Digital Magazine Publishing posts focus on the digital revolution that is taking place for magazines, and how to create the best digital magazine publishing experiences for your subscribers and members.
Using plug-ins to help increase data tracking
Envision this scenario: You recently turned evergreen content into digital products; some are purely text-based and a few are special editions that include brief videos related to the content.
In creating these products you decided to build about the marketing efforts so you work on building keyword clusters even
Mequoda Alumni, what are your most memorable parts of past Summits?
It’s hard to choose the most memorable moment from past Mequoda Summits; there are just too many options to pick from.
Like, for instance, at the Mequoda Summit East 2011, when we debuted the video of our Digital Native Survey. All attendees were present, and
Download your free copy of Digital Magazine Publishing Strategy Basics: Digital Magazine Publishing Tips and Expectations for the Digital Publishing Revolution now
The Adobe Digital Publishing Suite makes the world of digital magazine publishing a bit easier for publishers.
Adobe DPS seamlessly integrates with other popular Adobe products, like InDesign CS5.5.
Do you recognize the keys to a sustainable, integrated digital publishing plan?
As a publishing professional, what do you consider to be the greatest areas of concentration for your work? What are the pressing questions you’ve yet to answer?
Digital magazine publishers have to focus on three main parts of their operation: content development, content distribution
Many digital magazine apps are still underperforming due to some of the following reasons
With growth in the tablet industry, digital magazine publishing offers a significant opportunity. Unfortunately, the publishers and content marketers who have created inferior digital apps are currently missing this evolutionary opportunity.
Are you looking for ways to optimize your entire digital publishing business?
Legacy publishers new to the online environment may feel overwhelmed by the operating tasks at hand.
For instance, the design of your media website is crucial to consumer usability and product monetization. It also needs to be Google-friendly so more audience members can find
In less than three months, the Mequoda Summit West 2012 will take place in Lakewood, CO.
This spring’s two-day Summit incorporates Master Classes taught by the Mequoda Team, three keynote presentations and roundtable events.
Since this Summit is only open to Mequoda Alumni who are familiar with running digital content marketing systems, you have the chance
Digital magazine shopping would be much more fun, fast, and efficient with a few simple upgrades to the Apple Newsstand app
Like any good industry analyst, I love looking at numbers. More than that, I love extrapolating trends and directions from them. Here are a few recent observations and extrapolations:
Media Finder, the online version of the
If you already have an iPad or iPhone app in the market, what type of app is it, and how well is it performing?
If you’ve yet to get to market with an app, what type do you think will fit your audience the best? After looking at dozens of digital magazine apps, here are a
Digital publishing isn’t exactly new. However, prior to the inception of the iPad in 2010, it was a horribly basic concept.
Publishers who created digital magazines typically did so as PDF documents. And we all know how inventive that is. Consumers weren’t too intrigued by this action of providing content digitally because the PDF was
Five fun facts about the Apple iPad and digital magazines
When we launched Blue Dolphin Magazines in September 2000, our state-of-the-art online magazine superstore went live with about 300 titles. It took more than a year for us to reach 1,000 periodicals for sale, and we topped out at around 1,400 after 18 months.
As I make
One of the big questions I often hear about digital publishing is the associated price: should content be free or should it have a premium price tag?
The answer to this depends on many factors including the size of your audience, the traffic you can generate and the content you are providing.
Digital magazine publishing is about opportunities.
Publishers have the opportunity to use the medium of the Internet, new technological gadgets and partnering business to generate, market and sell digital products.
There is however, one very key piece to this multifaceted puzzle: your website.
Online publishers find success with digital magazine content
For some online publishers, 2011 can be considered as the year digital became “solidly profitable”.
These words came from David Carey, Hearst Magazines President, in a memo sent to employees. With over 400,000 digital editions sold each month, Heart has found digital to be a profitable medium for
Google Currents is an interesting addition to Google’s arsenal.
To start, Google Currents is an application for Android, iPads and iPhones that lets users explore digital magazine content on their mobile devices.
In 2012, the publishing industry will continue to shift manufacturing and distribution costs to the consumer, causing unit pricing to fall and publishers to introduce more premium editions
In a free market, economics is a predictable science. Over the next few years, consumers will snap up more than 300 million tablet computers. These network devices will
For online business owners, 2011 brought many new operational considerations.
