Publishing > E-Magazines

Could the Internet help the Publishing industry?

The content managed magazine website was created by magazine publishers in order to promote the purchase of their magazine subscriptions, to create a archive content repository of articles from their magazines accessible through a search engine, and to sell additional advertising on the web to support the site itself. A recent study indicated that over 80% of these sites either lost money or broke even. Online customer acquisition could not be considered incremental, but merely another channel to collect subscriptions thus probably decreasing the effectiveness of other media. Initial technology and customer preference made it very hard to capitalize on micro-payments for archived content. Many companies pulled back from their ambitious plans to replicate their magazines online and expand the content through multimedia, additional articles, etc. The question remained unanswered as to how the Internet could lower costs, increase ad revenue and increase circulation, both in the US and Internationally.

Top

The Digital Magazine Subscription

Online distribution of a digital version of the magazine seemed an answer to this question. Technology was converging to make this a viable solution. Adobe's portable document format (PDF) combined with their Book-Reader made the creation of digital versions of magazines possible. Sophisticated e-commerce, email marketing, online order management, greater disk size, higher bandwidth for download and smaller portable devices for reading, such as the tablet PC, made the sales and distribution model possible. The only thing holding companies back was that accessing of these articles online did not constitute a verifiable addition to the magazine's audited circulation.

Then on January 8, 2003 the Business of Performing Audits (BPA) International's board of directors amended the digital magazine auditing rules. The first change allowed publishers to report digital circulation for the first time on a circulation statement instead of an audit report. The board also agreed to increase the time allowance for removal of subscribers whose email addresses become non-deliverable ("bouncebacks") to be as soon as possible, but no more than 90 days from receipt of the bounceback.

The Board defined a digital magazine as follows:
  • "multiple pages of content that are distributed as a unit. The digital version must be a replica of the printed version in terms of editorial (not advertising)."
  • "They are self-contained entities, not pages on a Web site or email newsletters - two entirely different forms of media with separate methods of circulation verification."


Top

Digital Magazine Advantage

Now publisher's were eager to consider digital distribution because they could now reap the benefits:
  • Cost Reduction - Conversion of existing subscriptions to digital version reduces costs of:
    • Printing
    • Paper
    • Postage
  • Circulation
    • New audit laws allow for conversion without reduction in circulation.
    • The costs of international subscriptions are significantly lower, leading to increased circulation.
    • Increased circulation when customer orders both versions.
  • Content Enrichment
    • Links to Advertiser's web sites to stream Video Commercials
    • Inclusion of additional rich media content
      • Audio
      • Video
      • Interactive games, quiz, polls, etc.
      • Extra text that could not fit in printed versions.
  • Advertising Revenue
    • Possible increase of Ad revenue as a result of increase of Circulation
    • arvato systems offers customizable digital distribution solution to the publishing industry

Top

arvato systems offers customizable digital distribution solution to publishing industry.

As a result of publishing interest, several online newsstands began operations to outsource digital delivery of magazines. The solutions these companies offered were often inflexible, difficult to integrate into existing systems and expensive. As systems developers and integrators, arvato systems developed a much more flexible offering. Utilizing it's J2EE compliant components for E-Commerce and Magazine Solutions, arvato systems has developed a solution based on highly robust open-source applications that they can either run for a publishing component or easily integrate into an existing magazine website. This solution is inexpensive, as there are no 3rd party licensing costs. It is scalable, as it relies on standard, clusterable, 3-tiered architecture. And, it can be easily customized to fit the requirements of any publishing organization.

Arvato systems can offer a variety of services and components for digital delivery of magazines and other publications, such as Quarterly and Yearly Reports, Product Catalogs, etc.

Top

Digital Magazine Packaging

  • File Processing
    • Produce PDF version of magazine w/w0 linking
    • Produce PDA versions of magazine for download
    • Bundle additional media with magazine.


  • DRM
    • Package Magazine/Media with Digital Rights utilizing Adobe Content Server..


Top

Digital Magazine Distribution

  • Email subscribers personalized links to Digital Magazine
  • List Import
  • List Management
  • Email creation tool
  • Delivery Reports
    • Summary reports
      • Total emails
      • Total delivered
      • Total downloads
    • Detail Report
      • All of the above by individual email address.
    • Content Hosting of Digital Magazine


Top

Back-End Integration

  • Subscription/E-Magazine Subcription/Circulation Interface
  • Financial Interfaces
    • Credit Card Integration
    • Other Offline or Online Payment Methods


Top

Subscription Handling

  • Subscription buyer flow
  • Credit card handling
    • Authorization
    • Settlement
    • Refunds
  • Survey authorization insertion to buyer flow
  • Reporting
    • Subscription Reports
    • Customer classification reports by personalized data.
    • Real time site and subscription monitoring.
  • CSR access to Subscription records, and download or access history.


Top