MyEBook aims to democratise digital magazines

Another player in the "DIY Digimags" arena - MyEbook - has launched, aiming to make it possible for anyone to upload, or create from scratch; beautifully simple or adventurously complex page designs and covers online, in no time. 

The system allows you to embed or link to videos, audio, documents, images and flash files to make your books or magazines fully interactive, and they've cited a few examples for users to show what the product can do.

These include issue 2 of - MIX IT UP 

'USA Today' to Launch Digital (Paid) Edition

'USA Today' to Launch Digital (Paid) Edition

USA Today is counting on new digital reading devices and mobile applications more than an online paid content strategy.

USA Today Publisher David Hunke said the national newspaper is being "extraordinarily bullish" on the move to wireless devices and mobile apps. "You will hear us talk about hybrid solutions as the key to us moving forward," he said.

Hunke was speaking in New York today along with USA Today Editor John Hillkirk during a breakfast to introduce the newly appointed executives to press.

When asked about the possibility of USA Today charging for some online content -- specifically whether the newspaper was in talks with Attributor's Fair Syndication Consortium and Journalism Online -- Hunke indicated that paid content is probably not the path for USA Today.

"I'm not absolutely convinced it works for us," he said, adding that USA Today has had conversations with both the Fair Syndication Consortium and Journalism Online. "I do know this, we need to find a way to get paid for this. ... I don't believe there is an easy day coming where everything flips to micropayments or subscriptions."

Instead, the newspaper plans to focus on mobile applications like the app for iPhone -- "We were stunned by how quickly that spread," Hunke said -- and e-readers.

Hunke also announced the newspaper would roll out a paid e-edition on Aug. 3.

USA Today is actively involved with e-reader developers Plastic Logic. Hunke previously served as CEO of the Detroit Media Partnership and still has oversight of the agency, which plans to test a Plastic Logic e-reader in the market sometime in 2010. However, he asserted that USA Today is talking with all e-reader manufactures. "We will not be associated with one brand," he said, adding that he expects the market for e-readers to "explode."

One thing that Hunke won't bring over from his days in Detroit is a cut in USA Today's frequency. When asked about the prospect he said, "No. One difference is our readers are constantly moving," adding that Detroit is a unique market given its JOA status and the foundering local economy. "The fundamental principal of our circulation plan is we are going to be where you are."

Indeed, Hunke said there would be no changes to circulation strategy given the decline in travel and hotel stays. "We love that space," he said. "We are going to get into that more with an aggressive stance."

The Wall Street Journal has recently moved in on what traditionally has been USA Today's turf of hotel copies. The Journal recently announced a program with Hyatt Hotels. "The Wall Street Journal is very serious competition to us," added Hunke.

Monkey travels to Scandinavia

Interesting news. Dennis are licensing their digital magazines to Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

A sign of things to come...

The future of electronic reading

Computer says no

Almost inevitably, Time's new baby, Mine magazine, hits some teething problems. Good idea, but as Felix Dennis says, its all about the execution.

So this is the future of magazines ?

Much vaunted free magazine Sport, looks like its ceased publication, following the collapse of its parent company.

C'est la guerre.

Time experiments with "made to order" magazine

Not strictly "digital" but interesting nonetheless....

Time is experimenting with a "made to order" print magazine that readers control.

Here's Fast Company's take..

Australia & New Zealand Magazine goes digital

Now here's a subject close to my heart. Evolve Digital Publishing is my new baby and part of that family is the UK's number one migration and travel magazine, Australia & New Zealand.

I'm delighted to say that we are making it available in a digital format through Exact Editions, and the even better news is that you can check out an issue absolutely free.

Subscriptions are only £19.00 apiece. Enjoy!

Updated digital magazine reader

Paperator have just brought out the latest version of their digital magazine reader. It seems speedier and I like the fullscreen mode.

Let me know what you think.

Hearst to develop an emagazine reader

Wired reports that Hearst, the parent company of UK magazine giant NatMags, is planning to launch a digital reader similar to the Kindle.

Timely, as they have just announced they are laying off 10% of employees in the UK.

Digital News Weekly Magazine

From portfolio..

There's been a lot of talk lately about the decline and fall of newsweeklies, some of it fueled by the shift of U.S. News & World Report to biweekly, and then monthly, publication. But U.S. News hasn't given up on the idea of the weekly news digest. In fact, later today, in a soft launch, it will rolling out a new product: a "digital newsweekly" that reproduces, in pixels, what the magazine once did in ink and paper.

"We're creating a tailored product for readers that does what the old newsweeklies did, which was to stop time for people and say 'What the heck happened over the last week?' and make sense of it," says editor Brian Kelly. U.S. News Weekly, as the new publication is called ("It sounds ironic," acknowledges Kelly) will be produced and delivered as a downloadable PDF file, laid out in the form of a magazine, complete with a cover and table of contents. For years, publishers have been offering such digital editions of their magazines with the help of vendors such as Zinio, but U.S. News Weekly is a whole new, albeit related, publication, edited for a somewhat different audience than U.S. News & World Report.

Whereas the parent title has gravitated toward advertiser-friendly topics like health and education, the digital weekly will be "very Washington-centric," says Kelly, with a tighter focus on politics and policy. Since there's less ad support for that type of content, U.S. News Weekly will be a premium product: A one-year subscription will cost $19.95 (although subscribers to U.S. News & World Report will be able to download it for free). "This is what every editor's trying to figure out right now -- how can I pay my reporters to do reporting?" says Kelly. "You've got to figure out a way where, on some level, the consumer is going to pay for some type of content."

(Of The New York Times's much-maligned premium-content program, Times Select, Kelly says, "I always thought that was an experiment they never should have abandoned. If you can get 200,000 people to pay for a product, you're doing very well.") The upside for the readers, he notes, is that they're only paying for content -- and not for the expense of shipping and printing.

And because there's no need to budget time for those processes, U.S. News Weekly will have near-instantaneous turnaround: The magazine will close on Thursday night and be made available at noon on Friday. "I don't think the newsweekly concept's outdated," says Kelly. "I think it's the delivery method that's outdated. To produce a great report, close the magazine on Thursday night and then readers don't get it until Monday -- that's insane."

New digital tennis magazine

Using the Ceros engine, have a look at the new

ezine called Tennis Head from Advantage Publishing. Its run by ex Future MD Mike Frey and follows them losing the LTA's magazine "Ace" to Seven Squared.

8020 is no more

This is a shame. Not only a brave venture, I feel it was a neccessary experiment and at the very least, showed that a model with the web at the core really could thrive with reader involvement. As Samir says, its pretty much a candle in the wind, and a lot of other publishers should have the courage to follow suit...

Yet again, its all about the ads..

(More) 2009 predictions

This time on ebooks.

A digital magazine renaissance ?

As we head into the uncharted waters of 2009, Josh Gordon has a think piece on how to unlock value in digital magazines.


Unfortunately, you only have to read the last line - "I challenge the digital magazine industry to from an association and do the research. I’d love to help do it." to grasp that the whole piece is really about everyone forming a committee to convince advertisers and readers alike that they are serious.

