#digitaleditions

On March 1st I attended the annual State of the Magazine Nation event hosted by Magazines Canada. This year's theme focused on how the printed page is changing, a tongue in cheek and rather obvious topic about how magazine publishers are having to reevaluate their businesses and consider how they might publish their content across multiple platforms.

The featured speakers were:

Lynn Chambers from newly named TC Media (formerly Transcontinental Media), who is the Group Publisher of Elle Canada, Canadian Living, More, and Juice, a new publication recently launched in partnership with Loblaws.

Shelagh Stoneham, the Vice President & General Manager, Brands & Marketing Communications at Rogers Communications Inc. Shelagh's specialties are corporate brand strategy and marketing communications, including mass advertising, social media, search, direct, customer base and retail programs.

Jeanniey Mullen who is the Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Zinio, the digital newsstand and publishing media marketplace.

The speakers were interesting, each of the publishing companies shared stories and real experiences relevant to changing and restructuring their products to incorporate new technology and bring their content to their readership in multiple formats as well as sharing some successful and creative digital executions in partnership with their advertisers.

However, the highlight of the event was not what I heard from the speakers. It was a conversation I had with a dyed in the wool web dev colleague of mine that I dragged along. As the speakers, especially Jeanniey from Zinio, presented, he had a hard time wrapping his head around why on earth one might have any interest in reading a digital edition of a magazine, regardless of the bells and whistles you could wrap around and through it.

He then made a very astute connection (in my opinion) between what the magazines were attempting to do in their digital publications with what Google is already doing on the web, so why wouldn't you just surf the internet?

What interested me about his viewpoint was his trust in the brand he (and the majority of us) use daily, Google. At that moment it occurred to me that we as magazines, who spend all our energy becoming trusted brands, are no longer just competing with each other, but also with Google for brand loyalty.

And not just within Google, meaning search engine optimization and how the majority of publishers have little hope in ever having their content rise to the top without the search criteria including the actual name of our publications, but with Google directly, seeing as they are essentially an aggregator, much like a magazine, who is obviously as my friend has just demonstrated, trusted.

I was quick to point out that Google also returns crap, and began explaining what we as publishers have to offer is a trusted, targeted voice, and a place, whether printed or in a digital format, where our readers can come to get information they can relate to, specifically selected just for them, to use and enjoy in a safe, protected environment. He wasn't buying it.

The next day I offered him my iPad, and an assortment of digital magazine examples for him to peruse at his leisure. This time, he was buying it, and did experience the solitary, focused, uninterrupted environment a digital magazine can provide, similar to that of a print magazine, but only partially. The digital edition I gave him was so large, and so full of enhanced, rich media that he began squirming, looking at his watch, and finally decided he didn't have enough time in his day to devote to it. He quit halfway through.

Our ongoing conversation continues, and at this point we both agree that digital publication formats are not where they should be to be successful. Some hinder the reader's enjoyment with over-complicated features, too much content, difficult navigation, or poor quality text and images.

We also agree that there is room in publishing for both websites and digital editions of magazines and each serves a purpose.

But what's clear is that we as an industry have not found the right formula for a digital publication.

Can you believe that on January 27, 2012 it will have been two years since Apple launched the iPad? It's launch has caused such a flurry influencing technology, publishing, a new level of portability, audience engagement and countless other things that have not immediately come to mind – including the impact in competitive portable device markets – it's hard to believe all of this has taken place in such a relatively short period of time.

Even Apple is probably on the verge of releasing iPad 3. Oh yes, here it is:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2053281/Apples-iPad-3-Spring--work-previous-iPad-add-ons.html

What the iPad has meant to publishing has been a source and cause of debate in many boardrooms and among my peers since it's launch.

Some publishers took the bull by the horns. Some were more cautious.

Most notably for, (in my opinion) was Wired, obviously, it being a technology publication. So when it announced it's digital edition I was excited to see it, expecting, like most, an especially enhanced souped-up version of the print version. If you haven't seen one, here is a promo for the Toy Story edition.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/05/26/wireds_ipad_edition_arrives_converted_from_flash_by_adobe.html

Seeing Wired and a few other magazines use the technology really well, the publishing industry was very encouraged – imagine a world where there isn't a giant print bill at the end of the day!

That is, until they started working out how much the enhanced versions of the magazines might cost to produce. So many kiboshed ideas...

(I'll stay away from the digital newsstand/subscription conversation or you'd be reading until next week).

Suffice to say, production costs have been the main grievance and last week, this article was released in Ad Week questioning the value of enhanced editions and are they worth the investment.

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/magazines-pull-back-bells-and-whistles-136719?utm_source=Daily+Buzz&utm_campaign=cea3df68c1-_nb_DB_11-30-2011&utm_medium=email

After downloading the free January 2012 issue of UK's GQ magazine last Friday (available now through the App Store), I would have to say yes, and not just because Daniel Craig was on the cover.

The download itself was 650MB and took about 15 minutes at my house where I share the bandwidth with my brood - four laptops, two iPads, two iPod Touches, one PS3 and a partridge in a pear tree.

Excitedly I wondered what the heck was imbedded into all that lovely data all the while rolling my eyes at the time it was taking to download.

As I browsed through it, I was reminded of the above 'bells and whistles' article. Yes, I loved quite a bit of the enhanced content – particularly listening to a tune by The Black Keys while I read the article about them. The movie trailers embedded into the reviews was also nice, and notably different from a static print movie review.

Can you get this stuff online? Sure, but you have to search for it.

Making a case for magazines – they get me. The magazines I choose know what I like already. In fact, they influence my decision-making.

But did I really need the dancing boots and the accompanying marching sound bite? Or the sounds of a babbling brook while I looked at stills of male models posing beside a river? Not really. And the little video of MyAnna Buring breathing heavily was a bit odd...did she just move? Yep. She did.

I shouldn't comment on the video of Bar Rafaeli as I am obviously not the intended demographic, although she does look very alluring swimming around in that pool. Perhaps I should take up swimming...

Oh, and maybe it's just me, but advertisers take note – asking me to capture your QR code with my mobile phone in a digital edition seems silly. Seriously? Take a picture of my iPad with my iPhone to access your content? It feels as absurd as it looks.

Anyway, my point is that the enhancements did extend the time I spent with GQ. I quite liked it in fact. And I see the opportunity a digital edition can provide for reader engagement and clever rich media advertising.