Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Buyer’s Guide
� Ad clickthroughs.
� Email-to-a-friend and social bookmarking invocations.
� Usage of features such as bookmarks, highlighting, and annotation.
� Usage of rich media content.
� Types of devices and browsers.
� Referral URLs.
Publisher Interfaces
It is important to find a digital edition provider that can work the way you want to
work. This manifests itself in two primary ways: editorial and production, and
subscriber management.
Production Workflow
Editorial workflows should ideally enable a publisher to send the digital edition
provider the same files as those that it generates for printers. Most digital edition
providers will accept PDFs, subject to certain provisos such as resolution (DPI) and font
embedding; some will also accept formats like QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, or
Microsoft Word.
Discuss your particular format issues with digital edition providers to determine which
one will accommodate your workflows. You should also discuss the digital edition
provider’s features for accepting rich media files such as audio, video, and animations.
If you intend to create a digital edition that is not merely an exact facsimile of your
print publication – or if you are a digital-only publisher – then it is important that the
digital edition provider have the capacity and skill set to work with you to design a
publication that meets your needs.
Subscriber Management
The other primary interface between publishers and digital edition providers is
subscriber information. Some print publishers have their own subscriber management
systems, while others house their subscriber information at fulfillment houses such as
CDS or PalmCoast. Meanwhile, many digital edition providers maintain subscriber
databases and handle fulfillment for all of their customers’ publications. Such providers
also tend to handle payment processing and other e-commerce issues for paid digital
editions.
This may well be fine for digital-only publishers and print publishers that are just
starting out with digital editions. But print publishers that want to expand their digital
edition strategy often find themselves wanting to integrate print and digital subscriber
information, for reasons such as these:
� Combination pricing: if you’re a print subscriber, get the digital edition too for
$X less.
� Promotional e-mailings of the digital edition to print subscribers.
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