Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: The Data
reading experience. First-generation digital replica editions failed to take full
advantage of the features that distinguish digital media.
� Rich media can make editorial content come alive by offering video
interviews, instructive models and simulations, and interactive
illustrations. Rich media can make advertising much more exciting and
thereby increase response rates. And by offering readers that ability to act
on advertisements while reading the publication, purchasing behavior
increases as well.
� Archiving and searchability add tremendous value to publications where
readers wish to save and access information for future use. Making search
more context sensitive and broadening the domain of the search beyond
the content contained in a specific publication helps readers learn more
about topics that have captured their interest.
� Adding links within digital editions to content found in other issues or to
other respected publications adds tremendously to the value of a
publication as a place to begin explorations within a specific subject
matter.
� Adding social bookmarking and content sharing features also enhances the
publication’s value to the reader – as a more “scalable” version of
recommendations that colleagues make to each other about printed
content – even as such features also help to increase awareness and
penetration.
� Making digital replica editions better integrated into the overall Web
strategy helps cross-promote different offerings by allowing readers to
access content in methods suitable to their information needs at any given
time.
o Patience is required. As described above, if publishers continue to improve
and promote their digital editions, participation will grow at a steady rate.
That rate can be further accelerated by functionality as described above. And
as young readers come into the subscriber pool, the number of readers who
prefer digital editions tends to increase.
� How satisfied are the current set of digital subscribers?
o While the scope of this study did not include gathering data from digital
subscribers, there are two recent studies that have gathered pertinent data:
� Gloria Adams, Senior Vice President at Pennwell Corporation,
commissioned a digital-magazine study with the cooperation of Texterity.
Here are some highlights of the findings from digital subscribers of
primarily B2B publications:
− Subscribers open their digital magazines within several days.
− 70% of readers spend between 15 and 45 minutes reading each issue.
− Archiving, sharing, and discussing content is very popular with
subscribers.
− Readers appreciate the capability to go directly to advertisers’ Web sites.
− Most readers read key articles and browse all pages.
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