Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Visionaries
Marta Wohrle
Truth in Digital Publishing
Marta Wohrle is the former Head of Digital Media at Hachette Filipacchi Media
(HFM) and now an independent and entrepreneurial online publisher with her own
Web site — Truth in Aging (
www.truthinaging.com). She describes herself as a Web
neophyte and an expert on aging. Her Web site takes a witty and engaging look at the
large variety of anti-aging potions and procedures.
In her previous role, she led Hachette Filipacchi’s efforts in developing products for
digital media. From our discussion, it is safe to say that she was disappointed at the
reader response to HFM’s digital replica editions. She points out that the B2B market is
better for digital editions because the content is well integrated into the workflow of
businesses, while B2C content is most often read at home or while traveling. Business
content is usually consumed at a desk where there is computer access to content. B2C
publications are read throughout the home in many areas where a computer and
network connection isn’t available or practical.
Marta and her team worked very hard to establish a base of digital subscribers. There
were dedicated resources and corporate support. Their key motivation was to save
money in printing and delivery. For Auditability reasons and to keep costs under
control, they made only minor modifications to their publications when they were
transitioned to digital replicas. They experimented with custom-published editions of
certain titles. Because their goal was to save money, they did not invest in content or
rich media specific to the digital edition. With a digital subscriber base of 30,000, Elle
Girl was their most successful digital replica. It had three times as many digital
subscribers as Car and Driver.
In her new role as publisher and editor of Truth in
Aging.com, she has some great
thoughts about the role of content and editors in an Internet environment. On Web
sites, content often serves a selector function as it helps readers drive to a specific piece
of information or helps to answer a question through the Web site’s search engine. The
next important role is to connect the reader with other authoritative information,
regardless of whether that information resides within the publisher’s archive of
information or elsewhere.
An important new role for editors is to provide context for the reader to help them
explore topics further and to provide links to other varied yet reputable sources to
provide the reader with a balanced view on their area of interest. She feels that the
practice of trying to keep readers “hostage” on a publisher’s own Web site is in decline,
as publishers are beginning to realize that readers will come to their Web site more
often if the Web site helps them find the content that they are seeking.
122
©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc.
http://gilbane.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135