"We've used Mequoda's strategies and techniques to sell thousands of books, videos, and subscriptions."
- Charlie Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society
Digital magazine publishers stay competitive and relevant to their audiences by presenting the best experiences possible. We watch constantly as experiments are made in the digital publishing industry to reach and connect with audiences. Today we’re reporting on the latest attempts at providing better user experiences.
Subscription website growth in the digital publishing industry continues as major publishers see increased results and added attention to their cause of increasing subscriber numbers.
The multiplatform and digital publishing industry experiences a lot of professionals on the move due to the high level of change that exists consistently within it.
It’s not surprising to see some changes taking place for the digital publishers at Hearst, as it makes Rodale part of its own. However, that’s not the only news of new hires coming from the digital publishing industry. Todays news touches on some key hires at major publications.
Change is the only constant the digital publishing industry knows. Beyond the evolution of content online, we’re seeing a variety of changes coming to the digital advertising side of digital publishing. Today we’re looking at some digital media companies that are entering new territories.
Today we begin with Dwell and its recent executive change. Folio: reports, “Michela O’Connor Abrams — who spent the past 15 years as CEO of home design magazine-turned-technology platform Dwell — has left the company, Folio: has learned. Re-taking the reins is Lara Deam, who has served as chair of Dwell Media’s board since founding the magazine in 2000.”
Ad block software continues to confound the digital publishing industry, but progress is being made as we see the results of various tactics to block ad blockers. Native ads, direct appeals, and other attempts to mitigate ad blocking programs are finding some success, but there’s no question that the issue will be sticking around for a long while.
Digital magazines are decoding new web publishing platforms, but does it all just come down to content distribution strategy?
Well, the answer to that question is yes, but the execution is open to interpretation. When it comes to web publishing platforms, sometimes it can seem like your options are wide open. That’s because they are.
Observers of
Since 2014, the MPA has been tracking magazine consumption with its Magazine Media 360° report, and we’ve been tracking those tracks. (After all, we issue our own annual study on magazine readership, the most recent edition of which came out last month.)
Now, those stats and many more have been collected in the MPA’s 2016/17 Magazine Media Factbook – recently released and available for download at Magazine.org – the digital publishing industry’s (as well as print’s) definitive compilation of magazine media research and statistics.
Checking out the latest publishing analytics news from all data points
Publishing analytics have assumed a prominent role here at Mequoda, where we’re focusing more and more resources on staff, development, and technology.
We’re not alone. The digital publishing industry is clamoring around publishing analytics, because they provide insights into one of, if not the, most important
What we know: Ad blocking is on the rise. What we don’t know: whether the effort to block ad blockers will prove effective. What’s starting to become apparent: The ad blocking impact will be significant.
For online publishers who don’t rely solely on digital advertising for revenue, this is not crushing news. Hopefully, you’re one of them, because you have a multiplatform strategy in place. For online publishers who do, rely solely on digital advertising, read on for MediaPost’s coverage. And don’t panic!
The latest news on magazine publishing online from Hearst, News Republic, and more
We read trade sites about magazine publishing online for fun. We also read them to stay sharp. And to share what we find out with you.
When it comes to Digital Content Next, formerly known as the Online Publishers Association, that’s quite a lot
Becoming an ecommerce publisher continues to attract publishing executives looking for alternate revenue streams rooted in their content and niche audiences. Selling products isn’t selling out; developing an ecommerce content strategy is an extension of multiplatform publishing.
Digital publishers already sell white papers and tickets to events; a food magazine selling recipe books or a fashion site selling shoes is the natural next step in internet revenue models for magazines, if you can pull off the infrastructure. Seeing how others are achieving just that is a good place to start.
Native advertising trends will shape the digital publishing industry in 2016. For one, they represent a more elegant and modernized option for online magazines looking to generate revenue the old-fashioned way — that is, via marketing dollars — while flying relatively under the radar of those big, bad ad blocking defense systems.
Branded content has been gaining steam for a while, even if it just has a fancier name for advertorial. We’ve been watching closely, and so, too, has the Federal Trade Commission, of course. Now, finally, we have official guidelines from the FTC, just as the demand for native ad campaigns is reaching unprecedented levels.
AdAge covers that development and much more in several recent articles about native advertising trends.