With respect, Josh, the LAST thing we need is another committee. What we need is some blazingly successful products....

Zinio on the Inside track

Digital magazine distributor Zinio has announced the launch of Inside, a search function that enables publishers and users to search content within digital magazine products.

“If you or your company are covered in a magazine and you want to share it, who wants to send a link to a site when you can send the actual layout,” says Zinio,“No one else does this.”

The service—which is free to users and to publishers who currently have an account with Zinio—lets users send digital “replicas” of magazine pages over e-mail and post articles to Web sites and blogs and social networking sites like Facebook and Digg. In addition to the search functionality, Zinio Inside can also suggest additional editorial content and offer purchasing options for either a single issue or a 12-month subscription.

Zinio Inside will launch with more than 1,000 magazine titles in the company’s digital library, Zinio says.

You beauty

New Beauty Magazine is one of the most stylish around

- and now you can see a digital version in all its glory - for free !!

Go to www.newbeauty.com for more information.

NxtBook looks to reKindle sales

Nxtbook Media, a digital magazine vendor, recently announced that its customers will have the option to publish their content on Amazon’s Kindle. Nxtbook says it is the first digital magazine producer to offer Kindle support.

The Kindle has been both praised and criticized for its text-heavy, black-and-white display. Unlike the often flashy, oversized color presentation normally associated with digital magazines, Nxtbook intends to offer the magazines in text form.

Digital magazines can be accessed from the Kindle through the device's integrated browser. (The feature is listed on the Kindle's "Experimental" menu, something that Nxtbook hopes Amazon will eventually change.)

Nxtbook also says that Kindle support will be offered at no additional cost to customers of Nxtbook Media's Liberty program. A number of magazine publishers have already packaged their content for the Kindle. Last month, Newsweek released a collection of election coverage as an e-book series for the Kindle.

Dennis aren't Monkeying around...

Its official - digital magazines DO work.





Look at the ABC's posted by the Dennis portfolio - iGizmo, Monkey and iMotor.

• Monkey - recorded 283,541 average readers per issue, marking its fourth successive ABCe rise and its best result since launching in 2006.


• iGizmo - iGizmo attracted 101,785 average readers per issue.


• iMotor - registered a circulation of 108,622.

Dennis claims that advertising responsiveness has been very high with the digital titles, with a recent car manufacturer promotion in iMotor delivering over 200 test drives and 400 brochure requests from a single insertion.

Bruce Sandell, head of new product development at Dennis, said: "We now have over 1.4m readers [per month] opening, engaging with and enjoying our digital magazines.
"Our readers are also spending over half an hour immersed in each issue which makes the environment a very different proposition to websites, where the audience is far more likely to dip in and out.

"This audits prove that the digital magazine sector is a viable, growing and successful business model."

Daily print magazine goes web only

Big News ! The Christian Science Monitor is about to become the first national newspaper in the US to go web only.

Its ditching print after 100 years and had a circulation as high as 220,000 in the 1970s, but now sells around 52,000 copies each day, while the website attracts 1.5m visitors a month.

It is forecast to lose $18.9m in the year ending April 30. The switch to web-only publication is projected to help cut this loss to $10.5m by 2013.

It is a development that will be watched closely by other newspaper publishers already struggling to maintain circulation levels and now facing the added threat of a significant fall in advertising revenue in 2009.

However, because the Monitor is run as a non-profit business, and is subsidised, its experience is somewhat different to most newspapers.

The end of the Christian Science Monitor as a daily newspaper comes at a tough time for the US newpaper industry as hundreds lose their jobs across the country.
Yesterday, Tribune Co's Los Angeles Times announced it was to cut 10% of its editorial staff, laying-off 75 employees as part of a 200-person reduction that began last week.

The New York Times cut jobs earlier this year and USA Today's owner, Gannett, is also cutting more jobs having announced 120 were to go in August.
The Star-Ledger, the biggest newspaper in New Jersey, said last week it was to make about 40% of its newsroom staff redundant with around 150 jobs going.

Love is in the air for digital magazines

I had a heads up on this after having two of their team on my course last month - this is a really interesting development given the target demographic (which of course is older...)

Mills & Boon is making a major commitment to e-book publishing with the decision to make dozens of new titles available as digital downloads every month.
It is is making all titles available as e-books every month, with the exception of its special releases, centenary products and summer sale books.

Mills & Boon admits that one of the benefits is that fans can read the books in "total anonymity", allowing them to avoid the embarrassment factor. It also says that it will mean fans won't have to wait for the latest titles to be delivered, as they can be downloaded instantly.

One of the things I discovered was that the top search on their site is "knickers"

Fancy that..

BtoB digital pubs on the increase

The number of publishers claiming qualified electronic editions-i.e. digital copies-on their most recent BPA circulation statements increased 28 percent, according to the company. There were 286 in June, up from 224 in December.

Cimarron Buser, SVP, marketing and business development at Texterity, added that "the increased use of laptops in a paperless world" has also helped spur on the increase of digital.

Despite the increase, digital still accounts for a small percentage of the overall circulation mix. On average, electronic editions made up 13 percent of total circulation for all BPA members. In fact, of the top 20 magazines in terms of digital circulation tracked by BPA, just one-Renewable Energy Focus-claims a majority of its circulation digital-only.

Oracle claimed a digital distribution of 146,545-a 19 percent increase-during the first half of the year, topping all BPA titles in digital circulation. Electronic editions now comprise almost 30 percent of Oracle's total subscriber base.

The UK's first user generated magazine

I've evangelised about this a lot on the PPA Training courses I do, and I'm now putting the readers content where my mouth is.

Merricks Media is set to publish an edition of Greece Magazine comprised entirely of reader created content – the first time that this has ever been done in the UK.

The November issue will become "Your Greece Magazine" reflecting the unique issue content; which is entirely provided by the readers themselves. From tips on how to find the best tavernas in Crete to how to avoid paying too much for your taxi in Athens, every article has been crafted by the readers of Greece magazine.

The magazine is the only publication targeted at the hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who regularly travel to or have a second home in Greece, and is dedicated to delivering the best coverage on travel, food, culture and the Greek lifestyle.

The innovative approach has already driven a massive response, with hosts of pictures, articles and features piling onto editor Karen Birch’s desk.
"We are really excited about being the first magazine in the country to do this", says Karen. "Our readers have always been very passionate about every aspect of Greek life, and are always keen to write in and tell us what they think. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the special issue."

John Weir, Publishing Director at Merricks Media said "Its vital that magazines serve their communities as closely as possible, and extending the conversation we are having with our readers into a dedicated issue seems a natural progression. We know this will result in more sales of the magazine and a better relationship with our audience."

The November issue of Greece magazine goes on sale on the 30th October and is available at all WH Smith stores priced £3.95

Green magazine walks the digital walk

Looks like some people are getting it...

Publisher Planet Ink is launching a lifestyle magazine covering environmental issues, which will be published without a print edition.

