Why Our Mobile Viewers ("Web Apps") Are Browser Based.

There is a lot of discussion and trial in the publishing space around Apps and the value that Apps can bring to magazine publishers.  While we believe there is a lot of future value in bringing unique Native Apps to readers, we feel that delivering Apps via the Web (ie Browser based Mobile versions or "Web Apps")  make the MOST sense currently for publishers and readers alike.  Here is why --

Every Mobile Device with A Browser Has Immediate Access – No fussing or downloads required

A browser is preinstalled on each device, while a Native App is not. To get to the specific Native App you need to take several steps to find it.  First by going to the App store for the specific device, then Searching for the specific App (which may be tricky to find at all),  then you need to sign in to access your App account if you have one (else create a new account if you don’t), wait for the App to download, wait for install – and finally you can view!!  With our Web Apps (mobile versions), if a reader knows the URL of the main digital edition, the URL of the publication’s main website with a digital edition link, or has an email with a link, they can simply enter that and Presto – issue appears immediately for viewing!

At Advanced Publishing we use a single URL for all issues, so once you have it bookmarked, you have immediate access to all issues.  In addition, we typically use the Magazine’s own domain, so it is easy to remember even if you don’t bookmark it.  From the iPhone and iPad you can easily add a Homescreen Icon/Launcher to directly get to all of our digital issues but simply clicking on the "+" on the nav bar, and clicking the "Add to Homescreen" button.

The importance of Sharing and Links

Today’s Native Apps don’t allow for sharing content outside of readers who already have the App installed. Readers who don’t have the App, can’t be shared with – no easy way to take advantage of viral marketing from within an App.

Search Engine Visibility

Search engine visibility can be developed when your solution lives in the browser – not so with a Native App.  Anyone on any device (PC or mobile) with access to a search engine can easily access your digital edition magazine content – you can’t do that with a Native App!

App stores control access and customer relationships

With a Native App, you are subject to content policies and controls of the App Store owner, who may determine at any time that your App should be pulled.  In addition, when your readers buy or download an App, the App Store owner now owns the relationship to the reader, not the Publisher.  With Advanced Publishing’s mobile versions, access is managed via the same authentication that the PC version of the digital edition uses – so you control who gets access and the customer data that goes along with that.

Revenue Sharing – Each App store wants a piece of the action further fragmenting the potential business model for the publisher

Browser-based mobile viewers (Web Apps) are a better match across platforms

Developing Native Apps is a platform-specific game. They only work on specific devices using specific programming protocols and languages. Today, the map is relatively easy to develop for -- iPhone OS, Android OS, Web OS, Symbian and RIM OS. But other operating systems are on the way - with even more fragmentation to come -- which will add increasing complexity over time.

Browsers also come in different flavors. But the protocols, formats and web standards provide a mature framework to develop within making it relatively easy to keep on top of changes and upgraded versions.  In addition, the benefits of HTML5, which is just around the horizon, have great promise for even further standardization and rich capabilities that now require a browser plug in (ie Flash or Silverlight).

Limited Reader data via Native Apps Once a Native App is downloaded the connection to the reader is broken, therefore a publisher has no way of know how the reader interacted with the magazine – what did they read, what links were clicked, what video elements were viewed.  With Web Apps all reader activity, regardless of device is captured for the publisher to use for measurement in countless ways.

We are excited about the the pace of improvement in new wireless devices and the emerging power of smartphones.   At Advanced Publishing we work hard to evolve our solutions that allow our publishing customers focus on their expertise in creating and designing beautiful and compelling content, while we worry about getting that content in their readers hands in the most effective way!!

As the digital world changes at the speed of light, BPA has enacted some rule changes to deal with the evolving delivery of digital magazines.  A few of the key highlights of the changes:

1. BPA no longer requires physical addresses for every subscriber - an additional line that reads, “email address only” will be added to the geographic reporting paragraphs (B4/C6) for digital edition subscribers that only provide their email addresses.  This of couse makes a lot of sense and should simplify the qualification process for publishers.

2. BPA created different categories of digital magazines to provide for greater transparency for advertisers and media buyers.  Categories will reflect the extent to which the digital version may differ from the print version in relations to targeted audience and content changes/enhancements/additions.

3. Publishers can now fulfill requests for subscriptions with digital editions as long as the subscriber is given advance notice of the change to digital (if not specifically requested) and that the subsriber has the right to decline digital.

4.  BPA altered its language to change terminology from "digital editions" to "digital magazines" (for magazine publishers) and "e-editions" for newspaper publishers.

For any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at Advanced Publishing.

We were excited to see that two great stories of one of our digital magazine customers were selected as finalists in the Best Technical Content category.  You can click on the links below to read the content.

