Folio Publishes Indepth Study of the State of Digital Magazines

Folio Magazine recently published an indepth overview of the current state and trends in digital magazines.  You can review the entire group of articles here, but some of the highlights I found most interesting:

• Digital magazines appear not to be the transitional technology that they were perceived as not too long ago but are, instead, a hybrid technology of choice for many publishing brands and consumers.

• “The number of publications that are moving into their initial digital effort is still very significant,” says Steve Paxhia, lead analyst in the Publishing Strategy & Technology Practice at The Gilbane Group. “While the base isn’t large, the number is actually growing quite nicely. It’s safe to say that it is growing in excess of 25 percent per year.”

• The digital-magazine market has been vibrant for less than five years, but it nevertheless has enough maturity to have developed some interesting and important trends. Publishers are starting to realize, for example, that this isn’t simply a plug-in technology. It requires focus and attention for the initiative to be successful.

• the technology has gotten much more robust in the last couple of years. Vendors can add RSS feeds, enhanced ads, and many more bells and whistles, while the publisher still needs to supply only a PDF of the magazine. That means that small publishers who can’t afford to dedicate the resources necessary to keep up with cutting-edge trends can also participate.