As an industry, publishers cannot wait to see what the next “big thing” will be in 2012.
Instead of waiting for it, we need to continue moving upon the momentum from 2011 and the lessons learned during this time period.
Hundreds of millions of tablet devices are expected to be in the market within the next few years.
Those expected numbers will create a large consumer base; especially since tablet owners have already been using their devices to make purchases. A study from Zmags reported that 87% of tablet owners expected to use their devices for
Discover the media habits of digital natives uncovered by our Digital Native Survey
The Digital Native Survey was created to help publishers get a better understanding of the media consumption habits of digital natives. It’s important to adequately serve this demographic as they are very engaged with the digital landscape.
The Digital Native Survey took into
Interweave conducts a Tablet Ownership Survey, leading to a better understanding of their digital audience
Now that we’re clear on the explosive growth of tablets, it’s time for publishers to determine the tablet usage specific to their audience.
Interweave, a major art and craft media company, has done just that. The Tablet Ownership Survey, conducted in October
Unless your website portal, subscription websites, online stores, customer lists, digital books, periodicals and videos are state-of-the-art, you probably shouldn’t be doing the following three things in 2012.
Most publishers I know, including me, suffer from a mental illness called BSOS or Bright Shiny Object Syndrome. Someone who suffers from this malady exhibits behavior that resembles
The Niche Magazine Conference will take place in Nashville, TN this coming February. Don Nicholas, Mequoda Group’s CEO, attended a Niche Media conference earlier this year, was impressed and offered to be one of the event’s sponsors.
To prepare for the conference, I interviewed Carl Landau, the Niche Magazine Conference’s Host. The questions about niche and
Building a Consistent Presence for Your Audience
Consistency. It’s not the first word you think of when trying to list a company’s reasons for success in the specialized information industry. But I’ve come across it a couple times of late, and it has made me think more about how consistency plays before an audience—your audience.
On Saturday,
Our Digital Native Survey highlights the important information that affects the habits of publishers and online business owners.
Have you ever wondered if your media brand is set up to address the way Digital Natives interact with your brand? Digital Immigrants are facing issues of uncertainty as the Internet, and how Digital Natives use it,
As magazines quickly transform themselves from atoms to bits, their basic business strategies are likely to gain greater economic clarity
It is both a difficult and exciting time to be a magazine executive. The nascent tablet revolution has finally given magazine publishers a platform that will allow them to convert their products from atoms to bits.
The digital magazine footprint increases in surprising ways
When the tablet computer first hit the market, how long did you think it would take before it made significant waves?
Before answering this, realize that at the time of launch, publishers thought they were prepared for this channel but didn’t know how to exactly enter the world
Legacy publishers are required to train staff members as they shift from traditional print to digital publishing. Although some of their skills transfer, there were ones for Internet-based audience development efforts.
Now that digital publishing is shifting onto mobile devices, particularly tablet devices, it’s important to understand how these changes relate to your content and
Will Meg Whitman challenge Apple and Amazon with her HP Tablet?
The media has been severely critical of HP’s hiring of Meg Whitman. The conventional wisdom is that HP’s board has lost direction, and has no real clue where to take the technology giant. Like most technology mavens, I have a warm spot in my heart
The mobile device trend is gaining speed, for tablets and smartphones alike
What do mobile devices mean for your content? For some online publishers, it’s the chance to produce premium digital content that can be consumed through many platforms, to cater towards any method the consumer prefers. For others, it means more opportunities to reach users
To provide the content your audience expects, there has to be compatibility
How do you envision the perfect digital magazine experience?
To start, imagine how the perfect digital magazine readers would engage with their favorite content. Would they start with the latest issue on their tablet device? Perhaps carefully noting the detailed photography and video content
The Changes Brought on by ‘Digital First’
On Thursday afternoon, I received an email from The Washington Post with a link to a story about exciting new arts and concert venues in the city. This turned out to be the cover story for the next day’s Weekend section. For a few seconds, I felt like Rip
Bundle first, create new products later
While most of the publishers I work with were not in the video production business five years ago, virtually all of them are today. In some cases, the sales of video content now accounts for as much as 20 percent of their total revenue. In addition to sourcing third-party video,
While the magazine industry struggles to reinvent magazines, magazine consumers are snapping up digital magazine replica editions like hotcakes at a 24/7 IHOP
This reporter has it on good authority that magazine consumers are not as dumb as industry executives had predicted. While some publishers are introducing new video and interactive apps and editions, the digital
Zinio is a valuable tool for digital publishers because they’ve taken the reading experience to a new level.
