What is Digital Magazine Publishing Software?

A quick list of digital magazine software to explore when you’re ready to start publishing

Digital magazine publishing software is used by publishers to design, produce and publish digital magazines. These three functions may or may not reside in the same tools. For example, you might design your digital magazine in InDesign, then use Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to finalize and distribute the magazine.

We’ve launched several digital magazines over the past few years using some of the tools below, and the rest were recommended by our readers. Mequoda has its own solution, too. We’ve already helped Gold Member Prime Publishing develop what we believe is the first-ever web magazine, delivering a full, page-by-page, rich-media experience in a web browser, making it accessible on any device.) For tablet-based digital magazines, we work with Mag+ to create dynamic digital editions.

If you’re thinking about launching a digital magazine, read this handbook and this consumer study first. Trust me, they will save you more time than you think when developing your first digital magazine or re-launching an older one. Next, take a gander at the most popular digital magazine publishing software and see which solution will work best for you.

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Digital Magazine Publishing Software

Good digital magazine publishing software will allow you to design and publish your digital magazine from the same software. It may also have a built-in content management system. The best ones will provide hands-on guidance and customer support. Many will work on base fees, while others will work on a revenue share. Below are some of our picks, but you can read our more in-depth descriptions here.

  • Mag+: A spin-out company derived from Bonnier Corp.’s very early Popular Science app, Mag+ is our go-to provider. We generally direct our niche clients their way.
  • Adobe Digital Publishing Suite: The Adobe Publishing Suite is one digital magazine publishing software option that offers a complete digital publishing solution.
  • Treesaver creates editions that are viewable not just on tablets, but also on desktops.
  • Baker is popular for creating digital magazine apps that go in the app store, but can also publish to newsstand.
  • Google Currents – Google wants you to publish in their store, so they’ve created a place to design your magazine, too. A fairly uncomplicated but not terribly sophisticated product. Also: free.
  • YUDU: This company offers digital magazine publishing software in a full range. You can start with simple PDF uploads and turn them into browser-based editions and apps.
  • GTxcel: Texterity and Godengo merged to create this digital magazine publishing software company which provides not just app publishing, but websites as well.
  • BlueToad: Similar to GTxcel’s offerings, BlueToad provides digital magazine publishing software for digital editions and mobile apps. BlueToad takes PDFs and turns them into viewable formats online.
  • PressPad: The pricing model on PressPad is tempting; it’s free to publish enhanced versions of your PDF magazine, and PressPad keeps the first $299 your app earns each month. They claim to have produced 3% of all the magazines in the newsstand.
  • Issuu: You can test the digital waters for free with this company. Issuu provides a digital reader to embed on your website that allows readers to access a simple version of your magazine.
  • XFlip: This digital magazine publishing software company lets you create simple flipbook versions of your magazine.

Digital Magazine Newsstands

  • Apple Newsstand – With a 70% remit rate, Apple has the most popular digital magazine newsstand, and not just for that reason but because iPads still dominate the tablet market.
  • Kindle Newsstand – Next up in consumer choice for reading digital magazines, the Kindle Newsstand offers a negotiable remit rate of 65%.
  • Google Play – Finally, Google play offers a 60% remit rate, the lowest of the three.

You may also consider Zinio and other newsstands, but these three are the top three on our list upon launch.

Do you have any tools or tips to add? Leave them in the comments.

 

Comments
    Wojciech S.

    Thanks for featuring PressPad among other digital publishing software platforms. Just to be clear I’d like to mention that we no longer offer cap pricing model. PressPad changed its pricing and publishers can go mobile staring from $99/month for iOS replica apps and $39/month for WordPress compatible iOS apps.

    Reply
    Pieter C.

    I also want to mention Twixl Publisher. It allows you to create interactive content based on Adobe InDesign or HTML by using HPub files. We have support for iOS and Android, tablets and phones as well as support for a web reader. We offer an easy migration path for people coming from Adobe DPS. On top of that, we have a very affordable pricing. More info on http://twixlmedia.com.

    Reply
    Jakob F.

    Good article, i wanted to mention FlipandShare as a digital editions provider as well: They have a 5 easy steps to create digital editions that includes interactivity and rich media such as e-commerce, mailto links, hyperlinks, audio, video and customized table of content. They offer an HTML 5 version and through their newsstand your also published on iTunes, Google Play, and Kindle Play Stores. They offer branded apps if needed and its only $1.00 a page to publish.

    I thought I would share because of the above list of providers.

    Reply

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