Ecoforyou, which launches on October 21, will be available free to users in digital page-turn format. It will be funded through both sponsorship and advertising.

50 million digital magazines to be given away

Zinio are set to give away over 50 million digital magazines. Folio has the story...

Green may have gone mainstream, but digital magazines are far from reaching critical mass. A big reason for that is awareness.

Those that do read digital magazines, however, are increasingly citing environmental friendliness as a reason for subscribing to them. Which is why Zinio, the digital magazine vendor, has launched GoReadGreen.com, a Web site where more than 200 publishers—including Hachette, Wenner Media and Reader’s Digest—have agreed to offer some 50 million free digital magazine subscriptions to build digital awareness and, in turn, save the financial and environmental costs of publishing copies of magazines, the vast majority (70 percent by some industry estimates) of which die at the newsstand.

“We’ve seen thus growing undercurrent of consumers who see the benefits of sustainability,” Jeanniey Mullen, executive vice president, chief marketing officer at Zinio, said. “But the general consumer walking down the street doesn’t even know what a digital edition means—they think it means the Web."

The launch is part of Zinio’s Read Green Initiative, the company’s large-scale call-to-action to inspire consumers to embrace an environmentally sustainable alternative to traditional print.
“We wanted to do something on a large-scale that would take the barrier of cost away,” she said, “and allow consumers to sample digital editions, while publishers can provide the environmental benefits of digital and not incur the huge waste—and huge cost—of printing magazines.”

A portion of the proceeds, Zinio says, will go toward purchasing “eco unit credits” and “more trees.”

Digital magazines go mainstream

ITV.com are tying up with Menzies Digital to offer digital magazines on demand.

John Menzies Digital is pleased to announce its latest partnership with ITV Consumer, to provide the ITV Digital Newsagent. The partnership gives ITV.com users access to digital versions of top UK consumer magazines to download to their computers. Titles are available to buy via the www.itv.com/digitalnewsagent site.

Caroline Knight, Commercial Partnerships Manager, itv.com says: "With a large user base, many of whom are web savvy and interested in entertainment and lifestyle based content, itv.com is ideally placed to help John Menzies Digital reach a wider audience."

The launch will be supported with an excellent introductory offer enabling consumers to try the service for free: every user will be able to download a magazine of their choice from the site simply by registering on the site. The offer is available until the 30th September 2008 or the first 10,000 downloads, whichever is the earlier.

The service will be promoted to consumers through online ads to be shown across itv.com, and in their regular email communications. With over 100 magazines currently available and a raft of new publishers expected soon, there is a wealth of both lifestyle and specialist content to complement subject areas on itv.com.

Simon Clough, Managing Director of John Menzies Digital, says: "This is a particularly exciting partnership for us, because our service is all about providing high quality content digitally, something that ITV.com have proved themselves to be at the forefront of."

New digital magazine for Manchester

American company NXTBOOK has launched a free digital business magazine in Manchester, reports How Do.

Nxt Manchester is a 41 page digital title that has been sent to 100,000 business people in Manchester and surrounding areas.

The launch issue offers business stories, interviews and profiles.
Operations manager Amber Stephens said “the actual number of people who view the magazine will be a lot higher” than the 100,000 distribution list. “Using the NXTBOOK format we are able to gather extensive stats, so it will be interesting to monitor this in time for the next issue,” she added.

Amazon Kindle to launch in the UK

Lots of coverage in the media this week on the imminent launch (potentially) of the Amazon Kindle in the UK later this year. Its hugely popular on the other side of the pond - analysts put sales of the original Kindle as high as 380,000 as it becomes the Apple "iPod of the book world."

The Sunday Times was positively effusive in its coverage , saying that "Now another technology that has been around for 20 years may finally go mainstream — the e-book."

In addition to the Kindle, Sony's much heralded ebook reader is also set to launch through Waterstones, with a price point of £199.

Digital magazines come of age

Good post by Dylan Stableford at Folio on the viability of advertising models for digital magazines.

In the post he makes the point that "The future of digital magazines belongs to content publishers who use them to capture a unique content niche, crawl into it, define it, dominate it, and attract a unique audience to it. Once that audience is established, advertisers will follow. "

And to make the point he cites the example of digital magazine Avantoure - which he thinks may just cut the mustard commercially.

We shall see..

Whose content is it ?

With all the furore over mygazines this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that magazine publishers had missed the news for the last 5 years. Then again, if they’re reading their own news pages they are probably at least six months behind everyone else...

To recap for those that missed it ; the music industry has fought a protracted (and largely unsuccessful) battle against its own users in the form of P2P download sites, eventually having to settle for cut price legal downloads (like iTunes) or advertising –led models like the Sony BMG experiment.

The same copyright battle now looks likely to break out in magazine land, with several industry bodies (MPA,PPA etc) threatening to sic the legal hounds on anyone found sharing their members content without permission. I’ll remind my partner of this next time she takes home a free magazine from a show for her mother.

This sort of argument is becoming as ludicrous and ineffectual as the posted warnings at concert venues about “no photography allowed”. Er, camera phones anyone ? Face it – technology not only enables people to share content, it actively ENCOURAGES them to do it.

And lest the publishers cry “copyright” too loudly, think on this. Virtually every magazine now contains snippets from the web, photos from You Tube, comment from forums and reader submitted photos. To whom does that copyright belong precisely ?

Talking of the Press Gazette, this news should say it all. A magazine for print journalists now online only - this internet thing might really catch on.

Why Digital Magazines will succeed

A piece on the viability of digital magazines by publishing "visionary" Bob Sacks.

Unfrtunately, I think Bob skirts a couple of important points - like the split between consumer and BtoB publishing - but its interesting thinking nonetheless.

Resistance to digital magazines is futile.

Here's why.

I've been inundated lately with e-mail requests about the viability of digital magazine editions. The letter that put me over the top was from an old and dear acquaintance, who is a senior production director, that said, "Digital editions of magazines will never get traction with the magazine-reading public." This is a ridiculous attitude. And if it is yours, too, bury it now with other ridiculous ideas like the world is flat and man will never fly.

Perhaps Jeff Gomez, author of the book "Print Is Dead," put it best when he wrote: "To expect future generations to be satisfied with printed books is like expecting the BlackBerry users of today to start communicating by writing letters, stuffing envelopes and licking stamps."

Do we expect magazine readers to become any less sophisticated as time and technology roll by? Things change, platforms evolve, business models adjust, and people's habits change, too. History is loaded with once-successful personal methodologies that are now nothing but antiquated dust. This is not a discussion of whether or not print will survive.

That is moot. What is important is how people will read in the future. Gomez's comment is spot on. How people read today gives us the smallest inkling of how people will read in the future. I'd be curious to know the number of words read on a computer screen (including PDAs, cell phones, e-readers, etc.) versus those read in print. Digital editions will play a central role in the magazine business's future success. They are growing in popularity, and eventually will become ubiquitous. The only thing holding the format back presently is a perfect substrate.