According to the Zinio website, “Zinio provides the ability to shop for, search inside, read, share and save digital content in 23 local newsstands in any country in the world.”
The digital content Zinio has been helping publishers
One of the big questions I often hear about digital publishing is the associated price: should content be free or should it have a premium price tag?
The answer to this depends on many factors including the size of your audience, the traffic you can generate and the content you are providing.
More US adults have apps on their cell phones and more are willing to pay for these apps
Content consumption looks much different than it did five years ago. The mobile device markets are growing at an amazing rate and publishers can take advantage of this trend.
Last week I wrote an article on how mobile
Why product, price, and offer have never been more important
The rush to create and sell digital information products is leaving a lot of money on the table. While I believe every publisher should be partnering with Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Zinio to sell digital magazines, newsletters, and books, the opportunity is much larger.
The
Hope for publishers exists in the digital age
Many publishers throughout the magazine and book industries have seen a drop in sales throughout the past few years. However, new data shows that growth is expected to come within the next few years.
According to PwC Global Entertainment And Media Outlook, consumer spending on content was at $1.4
49 steps, including organic and paid marketing options, for running a successful online business
A proven approach to digital publishing being utilized by major brands incorporates the use of SEO, SMO and link building to drive website traffic.
These methods of organic online marketing help publishers reach their core audience members through direct and indirect activities.
Should your digital magazine be free, paid or something in between?
Peter Sprague is a disruptive guy. About five years ago, Peter decided the world needed a new guitar magazine. Peter didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. He is a seasoned media executive who understands both quality editorial and media economics. So when I saw
Online publishers are hoping that Newsstand will help the digital publishing environment evolve even more
Apple’s new operating system iOS 5 is going to be released later this month.
With iOS 5 comes Apple’s Newsstand, a feature that many online publishers are hoping will help them spread their content easier.
As major print book retailers dismantle, the growth of e-Reader popularity climbs
After 26 years, the entire chain of Borders bookstores began shutting down.
In addition to debt, the book retailer had issues keeping up with a changing industry.
5 magazine assets online publishers need to utilize for growing your online business
Magazine publishers have an advantage when they turn to the Internet.
Unlike most online self-starters, print magazine publishers who realize that the Internet is a key to surviving and thriving in the digital landscape can leverage magazine assets.
Bryan Welch, Publisher and Editorial Director at Ogden Publications, supplied the Mequoda Summit East 2011 with great information for online publishers
Bryan Welch’s keynote presentation Managing Digital Transformation at the Mequoda Summit East 2011 made me realize that there’s never been a better time for storytelling.
Online publishers have an array of digital mediums to share their
The Mequoda System Strategy Workshop details the complete picture for successful online publishing
We designed our Mequoda System Strategy Workshop so that different types of people can attend and gain value from the program.
Thus far, all my colleagues who have experienced the content have given rave reviews about the program.
The next opportunity publishers, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs
We introduced our 49-steps for starting and running an online business this past week at Fool University
Kim and I had the pleasure of spending a full day with the folks at Motley Fool last week to teach at their in-house learning program – Fool University.
This is the second time we’ve been asked to teach at
Mequoda System Strategy Workshop discusses why Google AdWords should be in your traffic mix
We don’t always talk about this directly, but it’s important to bring people to your website who are ready to buy.
For any publisher with a store, AdWords will almost always be a positive part of the mix for selling aligned products like
The Mequoda System Strategy Workshop has been updated to include 49 steps for launching and running a successful online business
I recently spoke to a friend and colleague about our upcoming Mequoda System Strategy Workshop at the Mequoda Summit East 2011.
While he likes the new 44 steps outlined in this session for starting and running an
New research shows how users regard their mobile device
You don’t have to know the exact numbers to know that mobile usage is huge.
According to a new study by Experian Simmons, 227 million Americans own a cell phone. This includes 91% of adults, 74% of teens and 22% of kids.
