Tag: publishing business

Premium newsletters and advisory services represent the pinnacle of subscription marketing, often commanding annual membership or subscription fees that are much higher than magazines.

It’s entirely possible that your publishing business is worth much more than you might think. You might be trapped thinking about your company like a print publisher, and because of that, your assets are being under-leveraged. Let me suggest three easy steps to unlocking that value.

Web magazine consumers like to read their magazines like they read their news – online.
Users are becoming more accustomed to viewing magazine content in the form of web magazines. Web editions are built like web pages, so they can be displayed on any mobile or desktop device, and users are as familiar with the interface as

When choosing CMS development services for your organization, consider how much retrofitting will be involved to get your premium membership website running and how much familiarity you have with third-party fulfillment systems.
Periodical publishers and other membership-based organizations do not run the same kind of business as most others do on the web, so why do so many

How to turn six email analytics metrics into a big picture about the performance and plans for digitally marketing your publication

Publishers who are generating revenue through multiple platforms may include events on their list of products. If you’re in the B2B publishing niche, you may see your competitors throwing roundtable events and wonder, “what is a roundtable event?”

If you could, you’d hire a professional email subject line writer. You would, because you depend on your email list to sell magazine subscriptions or ads to advertisers, so smashing together 50-100 characters on the fly every day is a stinky approach to accomplishing those goals.

As you know, having an online portal for your information is essential for growth. Using the web to publish and distribute content and not just serve as an extension of your brand is critical. But this is a new beast, and to be prepared, you must plan. This holds true even if your business has survived the last 50 to 100 years.

In his bestseller, “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell stated that it takes 10,000 hours, or approximately ten years, so become an expert at something. That means there are very few digital product development experts out there in the universe, even in the publishing world. Let’s consider some of the digital products we interface with regularly today.

The steps to facilitating an effective roundtable discussion with roundtable discussion questions

Have you ever run a roundtable discussion?

Throughout my years in publishing, I’ve taken part in countless roundtables. During some, I was the facilitator and other times I was a participant.

Although there are many ways to direct them, my ideal approach to running roundtables focuses on the fundamental needs of the attendees.

Losing subscribers without gaining new ones is a universal fear for any subscription-based organization, and rightly so. When a decrease in active subscribers leads to an overall decline in revenue, publishers may find themselves facing uncertainty about the staying power of their product, or worse: the future of their business.

But what if we told you

How often do you read something digitally? If you’re reading this, then you’ve done it at least once today. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this isn’t your first time.

Data helps seasoned multiplatform publishing professionals better understand where their time and efforts can pay off the most in terms of audience engagement and revenue generation.

So you want to know, how do online magazines generate revenue? The answer is clear: they go multiplatform.
If you’ve considered starting an online magazine, or are a legacy print magazine considering going digital, you’ve asked this question: How do online magazines generate revenue? And the answer is that the successful ones use a multiplatform approach.

Creating an abundance of value within your subscription products is the key to subscription marketing and transforming your publishing business in the digital age
From time to time, it’s a good idea to sit down and think about the value proposition you provide prospective buyers in your subscription marketing efforts. When you are running a Six Sigma

As it’s always been, Google’s main focus publicly is the ads you buy via Adwords. And, as always, Mequoda knows that the exact same concepts apply to free organic search campaigns.

If you read our white papers and posts, or you’ve attended a Mequoda Intensive, you already know how much value we place on organic search. It’s the core of the Mequoda Method, and while anyone can buy ads, that kind of marketing just isn’t as high on our priority list as organic search is.

If you don’t register for the next Mequoda Digital Publishing & Marketing Intensive by midnight, you’ll have to wait another year to start your journey to multiplatform publishing success.

Every experience you’ve ever had building and rebuilding a magazine website typically begins with you explaining what you want, and then you telling a group of developers and designers what to do and what to fix. But when did you become an expert in digital publishing strategy and website architecture?

“Frugality includes all the other virtues.”

Old Cicero certainly knew what he was talking about. That’s why I wanted to remind you that your chance to exercise frugality in attending our Multiplatform Publishing Strategy program ends at midnight this Thursday, March 31. You’ll save $200.

You wouldn’t hire a lawn mower repairman to fix your car, so why do so many publishers seek the support and advice of consultants and web developers that have never worked in the publishing field? At Mequoda, we know content, and we know content marketing, because we’re a group of journalism veterans turned consultants and

What changes in multiplatform publishing will lead to the biggest future successes? We’re seeing more actions from publishers with both short-term and long-term goals in mind.

