As the landscape of publishing is quickly moving toward the digital age, it seems more and more relevant to seek education about publishing trends. This year several publishing summits including the Folio magazine Publishing Summit are important to add to your calendar. The Folio summit conference this year in Miami on February 20-22 will be an exciting event.

The Magazine Publishers of America has also scheduled the 4th Digital Conference with their “Magazines 24/7″ theme. This magazine publishing conference will be held in New York on February 27th, and a second day (the 28th) has been added.

Magazine ad sales are always difficult for the publisher that does not have the resources to hire full time advertising sales employees. This usually means that the publisher wears the ad sales hat. This might not be a problem for a passionate publisher that knows how to pitch and present her publication to the right companies. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s becoming quite clear that the fragmentation of business and consumers traditional mainstream media consumption is a clear opportunity for print media magazine publishers.

Print magazines offer advertisers a direct connection to a qualified and targeted audience. The key is extending the brand to digital media where perspective advertising targets can be converted into a tangible buyer or prospect for the print magazine advertiser.

Digital ads are taking on many forms and formats for web presentations.

Digital publications have many more capabilities as their screen real estate is much larger than a traditional banner ad zone size. A full page magazine ad can be presented online in full page format and can run various dynamic and interactive elements. Read the rest of this entry »

Digital circulation is the reporting of magazine digital edition deliveries viewable or downloadable in a similar to print format. The digital delivery must contain all the same editorial and advertising content as the print copies. Notifications must occur to the digital subscribers to advise they may access the digital version.

Therefore, digital circulation is currently more about the digital notification than actual readership. Since hosted digital publications may also contain many other elements of interest to advertisers it’s likely that publishers will choose to augment even qualified digital circulation with the details that advertisers seek to justify their ad spend. In addition, when compared to the effectiveness and traceability of conversions it won’t be surprising if advertisers request specifically to have a enhanced presence in the online editions.

Just out of Adobe Labs is Adobe® Digital Editions 1.0 which provides publishers a new tool for presenting ebook content.
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As big publishing brands realize the opportunities online I expect to see more acquisitions like Meridith’s purchase of Healia and Condé Nast’s acquisition of reddit for Wired Digital.

Content technology tools will play a key part of the advantage these major publishers have over smaller publications if they can leverage the digital tools before more nimble niche competitors. Read the rest of this entry »

CMP Technology recently announced that they will be eliminating 200 jobs and according to Steve Weitzner, CMP’s President & CEO will be making changes to focus on their strong growth and more balanced magazine brands portfolio. Newsday.com reports that the company will fold some publications and reduce the number of times certain publications are published.

In my opinion, Mr. Weitzners comments about the reduction in print revenue provides continued evidence that magazine publishers must seek to re-align their publications online. Magazine publishers must begin to look at their brands as business and social communities centered on content and not as paper magazine publishers. These brands should facilitate the exchange of information over all mediums possible especially on the mediums that are more conducive to the way consumers are migrating to receive their content and media: websites, digital editions, blogs, podcasts, rss feeds, video, mobile, web communities, social networking platforms, and online interactive events. Read the rest of this entry »

An excellent direction for magazines as they confirm niche dominance is the addition of a magazine wiki.

“By offering users the opportunity to work collaboratively on a matter of common interest to them and the magazine, the sites extend the magazine’s brand and value to readers.”

MediaPost tells how reference wiki pages will be the hot trend for publishers for late 2007. MediaDailyNews Read the rest of this entry »

Are you using your web reports? Magazine publishers should always be promoting their online web communities. Along with this task is the responsibility of moderating participant interactions. In this competitive publishing world you’ll want to make sure the few bad participants don’t spoil the fun. Keep your logs and IP tracking analytics active so you can investigate visitors with bad intensions. Your magazine website privacy policy can clearly state that you use cookies and visitor statistics to improve the online experience for your readers. Advanced monitoring can also be setup for those visitors (or competitors) who are attacking your brand.