Three subscription pricing strategies that work

While the challenge of choosing the right subscription and single-copy pricing strategy is not new to magazine publishers, it’s virgin territory for most subscription website publishers and for many publishers exploring the digital newsstand landscape.

Even magazine publishers are faced with new economic realities when pricing publications online.

The marginal cost of delivering a digital subscription to your own website is near zero. The cost of delivering digital issues via digital newsstands and app stores is based on remit and the cost of delivering a digital issue paid to your digital publishing software provider (Mag+, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, etc.).

While the above is new, an Excel spreadsheet can help you map the right solution easily. The tougher decision is deciding how to position subscription versus single copy or limited access. It would be nice if there were a one-size-fits-all solution to this problem. There’s not. Depending upon your brand, delivery channels, and publishing economics (user, sponsor, or some hybrid of the two), one of these three solutions might be best for you.

Traditional pricing

You’ll find that those who aren’t bundling products through Universal Pricing or Contrast Pricing will be best served by the guidelines below:

Be fair and balanced: If you want to neutralize price in the subscription versus single-copy decision-making process, use the fair and balanced approach. Assuming you’re selling either a monthly issue or monthly access or both, set your price ratio at four-to-one. For a mass-market consumer brand, it might ideally be $19.97 per year or $4.97 per month (issue).

Encourage sampling: Consumers generally don’t like commitment. When considering the purchase of an information product with which they’re unfamiliar, they largely prefer to buy one. If you want to encourage this behavior and thus maximize your single copy or monthly access sales, price your annual subscription at $19.97 and price monthly access or single copies at $2.97. This pricing strategy still provides a powerful incentive to take the annual option, but will result in a much higher percentage of people that take the single copy or monthly access price. It’s worth noting there’s a huge difference in the long-term economics of selling monthly access to a subscription website for $2.97 on a recurring basis, than selling a single magazine or newsletter issue through a subscription application for $2.97 on a non-recurring basis.

Push the subscription: If your overall economics favor selling subscriptions, consider what many now call “no-brainer pricing,” which sets a ratio of about two-to-one. Assuming we’re still talking about a subscription priced at $19.97, this strategy would dictate a single copy or monthly access price of $9.97. Note: In all the above cases I am avoiding avalanche price barriers like $10 and $20. You should, too.

While many magazine and newsletter publishers have avoided building subscription websites and thus avoided the above decision matrix until now, the rapid growth of tablet computers and the sale of tablet-based app subscriptions is dragging them to include digital subscription marketing in their core long-term publishing strategy.

If you’re not bundling your services, follow the guidelines above.

However, as publishers begin to include website access in their long-term publishing strategy, they’re beginning to discover other ways of bundling web access into print and digital packages. The first, Universal Pricing, bundles platforms at a discount, but the second, Contrast Pricing, we’re finding is more profitable and gets consumers to pick higher priced bundles.

Universal pricing

Universal Digital Access, as a policy, creates an environment where subscribers can safely sample different platforms without fear of being left behind. From the publishers point of view, a subscriber is a horrible thing to waste, and anyone who subscribes to content on any platform, in any edition, is given premium access to their subscription website.

Contrast pricing

While some mega-publishers like TIME Inc. still employ the universal pricing strategy, The Economist has moved to our new favorite pricing model, contrast pricing – also known, less politely, as decoy pricing.

Contrast pricing takes advantage of the psychological phenomenon in which human beings, when asked to make a choice, tend to rely on the relative value of things compared and contrasted to other similar things. This theory has been beautifully illustrated in depth by Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, in his New York Times bestseller Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.

It’s the same phenomenon, Ariely notes, that causes our headaches to persist when we take a cheap pain pill, but magically alleviates them when we take a much more expensive remedy. As long as we have something to contrast a purchase with, we’ll choose the one that seems most valuable by contrast.

Ariely most famously examined The Economist a few years back, before digital magazines, when it made this offer:

• $59 – Subscription to the website
• $125 – Subscription to the print edition
• $125 – Subscription to the website and the print edition

The decoy price was the middle one: $125 for the print edition alone, when you could have the print edition and the website for the same price, was undesirable, and only served to establish the higher value of the last offer. That’s what I call maximizing your revenues!

Although we don’t have any numbers from The Economist to show how well it worked, Ariely ran a test by asking students to choose which offer they’d prefer. Unsurprisingly, the decoy worked beautifully, driving consumers to the highest priced offer:

• $59 – Website only: 16%
• $125 – Print edition only: 0%
• $125 – Website and print edition: 84%

Next, he removed the decoy price that made the last offer seem to be the most attractive. The results changed dramatically:

• $59 – Website only: 68%
• $125 – Website and print edition: 32%

The lesson? Bundle that digital magazine with at least one other product, and make sure you have three or more offers to drive more buyers to the highest price point.