Computer screens are good for the task, but not perfect in their portability, flexibility and readability in various lighting conditions. What the industry is waiting for is a substrate that can match the robust nature and inherent abilities in digital editions. The new technology is not far-off science fiction. The future is here now; it is just not widely distributed. Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader and several others are e-paper devices, and they are available now.

These devices will not go away; they will only get better and more advanced at what they do-distribute content. In 2011, there will be full-color versions of e-paper products released. By 2025, e-paper devices will be the predominant way in which people read. And they will most likely be reading some formulation of digital-edition technology. Perhaps we need to look at it this way: When will the digital page be more user-friendly than the printed page?

Is it so impossible to foresee a future of comfort and ease holding a full-color, flexible screen that has the ability to project any book or any magazine with greater richness and depth of coverage than its printed predecessor? Gomez hypothesized that, "It's not about the page versus the screen in a technological grudge match. It's about the screen doing a dozen things the page can't do." Digitized words should count for more. "What's going to be transformed isn't just the reading of one book, but the ability to read a passage from practically any book that exists, at any time that you want to, as well as the ability to click on hyperlinks, experience multimedia, and add notes and share passages with others," Gomez noted. The same logic holds true for magazines. This is not a Hamlet-type argument, "to read or not to read."

It is a question of what format/platform we will be most comfortable reading in the future. Nowhere in history do you find society willingly going backward. As Jerry Garcia is reported to have once said, "You are either on the bus or off the bus."

Digital magazines receive limited demand

John Menzies new magazine service, "Magazines On Demand" has issued a press release claiming 20,000 registrations and downloads in its first six weeks of operations.

Impressive ? Well that largely depends on your interpretation of success. 20,000 is roughly the circulation of a niche magazine, so this isn't quite critical mass yet.

Of the downloads, I'd suggest most are to get the free copy of Total Film, so I'd be very interested to see who (and how many) have actually paid for a copy.

I think therefore iMotor

Another addition to the digital magazine world as Dennis Publishing launches digital motoring magazine iMotor next month.

The "world-first" digital magazine, emailed to readers free each fortnight, will contain magazine and TV content, with test-drive videos, photographs, articles and reviews.

Dennis promises "TV-style entertainment, web-style topicality and magazine-style authority and depth" in the new format.

Launching on July 17, the digital magazine targets ABC1 men aged 30 and over.

iMotor will draw on content from the company's motoring titles evo, Auto Express and Octane.

"iMotor is our latest digital magazine offering, using the same pioneering page-turning technology and video platform as Monkey and the recently launched iGizmo," said Bruce Sandell, head of new product development at Dennis Publishing.

Should digital be free ? Texterity thinks so..

Texterity has been selling digital subscriptions separate from print subs.

But with only 1 percent of subscribers opting to pay extra for the digital version, Texterity has decided to offer the digital edition free to print subscribers.

“We’ve been trying for years to sell digital subscriptions instead of print,” said Martin Hensel, president of Texterity. “That really hasn’t worked.”

Hensel believes the new model will give publishers other ways to encourage trial, communicate with subscribers by email and lower publishers’ renewal costs. “Digital is a way to have low-cost sampling,” he said.

He expects that in a year’s time, 15 percent of subscribers will opt to add the digital edition.

Texterity also launched a new site, Coverleaf.com, where readers can browse through and buy its clients’ digital editions. Texterity’s roughly 70 consumer magazine clients include Meredith Corp.’s Better Homes and Gardens; and Condé Nast’s Bon Appétit.

NxtBook does it TxtBook

Nxtbook Media has launched a free (to Nxtbook Media customers) digital magazine newsstand designed to benefit publishers by driving subscription requests directly back to the publishers’ websites. The Nxtstand allows readers to search by magazine title or keyword and after viewing their results, users can either preview the most recent digital edition of the publication or click on the subscribe link which will transfer the user directly to the publishers’ website.Unique to Nxtbook is the fact that all revenue from subscriptions earned goes to the individual publisher and because all subscription data is collected by the publisher, Nxtbook will not collect, share or market to any users of the system.

Hell freezes over

Stevie Spring, CEO of Future, who last year memorably announced at the PPA that Monkey, Dennis Publishing's digital title was "bollocks" seems to have had a Damascean experience.

Announcing yesterday the launch of Qore - a digital magazine for PS3 owners in the US, Spring announced that " our strategy is to create powerful integrated media solutions for readers and advertisers across different platforms, in print and online."

Hmmm. More like they've just spotted that copy sales aren't as good on PS3 as they once were on PS2.

Menzies goes digital magazine mad

This is interesting.... most particularly because evidently laptops in Scotland don't have hard drives...

John Menzies Digital has launched a service to enable customers to buy and then download digital versions of the UK's top magazines.

The Magazines on Demand service has already signed up the likes of publisher Bauer to the service. It will also be white-labelled to established etailers, including WHSmiths, with which it has already done a deal.

The Magazines on Demand website works in conjunction with free-to-install software and enables users to download the latest issues of magazines at any time as well as viewing, storing and searching digital magazines bought from the site.

John Menzies, which sold its retail business to WHSmiths in the late 1990s in order to concentrate on its distribution business, claims the key feature of the system is the ability to save magazines to a USB stick.

The USB stick system will enable customers to read the magazines on any computer, even one without delivery software installed.

Simon Clough, managing director at John Menzies Digital, said, "We're delighted to be working in partnership with WHSmith to launch this new service. The concept of buying digital magazines is in itself very new, but bringing such a huge range of top titles together in one place for UK consumers is unprecedented

Digital magazines on the up

Digital magazines are getting high marks from people who receive them, according to a new survey by Mediamark Research and Intelligence for Texterity.

Overall, the 2008 Digital Magazine Reader Survey found that 89% of readers were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their digital magazines, with 90% reading the digital edition the same week that they receive it.

In terms of advertising, 90% of readers took some kind of action after seeing a product or service advertised in a digital magazine. Seventy-eight percent of digital business magazine readers said they rely on the magazines to do their job better. Recipients also gave high marks to the magazines for being environmentally friendly and convenient, including their text-based search capability.

No surprise--digital magazine readers are embracing digital technology, with 76% saying they prefer to contact a company via its Web site (versus the phone or mail).
The most popular ways to read the magazines are on a desktop (74%) or laptop (61%). A small but growing group (6%) reads digital magazines on the iPhone.

Talksport launches digital magazine

This is interesting. You'd think that with all that reach, radio stations could engage with their audience 24/7 already.

Apparently not.

The digital magazine newsstand (part 2)

The Barnes & Noble Web site, www.bn.com, is teaming up with Zinio to sell digital magazine subscriptions alongside the print formats. The deal covers over 1,000 magazine titles, offering discounts of up to 90% off the newsstand price. The companies are also offering single-copy digital sales of 12,000 back issues from hundreds of titles.

And actually, its the potential sales from hundreds of thousands of single copies at a low price, rather than a few subscriptions, that will have Barmes and Noble salivating. Late into the digital game, they've been looking at a way of getting into the "Long Tail" business and hey presto, its been delivered.