“The Fuel Economy Solution? Gasoline Direct Injection”  - July 2009

http://digital.motormagazine.com/DigitalAnywhere/viewer.aspx?id=19&pageId=42&refid=101177&s=hds

“Turn, Turn, Turn: Torque Wrench Tech” – June 2009

http://digital.motormagazine.com/DigitalAnywhere/viewer.aspx?id=18&pageId=36&refid=101177&s=hds

Congratulations to the Hearst team and all of the other nominees!

We are very excited to announce the release of the iPhone version for Advanced Publishing’s digital magazine and newspaper customers.  Our iPhone version includes several unique and industry first features that our publishers and readers will appreciate for their iPhone digital magazine.

Some of these features include:

• Live links on ads: All websites and email addresses on ads (and in the content) are all linked to allow readers to click to get more information and connect with advertisers.

• Full issue search: Enter search terms and see each page that the search term appears on as well as color highlighting on each page to easily find what you are looking for

• iPhone Reporting. As readers access content from various devices, publishers want to know which devices their readers are using to access magazine content. Publishers will be able to see how many people are using the iPhone to read their magazine from Advanced Publishing's realtime Publishers Access Center Portal

• Video: Video can be added to any page of the iPhone digital magazine

• Sharing: iPhone readers can share magazine content with their friends via email, or post links to their Facebook or Twitter page directly from the iPhone version

• Access: Seamless access to digital magazines using a single URL that will automatically detect the source --a PC or from an iPhone and deliver the appropriate version. No need to download an iPhone App. Readers can just use their iPhone (or iPod Touch) with its standard Safari browser

Our initial iPhone magazine, Illinois Realtor Magazine, can be accessed from any iphone by going to http://digitalmag.illinoisrealtor.org?id=1. This issue also has a video available for viewing on page 4 of the magazine that can be played by simply clicking the video play icon.

 In addition, as the smart phone market explodes with better devices and higher quality screens, we expect to follow this announcement with the launch our Blackberry version in less than a month. Our Blackberry version will be the industry's first full color digital magazine - also offering publishers the opportunity to add video to their Blackberry digital magazine, so stay tuned for more news..

This iPhone version will be rolled out to existing customers over the next few weeks.

It is not something we focus a lot of effort on in our company, but it is a great honor nonetheless when recognition for hard work comes along.  We were honored to receive such recognition earlier this week when the Province of New Brunswick selected Advanced Publishing as one of New Brunswick's most innovative businesses.  During a gala evening hosted by Business New Brunswick, the Premier awarded this honor to us!

Thanks to all of our customers who push us in our efforts to continually improve our product!  Thanks to our dedicated team who work tirelessly and enthusiastically to bring those ideas to life and serve all of our customers with the best product and best service!

L-R -Victor Boudreau, Minister of Business NB, Trish Connolly, CEO of Advanced Publishing, Shawn Graham, Premier of New Brunswick

We are excited to announce the availability of some key upgrades to our Real-time Reporting center within the Publishers Access Center.  Our unique internally developed analytics and reporting service allows us the ability to customize reports and data exclusively for the specific needs of our publishing customers.

Some of the new features include:

1. Advertiser reporting – a complete area that reports key data for each advertiser for their specific data – how many people viewed or interacted with each ad, how much time people spent on it, what clicks were made. 
2. A Second Dashboard that provides key summary data BY ISSUE – rather than by date, so you can see and compare key statistics on an issue by issue basis at a glance.
3. Enhanced Reader location information
4. Enhanced data downloading capabilities  
5. Additional tracking of more information – if a PDF download option is available, how many people chose that option, how many readers have various plug-ins installed - Silverlight or Flash etc. 

We will continue to add more features and reports over the next few months to provide even more data to help understand reader behavior. If you are not currently a customer and would like to test drive our Publishers Access Center - just drop me (tconnolly@advancedpublishing.com) a note and I will open up a guest account for you.

There was an interesting blog post that I just came across.  It is one of the few that I have seen providing some statistics on digital magazine open rates.  The information comes from a UK blog site Napier News  that covers electronic media in Europe. The findings were interesting (albeit the sample size was small):

• four titles had open rates of 11-12%
• one title had an open rate of 16%
• one title had an open rate of 19%

Mike Maynard goes on to say, "I tried to find some cause of the difference in open rate, but there was no link between circulation, publication frequency or publisher and the open rate."

The writer goes on to conlude that "Certainly it suggests that digital magazines are less likely to be opened than their paper sisters (if you believe the readership surveys). I’m not surprised that today print is still the favoured medium. But with the huge cost advantage of digital, I think the figures are pretty respectable. They’ll also be slighly under-reported as pass-on readership will not register as another unique reader."

