Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Best Practice Cases
Zinio
Playboy Magazine
Making all media work together
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (www.playboy.com) is a brand-
driven, international multimedia entertainment company that
publishes editions of Playboy magazine around the world; operates
television networks and distributes programming globally; owns
Playboy.com, a leading men's lifestyle and entertainment Web site;
and licenses the Playboy trademark internationally for a range of
consumer products and services. The Company's three business
groups are Publishing, Entertainment and Licensing. Playboy is the
world's best-selling men's monthly magazine. More than ten million American adults
read Playboy every month, and the magazine's U.S. total paid circulation of 2.6 million
is larger than that of Esquire, GQ, and Men's Journal combined. Capitalizing on
Playboy's global recognition and reputation, the Company began expanding its
publishing franchise overseas more than thirty years ago. Today, locally produced
editions of Playboy are published in twenty-four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Spain, Ukraine, and Venezuela. An estimated five million adults read
Playboy's international editions each month, bringing the magazine's global readership
to almost fifteen million.
Zinio (www.Zinio.com)
Zinio is a global leader for digital publishing products and
services. Zinio provides publishers with new circulation and
revenue growth opportunities through its comprehensive
offerings from marketing programs that include customer acquisition, retention, and
cross-promotion to seamless production services, a robust e-commerce engine, and
extensive digital delivery, circulation and fulfillment services. Major publishing
partners include Bonnier, Hearst, IDG, Gruner + Jahr, Hachette Filipacchi, IPC Media,
Mariah Media, McGraw-Hill, The National Magazine Company, Playboy Enterprises,
Rogers Publishing, Source Interlink, and Ziff Davis Media.
The Challenge
The Playboy Publishing management team has used a variety of creative programs to
attract subscribers in their target demographic — males 18-34 years old. Previously,
they have made their content available on CD-ROM, preloaded onto USB drives, and on
a variety of Web sites. In 2005, they launched a set of international editions on the
Zinio newsstand. The goal was to integrate the digital edition into the overall product
and marketing mix. The opportunity to develop and sell international editions in many
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©2008 Gilbane Group, Inc. http://gilbane.com