Not the last experiment in this field, I think.

Investment goes digital

I had a look at this earlier in the week (Thanks Ed for the heads up) and its very, very slick. River have done some great stuff with customer magazines for Honda already and I expect this will be a growing sector this year.

Fund management company Gartmore Investment Management is launching a new digital magazine, Investment Perspective, produced by River Publishing.
Gartmore is launching the title to keep its professional investors abreast of its new investment products, while providing current information about the financial markets.The digital magazine will be mailed to Gartmore's network of professional advisers on a monthly basis, which will be accompanied by a print version of the magazine.


The title will also feature video and audio segments from Gartmore's team of fund managers.

Bet those will be a gas.

A digital all you can eat buffet

My good friends over at PC World magazine have a good piece on a French magazine distributor who has introduced an all-you-can-read subscription offer.

For a monthly fee of around £15 readers can download the latest issues of around 400 French magazines, including top sellers such as Glamour and Playboy. There are also more obscure titles, including magazines for stamp collectors, bonsai growers and clockmakers.

There's no limit on how many different magazines subscribers can download, although they can only download two copies of any given issue.

Its a green play - pushed by the distributor Relay and (among others) the WWF - thats the Worldwide Fund for Nature, not the US wrestling lot.

You can make it up..

Digital magazine publisher Made Up Media has signed its first two contract publishing deals and has announced the first issue of Nutmeg, a monthly digital football magazine for Littlewoods Gaming.
The 32-page title will be sent electronically to Littlewoods’ 40,000 betting customers and will build on the content from Catflap Magazine, which we reviewed last year.

The one-year-old company has also signed a deal with razor manufacturer King of Shaves to produce a digital contract magazine called The Knowledge.

In addition to Catflap, the company also published In Golf We Trust, EatCricket and Scrum of The Earth.

Which is about rugby in case you wondered.

Driving the digital agenda

A good piece by Josh Gordon on Folio about the whole "digital magazines don't work" debate.

He points to the success of The Winding Road, an automotive site that has attracted 180,000 readers who view over 22 pages each.

Digital Drift

At last. Some naysayers...

Digital magazines don't work. That's according to the publishers of a UK surfing magazine, Drift. Ignoring the deliciously ironic title for a minute, let's have a look at the facts - and the product.

Drift is a surfing magazine, based in the South West of England, and despite targetting surfer types - young, internet savvy and above all eco friendly, it isn't cutting the digital mustard.

Ultimately,according to editor Howard Swanwick, is that "I think digital magazines have had their day. As a medium to put features in, they don't work." That evidently is why he's switching to print - more costly, less accurate, less measurable and er, less eco - friendly.

Gosh.

Now I need to flag up immediately that I used to work with Howard in my dark and distant past, but despite that I have no axe to grind. I just think he's got it wrong.

Its about the ads Howard, and you haven't got any, so switching it to print is going to make f*** all difference. Plus, I'm afraid that your site is (1) slow to load (2) confusing in terms of downloading the digital product and most importantly (3) the text on the magazine is in places unreadable.

Back to the drawing board I think...

Fader downloads on iTunes

Fader, the US based independent music magazine that made headlines a couple of years ago for being the first magazine to be offered as a digital download on Apple’s iTunes, has launched F2, a new digital-only quarterly.

The magazine, sponsored by Timberland, is available as a free download on iTunes and at thefader.com.

Magazines for Kindle - has the eBook arrived ?

An American publisher has launched a new weekly political magazine distributed exclusively on the Amazon Kindle eBook.

The magazine, dubbed Opinionated, will feature 25 opinion articles, 750-1,000 words each, in every issue, offering social and political commentary on domestic and international economics, affairs and pop culture.

Evidently, the magazine will contain no ads and will operate on a subscription revenue business model. Opinionated, published on Mondays, will cost $.49 an issue, or $1.49 for a monthly subscription.

The publisher, Tribune, says it is developing other magazines for Kindle as well on topics including personal finance, travel, food and popular culture.

Muslim Girl is a world winner

A magazine for Muslim teenage girls in the USA, with a small distribution in the UK, is soon to have a digital edition making it more easily available in the UK.

It currently has a UK distribution of 1,000.

The magazine is published by ExecuGo Media in Toronto and each edition of Muslim Girl has a different theme, and last year the magazine focused on Afghanistan, celebrating family and women in the arts.

Digital Magazines "engage readers" says survey

Publishers who repurpose their magazines for the web can increase user engagement with and affinity toward ads, according to stats from a new survey by The Harrison Group and Zinio.

The survey of 1500 Zinio subscribers in the US, has revealed some interesting findings.

Some 37% of people who have purchased at least one digital magazine said that they were more likely to read an ad in digital format than in print.

According to Rich Maggiotto, CEO of Zinio, the aesthetics are part of the reason that readers find the digitized ads more appealing.

"When you look at a full-page spread online, you don't have a gutter anymore," Maggiotto said. "There's a depth to the imagery because of the way the ad fits on the screen. And you get what was the original intent of the creative director without the disruption of a gutter."

But the interactivity also draws them in, as some 59% said they found digital magazine ads easier to engage with, and 84% said the digital ads were more beneficial because of the ability to click-through. "Pretty much 85-95% of the ads in the print edition have a URL, but readers have to remember it or write it down, then go online and type it in," he said. "With the digital version, they're one click away."

As for raising reader awareness about the digital magazines, the survey found that e-mails (from either Zinio or the publishers themselves) were most effective. Banner ads came in second, while search traffic came in third. About half of the respondents were ages 25-44 and skewed heavily male (80%). Some 63% were married, and about 40% earned at least $75,000 annually. In terms of technology, nearly 60% said that they were "first to try" new products.

Monkey shows last shall be first

Digital magazine Monkey has overtaken commercial print rivals Nuts and Zoo for circulation, according to the latest ABC's.

Figures for July to December 2007, gave the interactive, weekly page-turner an average 271,667 users for its most recent edition - ahead of Nuts Magazine (270,053), and Zoo’s 179,066.

Ford drives new magazine through Dennis

Ford, the major car manufacturer has appointed Dennis to create a title promoting its S-Max model, using the same format as the publisher's digital consumer men's magazine, Monkey. The two companies have been liaising on the project since last year.