Regional magazines can cover several states or be hyperlocal, but regardless of their geographical reach, they operate with a hardwired niche strategy no matter what the topic, based purely on the readers who live in the area.
We like this model. We have many Mequoda Members who are very successful with it. And we love when the model layers in another niche on top of it, which is the case with Crain’s, with its business focus, and Modern Luxury, with its high-end lifestyle appeal. Both are doing well; both are branching out to other cities.
The phrase mobile video trends combines two challenges for publishers into one mega-challenge: conquering cross-device advertising and mastering multimedia with strong production and distribution platforms. More and more, the two go hand in hand: If digital magazines are going to succeed on tablets, smartphones, and phablets, the thinking goes, they’re going to need more than just strong content and good design. They’re going to need mobile savvy and video chops.
Five years after Apple introduced the iPad and the magazine industry latched on for dear life, digital magazine consumption has reached 43% of print magazine consumption and is climbing rapidly.
July 21, 2015 – BOSTON — Five years after Apple introduced the iPad and the magazine industry latched on for dear life, digital magazine consumption has reached 43% of print magazine consumption and is climbing rapidly.
Is the digital publishing industry unstoppable? These facts and figures argue a resounding yes, especially when it comes to audience development.
The early days of 2015 have seen a streak of staff changes at top publishing companies, from big-time executive positions to digital and event slots getting filled almost daily.
Are you familiar with audience extension and how it’s used in the digital publishing industry? In case you aren’t, here’s a quick refresher on the topic and some statistics to go with it.
Programmatic advertising is growing in the digital marketing world, and that world coincides closely with the digital publishing industry. Do you know what programmatic advertising is or how it can impact your business?
Anyone who doubts that the iPad is the most important media-related technological innovation in all of human history should re-read those dates. And the exciting thing for those of us who live and breathe magazines is that we get to live through it!
Discover your best digital publishing assets
As the digital publishing industry grows at an alarming rate, there are a few main keys to focus on.
Beyond providing content on different e-reading devices, making digital products your audience will desire, and discovering your audience’s actual opinion of your digital publishing efforts, you will need to conduct digital publishing audits.
The digital magazine publishing industry needs great content to grow
Publishers understand the need for high-quality content. That need may have never been as important as it is now though.
With the digital publishing industry emerging, the actions of the pioneering publications – including digital book and digital magazine publishing – are under strict scrutiny from consumers and analysts alike.
While digital magazines are still just a tiny piece of the revenue pie for most publishers, there is some growth to report on the number of readers buying digital editions. There is also an increasing number of media companies committing to a digital-first mentality.
Digital magazine publishing help comes from new devices and more publications
We can see the evolution of digital publishing when new products form and significant players enter the marketplace. It brings a new life to the environment around us, and almost provides a sense of security as we realize others are committing to making digital work for their audiences.
3 stories about digital publishing that are bound to get publishers’ attention
Every week we write about the digital publishing industry for a few main reasons.
First, it is our mission to help print publishers transition into the digital age. As an unfamiliar ground to many, we share strategies for utilizing their legacy content to build new audiences and develop their place as a reputable authority on the subjects they cover.
There is often news to share relating to the digital publishing environment
From new online strategies to digital magazine subscription statistics, the amount of information that comes forward for online publishers can help streamline their efforts and lead to increased success online. And amidst new Forrester predictions that 760 million tablet devices will be installed by 2016, the opportunities for digital publishing success exist.
Three changes the digital publishing industry must recognize
We’ve seen a lot of changes from being in the online business and digital publishing markets since the early 2000s. When we first began teaching publishers about developing audience’s online, social networks like Facebook and Twitter weren’t around. At that time, blogs were the main source of social activity.
Computing devices were also quite different then. Laptop and desktop computers were the options. Today, there are additional mobile devices; tablets and smart phones are expected to surpass desktop computing in usage.
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A look at digital publishing changes and a glimpse into the future
This summer alone has seen some major changes that can affect the digital publishing industry. Although some of these changes won’t directly impact digital publishers, these changes may certainly change the way they operate by putting a focus on the Internet community. Let’s take a look at some of these changes.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
You may be thinking that your brand is already activated. After all, it exists, right? However, with all the changes in the digital publishing industry, there is a greater activation that is taking place.