This caused me to look at the statistics for some of our digital magazine customers to see where they fit under these measures.  For most of our publishing customers, we also deploy the emails announcing each new issue, so we have all the data readily available to measure how many people "received the issue notification" (i.e. email) and then went on to actually open the magazine.  I first looked at email click rates to see how many people clicked the email to access the new issue.  Results varied somewhat, but overall were very much in keeping with the percentages noted above.  This, however, is not the whole picture.  I then went into our Publishers Access Center to see how many people actually visited the issue in question.  Here in all cases, the numbers were much higher - often 30-40% higher.  What does this indicate?  First of all, readers are not necessarily using the email as the access point for the issue at the time they receive it.  Secondly, previous/back issues continue to get new readers long after the notification for a new issue is deployed, so the readership and value of a digital issue continues to grow overtime.  This is especially true where full archive search is readily available (as it is with our offering). 

One final point - I do not come to the same conclusion suggested by Mike.  I too am very sceptical about the accuracy of data that is derived by readership surveys and certainly know that as an avid magazine reader, I likely get 5-10 magazines that cross my desk each week.  While I fully intend to read them (and keep them on the corner of my desk to read when I get a moment), I rarely do.  I find myself every couple of weeks trashing/recycling a lot of magazines (most still with the polybag in tact) without having cracked the cover.  I would be difficult to convince that open rates for paper copies are much different than digital open rates.

While the debate between the print and digital worlds will likely continue for some time, there is no doubt that things will continue to change and evolve towards digital.  As a vendor, finding the perfect balance between ease of production for publishers, and the best viewing experience for readers will continue to drive our product development.  Ultimately it is about the power of the content and the relationship and experiences between the reader and the publisher that will lead to success.

Advanced Publishing is excited to sponsor an upcoming webinar discussion led by industry visionary Bob Sacks.  To register and attend, please go to:

http://www.foliomag.com/webinars/34394

At the recent Audience Development Conference in Chicago, BPA announced changes that may push the take up of digital subscriptions quickly. As noted in a June 8, 2009  article on Audience Development:

According to Glenn Schutz, manager, communications, BPA Worldwide, the Board approved "the reporting of non-requested electronic circ as non-qualified circulation with a paragraph 9 additional comment documenting the sources used."

Schutz added that the Board will also allow "publishers to convert their print customers to digital editions with the provisions that they notify the customers of the change and give them the ability to opt-out." 

While there continues to be debate over this issue, this ruling really only gives digital editions the same status as non-requested print circulation (and is already permitted by ABC).  During a time when many publishers are struggling with the increasing cost of print and distribution in the midst of an advertising recession, this ruling should help publishers move additional readers to digital.  By initially providing non-requested copies in digital this will allow publishers to serve new readers (and still count the circulation)  -- in hopes of encouraging readers to become qualified.  Several of our publishing clients are already being more aggressive in pushing out digital to readers who have requested print but are on controlled waiting lists for print subscriptions to become available.  We certainly don't get a sense that this ruling change will cause publishers to "spam" digital versions to anyone, but instead gives publishers an economic way to serve new and existing readers who they may not be able to serve with print quickly, if at all.

There is a very interesting article posted by Jack Shafer in his blog - Slate.  While Jack is not necessarily a strong supporter of the functionality of digital editions in the marketplace today (except for the New York Times - Times Reader), he makes some excellent points about the how the roll out of devices (and who controls the content on them) will play an increasingly critical part of business content distribution going forward.  Some of his key points that resonate with me:

• While the Kindle is a major step forward -with its wireless ability to download new content on the go -  the reader experience is still far from great - no colors or fonts or great image display. In addition, its display of non-kindle formats is very cumbersome.  Its design and functioning is intended to make Amazon the gatekeeper for newspaper and magazine content - with them benefiting and publishers potentially losing out as low penetration of the device itself will limit the market potential.
• Having an industry standard format that would be device agnostic to allow publisher's content to be distributed to many devices - current ones we have now (PCs, Mobile phones, Smart Phones, e-book readers) and ones that continue to evolve,  without a proprietary digital format would be ideal.
• Such a standard would allow Publishers to directly distribute content themselves, or alternatively use aggregators - like an itunes for magazine and newspaper content, to bundle and sell content in that way.
• Jack goes on to recognize that while the New York Times Reader format is a step ahead for the reader, he expresses some remorse that the great full page ads are not available, as they are in the print version.   In addition, he recognizes the need to marry great ad content with great content experience as the ultimate solution - for readers and for publishers who need to make money to support ongoing creation of such great content.

As a vendor in the digital edition marketplace today, we are a key part of this evolution, as we constantly work with publishers and readers to improve and deliver content in such a way to maximize the reader experience, maximize the advertising potential, and minimize the disruption to the current content creation and production processes.  There is no doubt that the creation of content will continue to evolve to reflect where the readers and revenue are.  As more readers move from print to digital, more effort will be placed in altering creation processes to create the best experience based on the device used to read. 

We certainly plan on being part of this evolution and hope to use technology to continue to adapt and evolve delivery solutions for our publishing customers.