Havas and Zinio team up to drive digital magazines

From Mediapost

IN A MOVE TO LEVERAGE the global distribution of the Internet, digital magazine publisher Zinio has team with a unit of Havas Media to extend the reach of consumer magazines into Europe and Latin America. The deal, which combines Zinio's digital magazine publishing platform with Acceso, a powerful media management system jointly owned by Havas Media and ISP, is expected to greatly expand the number of consumer magazine titles utilizing Zinio's system from about 850 currently to more than 2,000 over the next year, executives at the companies said.
The move comes as Zinio, already the magazine world's dominant digital publishing platform, has been seeking to step up its profile on Madison Avenue. Earlier this month, Zinio raided Jeanniey Mullen, a top digital media executive at WPP Group's OgilvyOne unit, to serve as chief marketing officer.
By tapping into Acceso Group, Zinio gains both expanded global reach, as well as access to a system utilized by some of the biggest consumer magazine advertisers. Acceso, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, is used by Havas Media to provide media content intelligence services and communications management solutions for leading multinational marketers such as Vodafone, Repsol, Nike, Coca-Cola, Telefonica, Nabisco, Volkswagen Group, Wrigley, Sol-Melia and BBVA.
"We believe that Zinio's superior technology and online marketing services for publishers will drastically increase the appeal and usage of digital publications," Alfonso Rodes, CEO of Havas Media, stated. "We want to be ahead of this process and be able to fully exploit for our clients the possibilities of this promising interactive channel,"

Dennis builds a new Gizmo

Dennis Publishing is following up its digital lads' magazine Monkey with the launch of consumer technology title Gizmo.

Gizmo, a free fortnightly digital magazine, launches on March 11 and, like Monkey, will be delivered to readers' inboxes.

The new digital offering will mix elements of magazines, websites and video to review and demonstrate products. Gizmo will target ABC1 men aged 25 to 45 and is up against print heavyweights Stuff and T3.

A new Spin on downloads

Spin magazine has struck deals with MySpace and iTunes to promote its first digital issue, making music and information available to members of MySpace Music.

The promotion also allows members to read Spin Digital for free for 12 months.

The January issue of Spin Digital was posted exclusively on MySpace about three weeks ago in a "soft launch"; the official launch comes with the February issue, including interviews with Pete Doherty and Lenny Kravitz.

The digital version hews close to the print magazine itself, unlike Spin.com, where the magazine's editorial staff posts breaking news and updates. Spin Digital includes links that take readers to musician profiles on MySpace as well as the iTunes Store, where they're able to buy songs mentioned in the magazine.

The digital edition also includes audio samples, video footage, and interactive ads that can, for example, take them to a company's official Web site.

Spin president Tom Hartle boasted: "We are already seeing a dramatic increase in readership from the soft launch--over a quarter of a million page views in the first week alone." He added: "Now instead of just reading about a new band or an album, readers can hear what they sound like, get involved with the community and purchase music, all with just a few clicks."

The magazine is also hoping that Web exposure will drive print subscriptions. According to Hartle, renewals and new subscriptions increased 50% in January 2008 compared to the same month last year.

Organic Growth

Organic Style magazine returned Wednesday, Feb. 6, as a digital magazine. The new issue includes an interview with Maria Rodale, publisher of the original Organic Style magazine, and in-depth features about organic cotton farming in India, wildlife conservation in Kenya, sustainable flower growing in Ecuador, a tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks. The pub will publish quarterly and subscriptions will initially be free.

The magazine itself is easy to read and fast to download; and in what may become an increasing trend, it allows users to share articles and features from the magazine on social sharing sites like Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon.

PDF Advertising is here

For the last three years I've wrestled with how to make money from advertising in digital publications - and of course traditional wisdom has it that print advertising can be modified by merely stripping in a URL.

That however doesn't work - advertisers are unconvinced, response isn't trackable, and readers don't see the benefit.

Kevin Kelly, the former editor of Wired, however, may have the answer. His latest book, a film tome entitled "True Films", is being offered as a free PDF download ; with a twist. Using an Adobe plug in called PDF Ads, he is able to offer contextual advertising from Yahoo on an opt in basis to readers. The ads can only be seen in Adobe Reader 8, and its far from clear how many of the readers who download the magazine will click thru, but it is undeniably a very, very interesting business model.

Gamerzines launch multi language magazine

Gamerzines, who offer free digital games magazines, have launched what they claim is a world first.
The first issue of Konami Fanzine, covering Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is available for free, immediate download in English, German, French and Italian.
The magazine is produced in PDF format, so readers simply require Adobe Reader 8 on Windows, as with the other GamerZines. As well as being multi-lingual, each page is enhanced with video, animated materials, interactive content and it also includes an interactive competition with the chance to win an Xbox 360 console. It introduces all the new features of Pro Evolution Soccer 8, showcases the games graphics and includes an interview with the face of PES 2008, Ronaldo himself.

What a Lovely magazine

Just stumbled across this little gem of a magazine - Lovely. Its a women's magazine, along the lines of VIV, and of course the whole site is done in Flash (making it tricky for search), but visually its stunning and even better - its FREE!!

It covers fashion and beauty and I think could be described as the Laura Ashley of magazines.

iPhone / iPod touch Digital Magazine Demo

This is Texterity's take on the whole "Magazines on iPhones" angle.

Nice usability features but doomed to failure in the UK thanks to our (current) availability of wifi

Zinio launches iPhone newsstand

Digital magazine specialist Zinio is offering iPhone and iTouch users their top selling titles to download for free. They have also launched a mobile newsstand, from which the users of Apple's gorgeous new products can get their magazines.

The Zinio reader will allow users to flip through pages as per the full PC version.

Kindle (no) surprise

And here it is... Amazon's new kindle portable ebook reader.

Utilizing a new high-resolution display technology called electronic paper, Kindle provides a crisp black-and-white screen that resembles the appearance and readability of printed paper. The screen works using ink, just like books and newspapers, but displays the ink particles electronically. It reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlighting, eliminating the glare associated with other electronic displays. As a result, Kindle can be read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room.The screen never gets hot so you can comfortably read as long as you like.

James Patterson, author of You've Been Warned, says, "The screen is fabulous. You would expect that, with a screen, there would be a glare, it would be hard to read but it's not. There’s no glare. It's not backlit, which is kind of magical. I think people are going to be very, very surprised and delighted. This is a lot easier to read than a lot of books are these days."

Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, added"I'm telling you, after five minutes I've ceased to think I'm looking at a screen. It's not like reading a computer screen. It's more like reading a piece of paper. I think it's actually clearer, easier on the eye than the printed word."

And the final word goes to sci-fi author Neil Gaiman, author of Stardust, "It's like paper and it’s very interesting. It’s very, very crisp. Very functional. Very readable."

I'm buying one next week so we'll see..

Amazon set to unveil EBook Reader

The Wall Street Journal says that Amazon is set to unveil its long awaited e book reader today in New York.

Industry speculation about the new Amazon device, reportedly named "Kindle," has occurred for the past year. Amazon has been preparing its digital book store for the launch of the new device by making inactive links to electronic books called "Kindle" editions available on the product pages of various books.

The Kindle device will connect users to Amazon's e-book store through a built-in Wi-Fi connection, and will likely retail for $399, according to reports.

It's not clear yet if/when this reader will be available in the UK.

Pay what you want, what you really really want

Inspired by the rock group Radiohead's idea of inviting fans to pay what they think they can - or indeed want to - for their latest realease, a US magazine has boldly followed suit.

Paste magazine, which covers the indie music scene, is offering readers the chance to "Price It Yourself" on their subscriptions.