Today is the last day you can save on your seat to this unique and powerful subscription marketing and publishing event 
If you have been thinking about registering for our Subscription Marketing & Publishing Intensive this May, today is the last day to save at least $300 on your seat. Don’t delay. It’s a great time to register  and pay

While the challenge of choosing the right subscription and single copy pricing strategy is not new to magazine publishers, it’s virgin territory for most subscription website publishers and many publishers exploring the digital newsstand landscape.

Even magazine publishers are faced with new economic realities.

The marginal cost of delivering a digital subscription to your own website is near zero. The cost of delivering digital issues via the Apple, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble digital newsstands is based on remit and the cost of delivering a digital issue paid to your digital publishing software provider (Mag+, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, etc.).

If your goal is to generate advertising and sponsorship revenue from a free newsletter or advisory service with a robust subscription and advertising website, the Mequoda Haven CXMS can do it, and has done it for many other publishers like you.

Stop wasting your money on unprofitable marketing channels
Losing subscribers without gaining new ones is a universal fear for any subscription-based organization, and rightly so. When a decrease in active subscribers leads to an overall decline in revenue, publishers may find themselves facing uncertainty about the staying power of their product, or worse: the future of

Few things fascinate subscription website publishers more than the relationship between cost and revenue for the various operational centers inside their business. We have long known for instance, that editorial or product costs are typically 8 to 12% of revenue for a niche media business. The number can run higher for very small operations and lower for very large operations.

“Frugality includes all the other virtues.”

Old Cicero certainly knew what he was talking about. That’s why I wanted to remind you that your chance to exercise frugality in attending our Multiplatform Publishing Strategy program ends at midnight this Thursday, March 31. You’ll save $200.

Your membership site developer should be more than just a technological jester, they should be your sherpa.
If you’re a publisher, or are selling a subscription-based information product, it’s likely that at some point you’ll be looking for a new membership site developer. We know this because most of our clients have come to us after years

If your goal is to generate advertising and sponsorship revenue from a free newsletter or advisory service with a robust subscription and advertising website, the Mequoda Haven CXMS can do it, and has done it for many other publishers like you.

Don’t scoff—we truly believe that web magazines can be the ultimate platform for periodical content for most magazine publishing brands. The problem is that, as we’ve covered in prior weeks, most web magazines aren’t living up to their potential. We are very close to destroying magazines as a medium by the way our industry is transporting them to the web.

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.

The magazine industry has lost their way.

It’s been a long time since the dawn of digital publishing and publishers bringing their content online, but at this point we hoped that the industry would catch on and be rigorously testing their digital products.

Unfortunately so much has stayed the same, and while many magazine publishers seem to be working towards putting together web magazines, most have failed, as we’ve explained in recent posts documenting our journey through more than 300 magazine websites and what they think are web magazines.

If your goal is to generate subscriptions and advertiser and sponsorship revenue from a free or controlled-circulation magazine with a robust subscription and advertising website, the Mequoda Haven CXMS can do it, and has done it for many other publishers like you.

I have complete confidence in saying this: “your web magazine design is not very good.”

And why does this roll off the tongue so easily as such a blanket statement? Because we’re in the midst of a massive research study on the state of web magazines, and out of 300 of the top B2B and B2C magazines, only 13 had what we consider to be a best-practice web magazine. We were sure the study would encompass at least 100, but we’re currently on the hunt to fill that number out to at least 25 and are finding hope in—surprise—niche magazines.

We’re pleased to share news on an acquisition that many in the magazine industry believed was coming. Multiplatform publisher Hearst has agreed to buy Rodale Inc., a publishing company we’ve talked about a lot due to the organization’s propensity to follow much of Mequoda’s methodology.

Today we’re looking at this acquisition and what it brings to Hearst. WWD reports, “Rodale, which is based in New York and Emmaus, Pa., publishes Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Prevention, Rodale’s Organic Life, Runner’s World and Bicycling. It also includes Rodale Books and an international division with which Hearst already has a joint venture. The company boasts 93 editions in 64 countries. Hearst Magazines includes 300 editions and web sites around the world, including 20 titles in the U.S.”

Have you been seeing emojis in subject lines lately? They’re not just the earrings of the inbox, they actually serve a purpose— increasing open rates! And since several of our clients have been testing them and seeing success, we figured it was about time to talk more about sending smiles 😀, poops 💩, and prayers 🙏🏻 in subject lines.