More subscription pricing data on the way

Every week I hear from a colleague or client who has new data about the best pricing and promotion strategies for their digital subscription websites and digital apps. In many cases, they hadn’t even considered how single copy or monthly access pricing should play into their overall marketing and pricing strategy. That’s changing quickly. As new data and case studies appear, you can count on us to cover them here, and in our upcoming live events.

Happy testing!

This post was originally published in 2014 and has been updated regularly.

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Are you ready to learn how to start an online magazine? Try these tips!

Knowing how to start an online magazine requires first understanding the differences between an online magazine and the dozens of other publishing models available to you.

These differences range from the obvious – a comparison with print products, for instance, is pretty straightforward – to the more nuanced: say, discerning an online magazine from a digital magazine. What could possibly separate the two other than terminology?!

As it turns out, plenty. And there’s one crucial contrast that we’ll focus on here:

An online magazine, also referred to as a web magazine, is an HTML-prepped periodical built using responsive design, making it easily readable on a desktop, tablet or mobile phone’s brower. It’s often accessed as a subscription or print + digital combo. It’s self-contained, consumed in larger chunks for longer periods of time, and ideally includes a trove of archival content.

An online magazine is just one type of digital magazine.

If you’re still reading this, you have probably concluded an online magazine model is better suited to your publication, and you’re looking for help on how to start an online magazine.

But if you’re still unsure as to whether your content fits the mold of an online magazine or a digital magazine app (or, for that matter, an electronic newsletter, et al.), here’s a good litmus test:

Will people subscribe to your online magazine based on the quantity and quality of your content?

More to the point, will they actually sit down to read it from front to back?

In other words, will it be “appointment” or “event” reading, as opposed to intermittent check-ins for news updates and headlines?

Did you answer “yes” to all three of those questions? If so, let’s explore how to make it happen.

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 1

First things first: Find your niche.

You’re going to have a tough time starting a national news magazine these days, considering there are scores of national news magazines already out there – some of which are struggling to adapt to the new publishing paradigm.

Instead, aim for a more specialized area of interest. A niche. A hobby. A historical subject. A region. What are you an expert in? Does it match up with a void in the marketplace – or, even if not, can you do it better than the few publications out there? Can you generate enough content to sustain interest? It’s never been a better time to be a niche publisher.

Check out our case study on Prime Publishing’s I Like Crochet. It doesn’t get any more niche – or inspiringly successful – than that!

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 2

Decide how you’re going to monetize.

Yes, your revenue will likely depend largely on subscriptions, but you have a ton of options when it comes to magazine subscription website business models. And once you select your plan of attack, you have another decision to make: how to choose the best subscription pricing strategy.

Will you bundle products? Will you offer tiers and contrast pricing? Will you lock readers in or let them roam a bit?

And, of course, might you make a push for ads, as well?

Another tip: Start looking for domain names and vanity URLs now, even if it means leaving this post and returning in an hour or two!

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 3

Build your infrastructure and plan out how your content will take shape.

How do you envision your online magazine? Do you have a design in mind? More importantly, are you ready to commit to a content management system (CMS) that will give life to your online magazine and help manage your editorial workflow?

Mequoda Members use our Haven Nexus CXMS, which integrates everything from audience development to ecommerce to subscription (and even event) management, along with the standard publishing software, of course.

If you have a lot of content – or plan to – you’ll need a strong foundation to support it.

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 4

Use content you have, or start creating content.

Arguably your greatest asset in charting out a course for your online magazine is your capacity to host an online magazine library.

If you’ve been in the print business for a while, or even if you’ve been blogging or distributing newsletters, you must capitalize on that existing content and not let it go to waste.

Remember: If you’re a legacy publisher with existing content, you don’t have to start from scratch with an online magazine!

Update, reformat, standardize, and incorporate your evergreen articles and posts into an online magazine library.

Call a couple of colleagues or make a hire, because this step is going to take considerable elbow grease. The good news? It will end up generating significant revenue once all of that front-end work is done.

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 5

Determine how you’re going to develop an audience.

Yes, this means marketing starts now. You might think it’s time to sit back on the beach, grab a beer, and watch the money roll in with the waves, but all of the work you’ve done will go to waste if you don’t get the word out.

How do you do this? Again, you have a lot of options: email and freemiums are a must in attracting visitors you can convert into subscribers. So, too, is social media. Finding a good press release service is key, as well.

Do you now have a better grasp of how to start an online magazine? Are you ready to start the journey? Reach out and schedule a call to talk more about your future as online magazine publisher.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2015 and has been updated.

