Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases
From the beginning, they have sold print and digital editions separately. For a modest
monthly fee, subscribers receive both editions and access to the archives. With the
growing popularity of community- and context-sensitive search, they have added more
features to their Web sites.
Results
� Readers like the variety of methods for accessing newspaper content.
� Advertisers appreciate the reader activity data that are available for digital
editions.
� The Archives are popular for researching topics whose coverage spans several
years.
� The archiving capability allows them to keep their legacy content active and is a
very popular research tool for readers.
� One-third of their advertisers are willing to take digital tear sheets in lieu of the
traditional print editions. The cost savings are significant.
� The East Valley Tribune’s digital circulation is now more than 10% of their
overall circulation.
Lessons Learned
� Different views of content serve different purposes. The print and digital replica
editions have strong appeal to readers who like the structure and layout of a
traditional newspaper and enjoy the experience of browsing through the entire
issue. The digital edition has the additional benefits of rich media, links to
interesting content or products, and the capability to easily share an article with
a friend or colleague.
� They are experimenting with special editions to appeal to younger readers.
� While Web purists extol the look and feel of a Web page and the importance of
community, Freedom’s research indicated that many young readers liked the
organization of the digital replica edition and would use both if given the
chance.
Gilbane Group Conclusions
� Traditional print newspaper readership is declining. To attract more readers,
newspapers are expanding their digital activities and delivering their content to
new devices such as digital phones and Kindles.
� While community-generated content is a step in the right direction, traditional
authored content needs to have more external links to allow readers to further
explore a topic by reading other credible authoritative articles with differing
viewpoints.
� Freedom is taking an incremental approach to archiving by adding each new
edition to archives that started several years ago. Archives become more
valuable as the number of years covered increases. Adding additional years of
pdf files is not terribly difficult or expensive and adds value to the overall Web
experience.
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