Digital publishers are getting active on tablet devices, displaying their digital magazine content through rich-media and including visual, aural, and interactive components.
Catch up on the Mequoda Daily’s blog posts for this past week
There is digital publishing information we’ve come across that’s made digital publishers hopeful
Millions of tablet devices are expected to ship in the coming years. The ownership of digital reading devices has reached 29% for Americans.
More than one in four US consumers own a digital reading device. The time is perfect for digital publishers to enhance their print magazine content by making the digital transformation. After doing so, they have the opportunity to provide a better content experience through the help of rich digital media.
A brief glance at the evolution of digital magazine publishing
What’s there to say about the digital publishing industry? It’s been booming as of late, when prior, it had been lifeless.
Although digital publishing has been around since the 1990s, it had never reached any desirable level of success. Digital publishers were historically offering some amount of content for download in the form of PDFs…but there wasn’t anything very interesting about them. And there wasn’t a good method for consuming this content. Whereas print magazines were portable and collectable, digital editions had to be printed or accessed on laptops to be portable. The return didn’t justify the investment in time and effort for most consumers.
3 best practices for increasing website traffic
January 2012 has been a record setting month for Mequoda Daily.
As a small B2B company, it can be hard to reach specific milestones since most are resourced at a smaller level. However, this past month has yielded more significant results than usual, and it is due to some slight changes that many can implement easily.
Download your free copy of Digital Magazine Publishing Strategy Basics: Digital Magazine Publishing Tips and Expectations for the Digital Publishing Revolution now
The Mequoda Summit West 2011 kicks off Tuesday, April 5th – Will you be there?
Register now for the Mequoda Summit West 2011 or miss out on a multi-day conference on growing your content-driven online business
Now is the time to commit to learning revolutionary information on the digital publishing industry, or get left behind.
I’m not saying you cannot learn such information on your own, but it’ll likely be painstakingly difficult to discover all of the trends, strategies, tips and case studies that will be available at the Mequoda Summit West 2011 on your own.
Mequoda Summit, and Its Attendees, Prepare to Shine
"We've used Mequoda's strategies and techniques to sell thousands of books, videos, and subscriptions."
- Charlie Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society
"We have used the Mequoda Method to deliver a real-time online magazine that features individual issues and our amazing archive of premium content."
- Paul Belliveau, Vice President New Media and Production, Yankee Publishing
“We’ve used these techniques to boost sales of our higher-priced products, and dramatically increase our multiplatform subscription revenues.”
- Susan Laden, Publisher, Biblical Archaeology Society
"Adoption of the Mequoda Method has produced three benefits for us. First, we are seeing sustained growth in subscription revenue. Second, we monetized a content archive with two decades of news and information. Three, our new customers have immediate access to the content they seek."
- Robert Michel, Founder, The Dark Intelligence Group
"We have used the Mequoda Method to increase our revenue by more than 60% while completely eliminating direct mail from our marketing mix. Unsurprisingly, this has allowed us to dramatically increase profitability and our ability to fund our mission-driven programs."
- Gail Odeneal, Director of Marketing, Program on Negotiation Harvard Law School
"We have used the Mequoda Method to create two successful online magazines that generate subscription revenues that are completely independent of our advertising driven legacy business model."
- Stuart Hochwert, Founder and CEO, Prime Publishing
"We know there’s demand for individual subscriptions based on our limited marketing efforts, but we needed the resources of a top-tier marketing organization to effectively and aggressively scale our individual subscriptions business. Mequoda has the best business processes we’ve seen for getting the job done."
- Hampton Stephens, Publisher, World Politics Review
"Mequoda’s knowledge of the fundamental practices and technologies at the core of the media business is unsurpassed by any other group of consultants I know. If you’re in the media industry, Mequoda would be a valuable ally."
- Bryan Welch, Publisher
“The team I worked with at Interweave successfully transitioned a leading print enthusiast media business into the digital age. The folks at Mequoda were an important part of this team and the company’s most valued strategic advisor. We could not have done it without them.”
- Clay Hall, Former CEO, Interweave
"With more than 3.2 million monthly unique visitors, Mother Earth News has increased its revenues 39X over the past 10 years, using these strategies.”
- Bill Uhler, Publisher, Ogden Publications
