Tag: national geographic

What do you think are the essential elements of the perfect digital magazine?

If you think back to Gutenberg and the printing press, magazines are still being produced the same way now as they were then. We have a long way to go. The technology necessary to fully utilize the Internet as a principal marketing and distribution platform is available

Subscription publishing has gained popularity with media companies and brands alike because of its reputation as a renewable revenue stream. Today we’re visiting news stories of subscription publishers making new initiatives to enhance their subscription channels.

How these innovative publishers built web magazine libraries that are comprehensive, user-friendly and make an easy up-sell from print.
A web magazine library is an archive of your content going back many years, likely since the beginning. When done right, you can upsell a substantial number of would-be magazine subscribers to this higher-end, and higher priced product that requires

How the top magazine publishers in social media are leveraging three major platforms for magazine social marketing
According to the MPA’s Magazine Media Factbook, 91% of U.S. adults read magazine media, but where do they read it? Right now we’re working on our 2018 Digital Magazine Reader Survey, and social media is the second most used

Magazines are designed to be read from front to back. They have covers and a table of contents. Magazines are arranged in a series of articles. Compare that with other media, where the articles are arranged with taxonomies and hyperlinks, and are not linear.

Hyperlinking is not linear. Any medium that enables or encourages the reader to bounce around among hundreds or thousands of articles is not a linear medium. What’s more, humans desire closure, which magazines provide. A reader can say “I have read the April issue of Vanity Fair. I finished it on Sunday.”

I was having a conversation with a client the other day, when he asked me “what exactly is magazine media?” See, in the niche magazine publishing business, you’ll find that many of your colleagues are niche industry experts, but as this client reminded me, not all are inherently from the magazine business.

12 ways to make an old magazine article new again through content recycling
The VP of The Taunton Press was quoted a few years ago as saying, “We can’t afford to pay for content if it’s going to be a one-time use.”

But yet twenty to thirty years ago that’s all content ever was: one time use. There

Multiplatform publishers can generate revenue from users, from sponsors, or both. Consumer-focused portals that are sponsorship-based ask users to pay – not with money, but with time and information. They spend time viewing web pages and signing up for email feeds, thus creating advertising inventory that can be used to sell the publisher’s products (internal advertising) and/or sold to third-party sponsors (external advertising) on a CPM, CPC, CPA, or SEA basis.

A recent copy of National Geographic featured a story that showed a man, hanging off the side of a mountain, dangling from a several hundred foot rope ladder. You couldn’t see the bottom of it, because it was covered in mist, but you could see his face, reaching toward the next ladder step, covered in bees.

This man, dubbed the “last honey hunter” climbs massive cliffs in Nepal to get “mad honey” derived from the Himalayan Cliff Bee that pollinates nearby rhododendron patches, which is toxic to humans, making the honey a psychedelic and often used medicinally.

Zink digital magazine relaunches; National Geographic launches digital network; Amazon looking at offering subscriptions to publishers
Not all the digital magazine content we report on involves launches. Sometimes we have relaunches to share about, too.

We begin today with the relaunch of Zink Magazine, in both digital and print. WWD reports, “Zink Magazine, the indie fashion magazine founded

Sometimes we’re amazed by content offerings we see subscription publishers launch. A recent content initiative from The New York Times applies, and it will be the first news story for the day. The New York Times is officially using Twitter content in their print publication. Nieman Lab reports, “The paper’s newly redesigned pages A2 and A3 will highlight some of that content — and the “huge scope of activity that’s going on in the world of The New York Times on any given day,” said Jake Silverstein, the editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine and one of the leaders of the redesign.”

Digital magazine marketing will give you an afterlife

There are times in business when we feel like we’ve created something great, and we don’t understand why it’s not selling.

Back in 1967, a successful New York ballerina by the name of Marta Becket stumbled upon an old social hall in Death Valley Junction, California, population: 6. After

You might be surprised by the niche websites that top Alexa’s list of the highest ranking websites in the U.S.

A niche website is one that centers around a specific topic or area of interest. This doesn’t usually include general interest topics like news and politics, which everyone has a stake in, but more on the

Want to know how publishing magazines on Kindles will boost your digital circulation? The simple answer is math: you can only sell more digital issues, not less, by adding your magazine to a new platform.

And we consider Amazon’s Kindle Newsstand to be one of the three juggernauts of digital magazine publishing channels, alongside Google Play and Apple Newsstand. In fact, it’s in second place and I’ll tell you why a little later.

The more you can give a member of your subscription website, the better.
And it appears we’re not the only ones who think so.

