention so they could better customize the publication and tailor it to suit the subscribers wishes.

Note: This study was excerpted from the 2008 Gilbane Report. Click here to view the Webinar.

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