Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases
Reed Business Information
Media Blind
Reed Business Information
(www.reedbusiness.com/us.html) is North
America's largest business-to-business information
provider, with more than 80 market-leading publications and 55 Web sites, as well as a
range of services. Reed Business Information is a member of the Reed Elsevier
Group plc — a leading provider of global information-driven services and solutions.
John Blanchard, VP Manufacturing, is a key architect of their digital publishing
strategy.
Semiconductor International magazine (www.semiconductor.net) is
an excellent example of Reed’s integrated digital and print product
offering.

Olive Software (www.olivesoftware.com) is a leading provider of
digital edition and digital archiving solutions for the publishing
industry, with more than 250 publishers and 650 titles worldwide. Olive’s solutions
enable newspapers, magazines, and other content publishers to cut printing and
distribution costs, boost online traffic, and create new markets and revenue streams.
The Challenge
As a leader in business-to-business publishing, Reed Business Information seeks to be
at the forefront of innovation for digital delivery of content. The management team sees
a blurring between replica editions and Web sites and had concluded that while the
browsing metaphor is different, the goal of finding high-quality specialized information
is shared by all readers. They continue to search for ways to add value to the overall
customer reading experience.
Meeting the Challenge
Thus far, Reed Business has been quite successful in creating high-value digital reading
experiences for their subscribers. While they have a very sophisticated set of digital
options, including a comprehensive Web site, newsletters, webcasts, podcasts, blogs,
buyer’s guides, and context-sensitive search engines, the digital replica edition of the
magazine still plays an important role in their digital product suite. Most Reed Business
titles use Olive’s technology to produce and archive their content. The ease of
implementing a digital title and the robustness of the archiving capability were the key
selection criteria.

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