“We were curious to know what our customers thought we were worth. And what better way to find out, than to let them tell us?” explained Paste President/Publisher Tim Regan-Porter. “While it’s certainly a bit unconventional, we also see it as a chance to get our product in the hands of people who could become lifelong fans. It’s been our experience that once people become familiar with Paste, they turn into loyal readers.”

To ensure this move doesn't result in a Hoover-type promotional disaster, Paste have set a minimum price of $1 a subscription and interestingly have incentivised readers to pay more than the standard price of $20 by homouring anyone who does in print.

There's no place for House & Garden

Sign of the times - Conde Nast has closed the 106 year old House and Garden magazine in the USA.

Here's the release -

House & Garden magazine will cease publication with its December issue, it was announced today by Charles H. Townsend, President & CEO of Condé Nast Publications. The website, houseandgarden.com, will also be shut down.
"House & Garden has a long and venerable history within Condé Nast," Mr. Townsend said. "This has been a difficult decision to come to but we feel it is one that must be made at this time. I would like to thank Dominique Browning and the entire staff for their award-winning efforts throughout the years. House and Garden's intelligent and graceful editorial attracted a loyal readership. We were proud to publish it.
"With the unexpected departure of the publisher of the magazine, we decided to take a serious look and re-evaluate the title," Mr. Townsend said. "Our investment in House & Garden throughout the years has been substantial and we no longer believe it is a viable business investment for the company."
Condé Nast will continue to be a leading publisher in the home and lifestyle category with magazines including Architectural Digest, Domino, and Vogue Living (which will increase its frequency in 2008).

Turning the ebook page (again)

Chris Morrison at Business 2.0 has the latest spin on the (hardly inexolerable) rise of the EBook..

Back in 2000, the handheld electronic book was thought to be as much a part of the future as MP3s, broadband video, and ad-supported websites. That year, Forrester Research predicted $251 million in sales of e-book content by 2005. It seemed a modest goal, but today the market is so small that Forrester doesn't even track it. Held back by a lack of available titles and stifling copy protection, the e-book reader gathered dust while other dotcom-era innovations flourished.
But one part of the stalled e-book industry could yet surprise us: electronic paper. At the forefront of the technology is E-Ink, a company spun off from MIT in 1997. E-Ink's thin film display functions as a screen and looks much more natural than its LCD counterparts. Instead of using standard pixels, e-paper contains millions of microcapsules that change color when an electric charge is sent through them - mimicking the look of real ink on real paper, without any backlight to hurt your eyes. The power required is negligible.
Right now e-paper is still married to bulky devices like the Sony Reader and the Motorola MotoFone, which use e-paper in their displays. But in the next three years, according to E-Ink, e-paper will become untethered. E-Ink customers like Samsung and LG Philips have already created 14-inch color displays nearly as thin as a piece of paper.
E-paper's success, says Lawrence Gasman, principal analyst at tech research firm NanoMarkets, "depends not so much on the technology as on designers coming up with cool stuff." In 2008, for example, U.K.-based Polymer Vision will launch the Readius, a mobile device with a flexible 5-inch e-paper display that unfurls like a scroll.
By 2010, look for stand-alone e-paper that plugs into your laptop to update its content. Eventually e-paper could display video and contain tiny Wi-Fi chips to update itself on the go. (E-Ink has demonstrated paper with limited Internet connectivity.)
If that makes you think of the moving, self-updating newspaper featured in the movie Minority Report, you're on the right track, says Kenneth Bronfin, president of interactive media for Hearst and chairman of E-Ink's board of directors. "The dollar you pay for your newspaper doesn't even pay the printing costs," he says. "If there was a device that newspapers could give consumers to eliminate the printing cost, the economics could really work." Sign up for a two-year subscription to an e-paper, he suggests, and you might get the device for free. E-Ink's profit in such a venture would be more than paper-thin.

Lets party like its, er 2009

Russell Wilcox, CEO of E Ink in the US, has made some predictions about when technology will mean we can view magazines in an "e paper" format.

Interviewed by BtoB Magazine, Wilcox noted that :

"Currently, you can see e-paper being used in trade paperbacks. It’s a small portion of the retail world, like the Internet was at first. There’s speculation that Amazon will come out with a device. By next year there will be more than 10 companies selling electronic book readers. All of these are monochrome and around six inches wide. Next year you’ll also see bigger sizes, like eight-inch and 10-inch screen sizes, and by 2009 you’ll see 11- and 12-inch screen sizes. As they get bigger and bigger, they get to be a more and more appropriate way for magazine publishers to publish. The order for us is books, newspapers, magazines. Once we get beautiful color and images, we’ll go into the magazine world. That’ll be a year or two."

Hopefully

Lost in translation?

Exact Editions, who produce The Spectator, Prospect Magazine and others here in the UK, are venturing into continental Europe with the launch of a French operation.

The first magazine to be "digitized" in France is Le Monde diplomatique, the monthly spin off from respected French daily Le Monde.

Exact say this will be the first of a number of new products on their french store so we'll keep you abreast of developments.

Let's party like its (still) 1999

Its like deja vu at the moment.

Microsoft's Table (now known as Surface) computers were demoed on the ITV News last night - roughly 4 years after they first emerged at Comdex in the US.

Now the latest ebooks article has hit the national newspapers, with the Telegraph's Daniel Lee submitting the by now obligatory think piece on "We could soon be able to read all our books electronically".

If only. Read the whole article here

Europe's first digital newsstand launches

Billed as "My Mag, My Way", Dublin-based mymagonline has launched what it claims to be Europe’s first digital newsagent, providing 24-hour access to leading magazine publications.

Interestingly, this has been produced in conjunction with the Irish PPA; would that our own association were so bold.

Typically, the CEO, Barry Baker, has made some bold claims for the service - promising that it will become the "iTunes for magazines" - which currently don't really stack up. Load time is slow, there are a number of spelling mistakes on the site, and when I used the shopping cart it had a few er "teething problems".

Nonetheless, this is an interesting experiment on which I'll make three immediate observations...

(i) They are using a simple PDF format, which although getting round the Zinio problem (of requiring a proprietary reader), does throw up all sorts of copyright issues, and let's face it, is simply a replication of the print magazine. And as we all know from our digital reading, print versions don't make the most of interactive formats.

(ii) The success of a product like this is reliant on volume of sales, on which the merchant can take a commission. The product base is currently 15 titles so they will need high demand to make this fly.

(iii) Zinio have made more money off digital sales of adult titles in recent months than anything else. How would a model like that work in what is still a very Catholic country ?

Anyway, fascinating stuff, as they are expanding into the UK later this year, so we'll keep an eye on how they are doing.

The CountryFile

The BBC's latest show spinoff, Countryfile Magazine, is launching. Helmed by my erstwhile colleague Mr Cavan Scott, its very much a magazine for the new generation, despite its conservative country roots.

It has a podcast and an 8 page digital sampler, which you can find here.

Best of luck Cav !!

Punk? Meet Posh

A new ezine targetting Londoners has launched, entitled Punk Meets Posh.