Earlier in the week we talked about Condé Nast’s Wired Media Group who is launching a membership program for executives. According to Lucia Moses at Digiday, “for $4,000 a year, members of the Emerging Technology

Which social publishers are performing especially well as of the first half of 2016? Well, the Association of Magazine Media 360° is glad we asked – they recently released their latest Social Media Report, which covers the top magazines across all social networks in terms of likes and followers, as well as the top on each channel.

We’re surrounded by a goldmine of creative video ideas in magazine publishing – which one will inspire you?
I sit here writing this as I just finished watching six videos in a row on Vogue’s site, all 73-questions long, about celebrities I don’t have an interest in, in a format that felt heavily scripted.

I don’t know

12 magazine promotion ideas stemming from a strict email marketing plan

The scenario plays over and over again: A publisher invests the time and money to build a multiplatform publishing website, only to wonder why they’re not generating as much revenue as expected. When we audit their efforts, we find they’re not sending any promotions for

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its Top 10 magazine brands on April 28, along with its most current audience data from March of 2016. The findings, compiled by MPA metrics arm Magazine Media 360°, continue to show strong growth and mark even more positive digital media industry news.

The Audience Report charted a 7.6% year-over-year increase in site visits, while putting gross traffic for digital magazines at 1.9 billion. The MPA also announced findings for magazines on social media, showing Likes and Followers total 900 million for online magazines, up 4% over last quarter.

Perhaps the biggest digital media industry news? Desktop/laptop audiences demonstraed notable growth for the first time in seven months, reaching more than 560 million users, a 6% increase.

Social publishing, or preparing and posting content to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and others, is no longer just an option up for discussion. Today, when it comes to distributing your good work and deploying it as a tool in audience development, a social media strategy is an absolute necessity.

The challenge is perfecting that strategy as much as possible. Especially in a business where the ground seems to shift every other week. But one way to stay ahead of the curve is to pay attention to the digital publishers doing it right, the ones who unite great content, great timing, and great discipline, to produce a whole other source of traffic and revenue.

But don’t fall prey to just slapping some articles up on Facebook Instant or Apple News. This just won’t cut it. Publishing social media successfully requires dedicated resources, including staff. But it will be worth it!

Magazine circulation numbers are by definition always changing, but we’re at a crucial juncture when it comes to these stats.

For instance, it’s hard to believe, but the Alliance for Audited Media is just now establishing standards for magazine apps, because they’re helping publishers with audience development. And elsewhere, recent numbers give us a good idea of which niche magazines are succeeding, and which aren’t.

Is an online ad network the answer to publishers’ prayers when it comes to digital advertising revenue? We’re seeing it with programmatic partnerships and other arrangements, and why not? Brands have a lot of power in the current climate, but digital magazines can muster some mojo, as well, by uniting to provide advertisers the best possible placement and viewability.

Then again, we don’t fault any publisher for going it alone, as many do via social media and services like Magzter. After all, monetization is in the eye of the beholder. But Mequoda Members know that the more platforms, the merrier.

For some companies with multiple properties, publisher networks just make sense as a way to centralize operations and standardize content across all platforms for the purposes of more attractive options for digital advertisers.

Now, of course, we realize that not all digital magazines are in this position, but publisher networks are an industry-wide phenomenon that bears watching in the context of potential mergers & acquisitions, niche strategy, the future of web advertising, and the direction of multiplatform strategy.

Facebook Instant Articles are creating a platform for publishers to host ads on social networks, rather than placing them
Ever thought magazines would be placing native ads on social networks? Me either, and that’s not exactly happening just yet, but it’s an interesting thought, right?

Back in May, Facebook launched Instant Articles , a content publishing platform within

Tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 3, marks MinOnline’s 13th annual Most Intriguing and Hottest Launches Awards Celebration, while Friday, Dec. 4, marks the entry deadline for its Best of the Web Awards. And late last month, the trade publication handed out its editorial and design awards. Truly, ’tis the season for the best digital magazines to make themselves known!

These are some of our favorite digital publishing events to keep tabs on. Let’s take a look!

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.

Which magazines on social media are performing especially well as of the third quarter of 2015? Well, the Association of Magazine Media 360° is glad we asked – they recently released their latest Social Media Report, which covers the top 25 magazines across all social networks in terms of likes and followers, as well as the top on each channel.

We’re not digital-and-damn-the-torpedoes here at Mequoda, believe it or not. While digital magazines are our focus, we believe there’s room for print in multi-platform publishing; while Mequoda Members approach us to help them transition to a mobile and desktop existence, many retain their print properties and find success in doing so. But what about those rare breeds who go from digital to print? Allrecipes, a Meredith title, is one such example, and they’re flourishing with an increased rate base. Other publishers are focusing on online circulation with recent news from audit houses.

