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.