Its an art magazine first and foremost, with an accent on photography. By the looks of things, its still in early stages of development, as the page turning (from the foot of the page) is hidden on certain browsers, and the text needs to open in a new window.

Again, its aiming for a high circulation figure - 200,000 copies, so it'll be interesting to see how it approaches garnering a readership just 40,000 less than Monkey.

New digital magazine for footie

A company in Manchester is launching a new free digital magazine targeted at football fans next month.Entitled "Catflap", it will debut on 11 September, with David Beckham as its firstcover star, and will carry the tagline: "It's not about cats, it's about football".

Er......

Even odder is the opinion of its publisher that it should achieve 100,000 downloads in just four months, which I think is a tad optimistic.My advice ? Try some SEO boys, as you can't find any reference to it on Google

Jellyfish all washed up

In a surprising move, NatMags has axed its teen girl digital magazine experiment called Jellyfish. The project, which lasted just 20 weeks ( the average life expectancy of a Box Jellyfish ironically) was, according to Duncan Edwards "...extremely valuable but we could not see a sustainable business model emerging. We have learnt a great deal about digital and email marketing, which will prove to be useful for our core business."

Which of course means that they couldn't get any ad support. The decision to close the title will likely surprise many, who have touted the online teen market as one of the major growth areas of digital media. However, the company had decided to refocus Jellyfish at an older age group of 18-to 25-year-olds and said it was still in a test period that was slated to run until September.

Lets go Outside...

Outside magazine has launched its digital edition using the Zinio publishing and distribution platform. Outside's Go, a travel and style magazine aimed exclusively at active, affluent men, will launch using Zinio in September.

IWeek for IPhone

IndustryWeek has partnered with digital publisher Texterity Inc. to launch a beta version of the first digital magazine interface and portal designed for the Apple iPhone.

As part of the demonstration, publishers have made free digital editions available to any iPhone user. Publishers are joining the beta test for the opportunity to reach a new audience and offer cross-platform convenience.
"Cross-platform, digital magazine delivery and mobile access are key elements of our audience marketing strategies for all of our more than 110 leading trade magazines," said Blair Johnson, Vice President, Business Development, Penton Media. "We're extremely pleased that IndustryWeek will be among the first publications available to users of Apple's advanced iPhone platform, through this release of Texterity's new reader."

Have a look at www.texterity.com/iphone

River and GNC make men more Healthy

River Publishing, the customer publishing firm have launched a digital version of their Healthy for Men magazine, which is produced on behalf of GNC and Holland and Barrett.



The magazine is bi monthly and has a huge print run - over 200,000 an issue, so its obviously an advantage to GNC in print savings alone.

Like their Honda project, they are using an in house digital solution and are marketing it off in house databases and viral marketing.

Well worth a look.

Japanese teenagers need to mind their digital manners

A new plague of "digital shoplifting" is evidently sweeping Japan.

Many young girls are taking camera phone picture of a new hairstyle or a new dress they might spot while browsing a magazine in a shop. They then send the picture to all their friends and comment on it. The publishers of those magazines feel they are being cheated out of valuable sales and have issued posters which warn shoppers to be careful of their "magazine manners".

Digital fashion magazine from EMAP

According to today's Brand Republic, troubled media company EMAP is to launch a fashion product in the hopes of boosting its ailing consumer division.

Emap is remaining tight-lipped about the nature of the project, but according to Media Week it will involve consumer and business-to-business aspects and build on its existing fashion portfolio, which includes weekly women's title Grazia; WGSN, the online research, trend analysis and news service for the fashion and online industries; and Drapers, the fashion trade title.

For The People

There's a great article on Time's digital magazine plans on Advertising Age.

In particular, it looks at the attempts by Time Inc, to switch readers of its flagship People Magazine onto a digital format. They are producing a unique issue called "Best Summer Ever".

Interestingly, there is overt blue chip advertiser support - Unilever, which has nine ad pages in "Best Summer Ever" and is its exclusive sponsor, got involved for the experience. "Is it a risk?" asked Irene Grieco, the Unilever senior U.S. lead print manager. "It might be. But we've always challenged our partners to come to us with new and innovative and unique opportunities."

Digital Magazines go Hollywood!

The Hollywood Reporter this week introduced The Hollywood Reporter, Digital Edition, an electronic replica of its daily publication.

In addition to English the e-magazine is available in 12 languages, including French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. “The global entertainment economy is a $54 billion market with a significant portion of that coming from outside the U.S. and with a need for news, data and analysis,” said Eric Mika, senior VP-publishing director at The Hollywood Reporter, in a news release.

Interestingly, the Reporter has used digital subscriptions to raise the base price of its print offering, thus gaining subscribers and margin at the same time.

NatMags floats Jellyfish

NatMags have now uploaded the first issue of Jellyfish Magazine, a digital ezine aimed at teen girls. Naturally enough, its is heavily "celeb" orientated (if Danielle Lloyd can legitimately be termed a celebrity that is) with a healthy dose of music - including download samples - fashion, TV, gossip and of course boys.

Like Monkey, its is based on the Ceros system, with lots of video, audio content and web links. Among the things I liked were the "click to rotate" feature on the shopping pages, and the fact that it links directly to a number of social media sites like Bebo and MySpace. Additionally, the magazine has marketed itself by producing behind the scenes videos for YouTube.

Only problem is the advertising - on which this publication will stand or fall. Only Garnier have supported the launch issue, and for the magazine to gain any traction, they will need more support from big name brands.

Texterity survey shows decline in print

About 44% of digital readers have decreased their use of print in the last year, according to a survey by Texterity, which produces digital publications. The BPA Worldwide-certified digital magazine reader survey was distributed online and generated about 12,000 responses. The survey found that 89% of respondents read the digital edition the same week they receive it while 42% read it immediately. It also found that 44% of digital readers have decreased their use of print in the last year.

Why digital magazines are bollocks

Now I’m never one to pick an argument…

Particularly not with someone who normally talks a good deal of sense; in this case Peter Kirwan and the excellent Fullrunner.

In the latest edition, Pete leaps to the defence of one of Future’s chief executives, Stevie Spring. At a recent magazine conference Ms Spring attacked Dennis Publishing for “talking bollocks” about digital magazines – and in particular Monkey.

Of course, this would have nothing to do with the paucity of Future’s own digital offerings – so far behind the curve they make Tom Moloney look like Bill Gates – or the fact that Sony chose Dennis ahead of Future to mail a million Playstation 3 promotional “digimags” to their database.

No, evidently she’s piqued at Felix Dennis and his ability to make a magazine “out of not very much”.

I’m intrigued. What would Ms Spring provide advertisers and readers instead?

The path to surfing goes green

The Surfer’s Path, the first truly ‘green’ surfing magazine, today launched a digital web edition of its magazine using the Exact Editions platform for delivery. This is the first time the full contents and some of the back issues have been made available online.

The current issue and archive are obtainable for subscribers to browse and search online.They are replicas of the print edition. A trial issue of the magazine in the Exact Editions service is available for testing and free reading from the site at http://www.exacteditions.com.