For Mixmag, buying an online community was a very good idea

Building an online reader community is one of those buzzphrases that crop up with increasing frequency in any discussion about the future of magazines – but I don’t often see the idea expanded beyond mailing lists,  comments on articles and blogs, and the odd forum. (And don’t get me started on creating a magazine twitter account and tweeting nothing but links to articles on the site or in the mag).

So I was interested in a report in yesterday’s Guardian about the enigmatic- but amusingly-named UK music publisher Development Hell buying Don’t Stay In, a social network for clubbers, which is, according to the press release one of the biggest online destinations for 18-24 year olds.

Aside from gig listings the site offers event tickets, photos, chatrooms and allows users to create and join groups. Users are also mailed a weekly newsletter listing events in their area they might be interested in. According to the press release DSI is profitable, generating income from club promotors and ticket sales as well as advertising.

Development Hell, publisher of The Word and Mixmag (which it bought from EMAP in 2006), plans ’sensitive cross-promotion’ with Mixmag and a new look for the site in the upcoming weeks.

Says MD Jerry Perkins:

Development Hell believes that, without community, magazines only tell half the story. We want people to spend more time with us than they do with anyone else and to be glad that they did. By bringing the world’s most popular clubbing site together with Mixmag, the world’s most popular dance music and clubbing magazine, we create a uniquely powerful coalition that delivers unrivalled impact for clubbers and brilliant value for advertisers.

It’s not hard to think of potential advantages for Mixmag here. Mixmag currently has an audited circulation of 37,139 while DSI apparently has 1 million unique visitors per month (the site is active in the UK, USA,  Spain, Ireland, Australia and France). Development Hell also have plans to launch a Brazillian edition of the mag in the summer, and you can be sure DSI will be launched at the same time.

More importantly perhaps, with voluntarily-shared info on the clubbing habits and preferences of many of the site’s users, DSI is a potential goldmine for the advertising and editorial divisions – enabling editors to fine-tune the editorial product and sales reps to justify ad buys to clients.

And when you take into account the good relationship the site must have with club and event promotors – they are now well-positioned to offer innovative cross-event/web/print campaigns to advertisers.

With all the speculation and angst over how(if) social networks will be effectively monetized, it’s great to see all the buzz rolled into a move that’s clear and sensible.

What would make you buy a digital magazine?

There’s been alot of hype recently around ereaders and their potential to save the publishing industry from certain ruin by providing the perfect delivery solution for digital editions of books, newspapers and, eventually, magazines. In fact, hardly a week goes by without someone (incl. Hearst, NewsCorp and Barnes & Noble) announcing that they too are working on a reader, one with a larger display, more suited to the reading and advertising requirements of newspapers and magazines.

Also, Folio.com reports that the US Audit Bureau of Circulation has announced changes to its definition of ‘digital edition‘. From June 2009 publishers may report all paid-for content published via digital means and not just exact electronic copies of the print edition – although reporting must be split into specified ‘replica’ and ‘non-replica’ categories. Magazine websites are not classified as digital editions.

Encouraged by all the buzz I’ve been spending a fair amount of time browsing digital editions on sites such as zinio and ceros, to see whether I can find anything that would convince me to shell out a couple of bucks for an edition – the key element of ereader-as-savior-of-the-industry theory.

This is how I came across VIVmag, the self-proclaimed first luxury digital magazine for women.

Published by outsiders to the mag industry (the chairman and CEO are co-founders of Fiji Water) and edited by Anne M Russell, whose previous titles include editor in chief of Shape, Vegetarian Times and Folio and editorial director of thehealthnetwork.com, the mag serves up pretty standard woman’s mag fare: fashion, beauty, health, travel, celebs etc.

Since VIVmag is only published digitally, I was keen to see how they would use the platform to justify a $30 pricetag for 6 editions (especially when you can get 12 digital editions of Elle for $6, or 12 issues of Redbook for $7.99).

And I’m afraid the whole experience has been pretty underwhelming. The few rich media flourishes, such as the pop-up info on the fashion and travel pages and video demonstrations of how to do a particular excercise are cute, but don’t really manage to dispel the impression of static pdf’s that have been jazzed up with pop-up boxes, an interactive quiz or two and some video.

If you were wondering about the “100% VIVIFIED” button on the cover: vivify is a verb the publisher’s have coined to signify ’some kind of rich-media enhancement’. So as you’re reading, this red V at the bottom of the page pops up, prompting you to VIVIFY. I found it a little annoying.

Screen grabs from a travel feature showing the pop-up boxes

I’m not sure whether the whole package would be more compelling if the content was unique or fresh – but I can’t get past the feeling while I’m reading, that it’s just not working.  I don’t like the meaningless gimmicks on the pages, I don’t like automatic-scrolling text that takes me by surprise and I especially don’t like the navigation. While the zinio slider feature at the bottom of the page allows you to flip back and forth through the mag, the pages are way too small to catch more than a headline and basic layout – which stymies the basic mode of interaction with a magazine (nobody sits down and reads a mag from front to back, in order).

Now I do note that circulation of BtoB digital magazines is rocketing, but I can’t help but feel that if general interest magazines are going to take off as digital editions, it will have to be in a completely different format – one that does not feel like an approximation of the print experience, but still sufficiently different from a website to entice readers to pay for it.