Maybe you’ve heard that Amethyst is good for protection if you wear it, or that Aventurine will help with confidence if you hold it while public speaking. Perhaps you’ve read that if you put Jade in the four corners of your office, it will attract abundance, or that carrying Malachite with you will improve your leadership abilities.

Whether you believe in the metaphysical properties of gemstones and minerals, or just keep them at your desk for good looks, there’s one thing that most people in these circles can agree on. It’s that whatever you’re hoping to get from carrying, wearing or holding one of these items is all about intention. You want to feel more confident getting up on stage to present, so you carry Aventurine to set the intention that you will become more confident. You decorate your office in Jade not because you expect the money to roll in magically in one day, but because seeing it reminds you of your intentions to generate more income, and take steps to make that happen.

Multiplatform publishing is the cornerstone of what we do at Mequoda. If you can create one content product, you can create many content products. If you’ve been following along with us through this blog, or through our daily newsletter then you have a general foundation for building a multiplatform publishing business.

Create a freemium by developing free content with free content – or write it yourself. Either way, make it good.
We’re all about the mighty freemium around here. Create content and give it away for free so that people know how good your premium content is – and they’ll buy it later. And they do.

We’re in

Multiplatform publishing companies Billboard and Time Inc. make personnel changes; Corporate Board Member Magazine acquired by Chief Executive Group

A morphing environment for some multiplatform publishing companies involves new talent in key positions, as well as assets from other acquisitions. Today we look at both personnel and asset acquisitions from some major publishers.

There are ways to control how Google reads your website with sitemap tools. While we assume most of our publishing friends are creating kosher content and abiding by the rules, if Google has considered you a black sheep in the past, you can reinvent yourself by cleaning up your sitemap. If you’ve been good, you can always improve how well your website is indexed, and often the updates are pretty easy!

In the book The Giving Tree, a young boy visits a tree and forms a relationship with it. At first he simply wants to swing on it’s branches, but as he gets older he becomes more materialistic. He asks the tree, which has grown fond of him, to turn its apples into money, it’s branches into a house, and its trunk into a boat. The tree obliges, but eventually becomes a stump.

If you’ve ever been on an external link regimen by your company, you might feeling like the stump in The Giving Tree after a lifetime of giving away apples and branches, trying to please. There is a lot of information about Google’s search signals online, and one of those, reported by SEO’s, is linking to external website. But are you giving away more than you’re getting?

It’s in our nature to try to classify, catalog, and organize any type of information that would help you make more informed business decisions. Defining publishing niches is a part of that.

On a call with the team couple weeks ago, we decided to do some research to see what we considered the biggest niches. This type of information could be useful for a publisher looking to launch a new niche magazine, or a magazine needing a pivot.

Our latest version of the Multiplatform Publishing Strategy handbook delivers a proven, integrated set of business processes, principles and tools for the digital publisher, whether you’re B2B, consumer, local, regional or national; multi-title or single.

These multiplatform publishing business models can be incorporated into your business at little extra cost, but with huge revenue potential
At the beginning of the year we highlighted three resolutions multiplatform publishers should make in 2017. As we’ve watched the success of our clients grow by adding new platforms, my main recommendations for this year were to

If you’re a publishing professional, don’t wait a minute longer before downloading our best practice handbooks. They were carefully curated into what we think are the most comprehensive handbooks on the four most important digital publishing topics:

Study shows trust in branded content; Bloomberg proves value of branded content; Digital magazines aided by branded content from major publisher
Content marketers, digital magazines and publishers are turning towards branded content to build better partnerships and audiences. We look at three stories for a glimpse at branded content’s influence currently.

Let’s begin today with some recent data on

There’s a quote out there from Jonathan MacDonald I heard recently at an IMAG event that says, the rate of change you’re experiencing now represents the slowest rate of technological and societal change you are likely to experience in the rest of your life. So if you’re thinking that change in multiplatform publishing has been fast so far, you haven’t seen anything yet. It’s accelerating!

Ask yourself these seven questions before starting your journey towards digital magazine transformation
I’m going to go ahead and assume if you’re reading this, you have a print publication who is asking for siblings. You’re at the magazine store and it’s eying the “big brother” t-shirts and wondering when it’s getting playmates.

Below you’ll find a comprehensive