User:Mark Lipowicz/Sandbox

Digital Magazines
Digital-replica magazines number in the thousands -- consumer and business publications, and house magazines for associations, institutions and corporations – and adoption was still increasing as of 2009.

Adoption by publishers accelerated when the circulation-audit bureaus such as BPA to give publishers the same credit for subscribers receiving facismile editions as for subscribers receiving print; this concept is being extended to other media reached by a publication’s brand.

A 2008 report funded by digital-replica technology providers and auditing agencies counted 1,786 digital-replica editions having more than 7 million circulation among business-to-business publications, of which 230 editions were audited The same report counted 1,470 digital-replica editions of consumer magazines having 5.5 million digital circulation, of which 240 editions were audited. These authors estimated that by yearend 2009 there would be 8,000 digital magazines, having a combined distribution of more than 30 million people

Surveys have shown that, while not all subscribers prefer a digital edition, some do because of the environmental benefit, also because digital magazines are searchable and may easily be passed along or linked to. One such survey funded by a digital publisherreported on inputs from more than 30,000 subscribers to business, consumer and other digital magazines

Digital Magazine Business Models

 * Reduced printing and distribution costs.

The ability for publishers to save by moving some or all subscribers from print to digital is widely accepted. Oracle magazine, which has 176,000 of its 516,000 subscribers receiving digital according to BPA, is said to be the most widely circulated digital edition of a business-to-business publication. Publishers who do this need to choose whether to make some issues all-digital, move some subscribers to digital edition, add some digital-only subscribers, or send all subscribers the digital edition


 * Paid subscription revenue

In 2009, a major consumer magazine, PC magazine, went all-digital, charging an annual subscription fee for its digital-replica edition PC Magazine subscription page

Many consumer magazines and newspapers are already available in eReader formats sold through booksellers. A running count may be seen with this search of the [http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.asp?CREF=1021943&TYP=Z&SRT=SA&FMT=33&O EF=1022371&cds2Pid=21910&linkid=1166256 the Barnes & Noble ecommerce site] which had 1,280 digital magazines available for purchase as of late October 2009.


 * Sponsorship and advertising revenue

Digital editions often carry special “front cover” advertising, or advertising on the email message alerting the subscriber to the digital edition. Publishers also produce special digital-only inserts, such as this supplement appended to the September 2009 issue of Healthcare IT News ** http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/medtech/hitn0909/#/0 **, and rich-media ads or advertorials, such as these video profiles in Habitat magazine
 * http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/habitat/20090708_kaled/#/38 **

Extra issues. Another approach is to replace entire printed issues with digital ones, or to use digital editions for extra issues that would otherwise have to be printed. An example of that is Consumer Goods Technology July/August 2009 issue, which was designed for the digital format and does not exist in print at all ** http://www.consumergoods-digital.com/consumergoodstechnology/20090708/ **