Someone’s going to do it, and I’m eager for examples. Let me know if you spot something!

Esquire publishes another buzz-generating cover

So the argument goes that in the face of digital domination print will remain relevant and appealing for it’s sheer tactile ‘printiness’. Esquire is certainly working that angle with a series of gimmicky/ ground-breaking covers that have managed, at the very least, to get them far more press than the average men’s monthly.

It started with their 75th anniversary issue in October last year, which featured an embedded e-ink screen on the covers of 100 000 copies (cost covered, in part, by the inside front ad for the new Ford Flex SUV, using a second e-ink screen.)

Then the February edition featured a peekaboo cover, inviting readers to peel back Obama’s face, revealing quotes from the issue and an ad.

Pic: nytimes.com

The Obama cover didn’t generate nearly as much hype as the e-ink cover, which is understandable given the target readers. Who would be be impressed by a trick normally employed by children’s book publishers when you could be flaming, hacking or otherwise abusing the amusing flashing e-ink cover.

But the publishers are sticking to their strategy, and are winding up the PR machine for the May edition’s mix ‘n match cover featuring Justin Timberlake, Pres. Obama and George Clooney. This one, I actually like. (Click for demo)

In an article in the New York Times, Esquire publisher Kevin O’ Malley had this to say about their drive for innovation: “The single biggest question advertisers are asking is how to engage the reader. Something like this serves up that engagement factor.”

Editor David Granger adds that he is looking for ways to get readers to interact with the magazine.

It may be working for select advertisers, but we’ll have to wait a few months to see whether the cover tricks win Esquire more readers at the newsstand. The mag’s current rate base is 700 000 copies, with a 84.2% subscription/ 15.5% newsstand split.

Note: Esquire is not the only magazine fiddling with its cover. Advertising Age has just run an article detailing how mags including Entertainment Weekly, ESPN and Rolling Stone are willing to get ‘creative’ with covers to accommodate non-conventional ads. The Esquire strategy however, is editorially driven.

Update 8 April: nytimes.com has an article today about the blurring lines between advertising and editorial on covers. These Esquire covers (and other examples) are mentioned.

How to market books and/or get people thinking about goats

For obvious reasons, it’s not very easy to convey the best qualities of reading, or of a particular book, in a video format, which is why I suppose most ads for books appear in print.

Bookarmy, my new favourite book-related website, has just launched a video function, where I came across what must rate as one of the most fun ads for a book I have ever seen. Click below to watch – and then run out to buy Alex Burrett’s book.

Publisher bets on social network to keep reading relevant

I feel I should point out that I have never worked for HarperCollins – but I am a fan. It’s hard not to be when they seem to be the only large corporate publishing company actively experimenting with technology, going beyond the industry embrace of ebooks, ereaders and internet marketing to produce something truely innovative.

This week HC announced the launch of bookarmy, a basic social networking site where booklovers can list, rate and recommend books they have read, form groups and engage in discussion with fellow fiction fanatics. The site lists the most-read and most highly rated books of the week, and also has a recommendations feature that makes suggestions based on what you’ve read and rated.

The site is still in beta, and will depend on scale for the recommendation algorithms to become finely tuned. A facebook app and other widgets are also still in development.

To my knowledge, this is the most ambitious attempt yet by a book publisher to reach out directly to the end consumers of its products. Yes, there are websites, a few blogs and and other marketing-focussed initiatives, but because of the way the book market works, and the fact that the author is the brand being sold, publishers have traditionally not had a direct, intimate relationship with readers.

Perhaps bookarmy is an attempt to bridge that gap. It sells itself as follows:

We love books and wanted to create an easy but reliable way for everyone to decide what to read next – based on real people’s recommendations.

Our aim is to create a site where all of the world’s books and authors are cleverly interconnected – where you can see what your favourite authors are reading and where you and your friends, family or classmates can read books together.

Given the cost of a project such as this, the business motivation must be broader than ‘we love books’. Since the site carries no HarperCollins branding, and there is no bias when it comes to recommending books and authors to readers, the obvious primary motive could be drive readers to read (and buy) more and find a way for the practice of reading long-format books, an essentially solitary activity, to become seamlessy integrated with younger readers’ socially-networked life.

There are also advantages to owning this platform. There is some ad revenue potential, but much, much more importantly, HC now is building up a database of reader habits and preferences which will (or at least, should) become an increasingly crucial part of shaping the publishing list.

While publishers have always relied to a certain degree business information in deciding what to publish (best-selling categories, authors, topical subjects etc), that information has always been one step removed. A bestseller list doesn’t tell you who bought the books, and what else they’ve read, and what other titles they may be tempted by. More information, better information = better investment decisions.

There is also the tantilising chance to see one of the most powerful book marketing forces – word of mouth – in action. And perhaps have at their disposal better tools for getting the ball rolling.

As electronic distribution erodes one of the last great barriers to entry into the book publishing business, the whole industry will be distilled down to its essence: finding good work, great authors and connecting them networks of readers. In this context, bookarmy looks increasingly like an excellent move.