Have you ever spent time poking around on your iPad, just to see how customers feel about the digital magazines they buy and subscribe to? We make this a habit of ours, picking out some of the common themes (typically, bad usability and type size complaints) and also purchasing habits.

Social media publishing tools are proliferate, and often the options are overwhelming. Do you ever wonder how the best in the business appropriate their social efforts? Which platforms they lean on? We’re always after the latest best practices, so we were excited to see that the International Periodical Distributors Association is on top of it after the latest Magazines at Retail Conference.

A few months back, we wondered whether Google digital advertising is unstoppable. Now, the question becomes whether the Google publishing juggernaut is poised to ultimately make the company even more money with the News Lab. Like other platforms, the service bills itself as a way for the company to work with publishers – not against them. Digiday covered this story recently, along with articles on mobile advertising, native content, and more.

Digital platform publishing is credited with having ushered in an ongoing golden age for media, and the latest industry developments are doing nothing to dispel this notion. Four recent articles from Advertising Age reveal how the current social media and mobile content push is shaping companies’ plans for the future.

This week’s roundup of the latest publishing industry trends includes the continued focus on monetizing ed tech, plus one media company’s melding of events and e-commerce. We’ll also get a quick glance at the latest magazine personnel moves, as well as an interesting take on the phenomenon of BuzzFeeding B2B content. Folio: covers the magazine business beat better than anybody. A handful of recent articles capture these publishing industry trends and more.

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its first-quarter 2015 Magazine Media 360° report, and the year-over-year data is encouraging for online magazine publishing companies.

The shifting landscape of social media for publishers stood still for at least moment this week, as the the Association of Magazine Media’s 360° report on the first quarter of 2015 homed in on performance across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Today’s new media landscape can be utilized to better serve your business

Have you embraced new technologies and trends within the online publishing environment?

By now we’ve all heard about the benefits of online components like social media; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are all utilized to build closer relationships and portray a sense of transparency. Yet, the technology that can be used and shared on these social platforms is often overlooked.

For the second time in 2015, a leading online learning platform is making huge publishing industry news – but this story goes well beyond the $186 million Lynda.com investment back in January.

Let’s take a look at that development as well as two others reported on in Folio: late last week.

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its latest Magazine Media 360° report – tabbing year-over-year numbers for February, along with the top performers in the magazine publishing industry – on March 24.

The late, great David Carr might have said it best in October of 2014: “For publishers, Facebook is a bit like that big dog galloping toward you in the park. More often than not, it’s hard to tell whether he wants to play with you or eat you.” But does this week’s news of The New York Times, National Geographic, and BuzzFeed potentially signing on as Facebook publishers mean they’re puppy chow or smart players with friends in high places?

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its most current industry numbers, building onto its monthly report with an accumulated six months’ worth of audience data from August of 2014 to January of 2015. The digital publishing news is good for magazines and multiplatform publishers.

Don’t overlook this powerful revenue stream

When magazine publishers get together to talk about their advertising revenues, the common complaint is that even though they’re counting on online advertising to replace declining print ad pages, they’re “trading print dollars for digital dimes.”

Worse, they say, they now have to trade those digital dimes for mobile pennies.

Certainly print

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.

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its “Top 10” magazine brands on Jan. 7, along with its most current industry numbers from November of 2014. The findings, compiled by recently created MPA metrics arm Magazine Media 360°, are encouraging.

Knowing your audience is vital to all writers, editors, and publishers. Staying ahead of market research is the first step in finding out who your readers are and what they want. The next, and most important, step is taking the information you’ve gathered and using it to target your readers by highlighting their interests.

How can publishers tap into younger audiences? For starters, getting more involved in the digital publishing world is a good idea.

Ever wonder how various magazines perform on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram? You probably have an idea on how your industry and audience fares, but looking at overall data can present another perspective for you.

It’s being reported by Folio that National Geographic is utilizing a microsite for a line of products and partnerships that act as a magazine series on the future of food.

If your website doesn’t attract at least 5x more free visitors than paid subscribers – your publication is probably in trouble
Marketing expert Seth Godin recently spoke at the HOW magazine conference and said, “I can reach 10 times more people writing a blog post than writing a book.” I’ve always liked that guy.

If you apply

MediaBistro.com’s 10,000 Words blog reports that analysts at Shareablee have released their rankings for publishers’ social media performance. The June list is the company’s first in what will be a monthly service for advertisers and other interested parties.

Folio: recently examined the latest practices of publishers building engagement through social media platforms. TJ Raphael’s piece focuses on Glamour’s use of Facebook, National Geographic’s use of Instagram, and Seventeen’s use of Snapchat.