ABC to Track and Measure Digital Magazine Distribution, Readership

Digital magazine distribution and consumption will receive the Audit Bureau of Circulations treatment; plus, Google follows Apple’s lead and Time Inc.’s vision

Digital magazine distribution, readership, ad views, and more are all sliced and diced in some way, shape, or form, but the question these days is accuracy, veracity, and reliability. The future of digital advertising depends on this down the line, if it doesn’t already, and online magazines, bureaus, and agencies want to find answers.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations is the latest organization looking, and Economic Times Tech has an update on their progress. In addition, they’ve got a story on the race between Apple and Google to give publishers … wait for it … the best deal?! And, a some great excerpts from an interview with the one and only Joe Ripp.

Let’s get to it!

ABC’s Plan for Rating Digital Magazine Distribution and Readership

The Audit Bureau of Circulations is trying to perfect a way to measure digital magazine distribution and readership around the world, Economic Times Tech reports.

“The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), an independent body which audits the circulation of newspapers and magazines, will start measuring online audiences of digital media properties from the third quarter of calendar 2016,” Economic Times Tech reports.

“ABC’s digital measurement service will be powered by Nielsen. It will measure audiences consistently across PC and mobile, providing the media industry with key performance metrics such as reach, frequency and demographics. The service will offer optimised big data to understand demographics, ensuring granularity of data with insights complemented by weekly sectional reporting across different devices, which will help digital property owners, advertisers and agencies take informed decisions.”

Will Google AMP Go as Far as Apple Publisher Split?

Yesterday, we relayed news about Apple’s renewed commitment to a generous remit rate for publishers – 30%, with a potentially even better deal of 85%/15%. Now, word on the street is that Google is going to offer the same, with a twist.

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“‘Instead of keeping 70% of all revenue generated from subscriptions, publishers will be able to keep 85 % of revenue once a subscriber has been paying for a year,’ a report on technology website Re-Code said on Thursday. However, there’s one big difference between the announcements of both the companies. For Apple developers, the split will only be given after a consumer has been subscribing to a service for more than a year,” Economic Times Tech says.

“But unlike Apple, instead of requiring developers to rope in a subscriber for 12 months before offering the better split, Google will release the money right away. That being said, it is still unclear as to when Google plans to roll out this new pricing plan.”

Time Inc.’s Joe Ripp on Company’s Continued Aggressiveness

We’ll always read an interview with Joe Ripp, wherever it is. Agree with his style or not, he’s making some very interesting moves at Time Inc. – and a lot of them – that follow closely a strong multiplatform strategy.

“Print revenue is going down and that’s a major challenge. When Time Warner referred to us as a magazine company, it was a limiting description. We’re a content company. There has been no lack of interest in the content we create. It is just that people want it in a digital form through laptops, mobile and videos except for print. … Time magazine achieved revenue and profit growth in the past two years as millennials want our content in the way they prefer. We’re focusing heavily on videos and are asking editors to make a short video on the story behind the story,” Ripp told Economic Times Tech.

“The problem was that we didn’t make the transition to digital, mobile and tablets and were still pushing the magazine when the audience had moved on. By redirecting the organization and hiring the right people, we have been able to find growth. For a long time, the digital revolution threatened the very foundation of many media companies and rather than embracing it, they fought it, saying it won’t affect them. That’s not true. Newspapers have to realize that profitable revenue through classifieds will go away. Print will not go away, but it will be a smaller business. … The average attention span of a human being is less than that of a goldfish (goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds whereas humans have 8 seconds), hence you need engaging content.”

Interested in more about digital magazine distribution and readership? Download our free Digital Magazine Market Study & Handbook today!

To read more about digital magazine distribution and other industry news, visit Economic Times Tech.

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