The post How to Start an Online Magazine With These Five Strategies appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

Nobody nails multiplatform growth better than magazines with a niche publishing strategy

When we set out nearly two decades ago to construct the most profitable niche publishing strategy for magazines, we took a big risk on how the new media industry would evolve. But it was a calculated risk, literally, as we broke down every aspect of digital publishing and then built it back up based on data analysis, audience behavior, and consumer magazine stats, and the market we watched take shape during our combined 130 years’ worth of experience.

Still, no one can predict the future. But now we know with certainty and can say with confidence that the Mequoda Method is the paragon of multiplatform publishing, which is gaining traction every day as the path to victory for magazine publishers across the country and around the world.

But we find that it’s the general interest mega mags who are skidding their knees on the sidelines, while niche publishers are the ones taking home all the gold medals, due to their comprehensive understanding of multiplatform publishing.

Niche publishers simply have a much easier time adapting to new platforms.

As stated by Tony Silber at Folio, “Clearly, new sources of revenue are where the action is. In fact, the MPA, the New York City-based association that produces the AMMC, used to report ad pages for its members, the 250-or-so largest consumer magazines, but that’s no longer the focus. Now, audience engagement is.”

And niche publishers are doing particularly well at engaging customers on many platforms.

For example, a far cry from simple replica versions of a print product came from one of the new breed of digital-first niche publishers. I Like Crochet is a web magazine that was launched in August of 2014 by Mequoda client Prime Publishing, publisher of 17 free craft websites and 13 free cooking sites. It is the first magazine published by Prime. It’s also what we at Mequoda believe is the magazine industry’s first-ever true website magazine, along with an associated app edition for tablet reading.

A niche publishing strategy for many platforms and many publications

Unlike traditional digital magazines, I Like Crochet is available not just on the iPad, but as an actual issue on the web, delivering a linear magazine experience complete with a table of contents and page-by-page navigation.

Naturally, it’s also enhanced so readers can click to go directly to specific projects. And even more importantly, all content is also available in a library, so subscribers can search back issues for, say, afghan patterns, all with a few clicks. Access to a library is what sets it apart from most digital magazines, representing what we think is on the edge of discovery information architecture.

But it’s not just the library that’s making waves in digital magazine innovation. Because the magazine is available on the web, this library-enhanced digital edition is accessible on any device that consumers use to access the Internet, regardless of platform.

And that is truly revolutionary, not only for readers, but for publishers who don’t have the vast resources required to create digital editions for every platform that different consumers use.

Another example is Mequoda Gold Member, DARK Report, which delivers the latest news for those who own and operate clinical labs, pathology groups, diagnostic tech companies, and lab industry suppliers. Yes, that’s a very small and focused niche, and they are the acknowledged leader there.

Like all Mequoda-compliant websites, it’s paired with a free portal, in this case The TDR Insider, to drive traffic and keep the audience engaged. And because the newsletter publisher can easily expand his offerings into events, DARK Report also offers an events website.

It draws some 700-plus people to its annual War College professional development event, where attendees are so loyal to DARK that upon meeting one of Mequoda’s team members a couple years ago, they were eager to cooperate and help Mequoda help DARK.

The journalists at DARK are extremely expert in this specialized field, producing pieces of 300-1,000 words for the website, on top of the print product, DARK Report.

In addition, Mequoda is a firm believer in the value of an archive of old issues, which can either be used as an entirely separate product or used in a product bundle to leverage contrast pricing. At DARK Report, it sits in two different bundles to increase their perceived value.

The Biblical Archaeology Society, a Mequoda Master and Rocket Award Winner, is a prestigious organization and magazine brand (Biblical Archaeology Review) that, like most niche magazines, decided to go through the Mequoda transformation after seeing traditional direct mail and newsstand sources decline in sales during the past 5 to 10 years.

At the same time, they were finding that they had a huge international audience that they weren’t previously reaching. So for them, going multiplatform wasn’t just a way to add a massive footprint online, it was also a way to reach out beyond North America.

We first started working with Sue and her team back in 2006, and she became a Gold Member officially in October 2010.

With the launch of Bible History Daily on July 25, 2011, they welcomed an entirely new global audience online through their portal, and magazine website to sell a tablet edition, plus the subsequent launch of the BAS Library, an online archive including 40 years of Biblical Archaeology Review (1975 to present), 20 years of Bible Review (1985 to 2005 complete) and eight years of Archaeology Odyssey (1998 to 2006 complete).

What’s interesting about the online magazine library is that Sue and her team has gone through lot of effort to arrange the library by topic and collection. It’s a lot like a museum in that they curated these collections of content that sometimes span magazine articles from BAR, but also include other titles that had historically been shuttered away. There’s lectures and a real diversity in the types of content offered.

In these few short years, Susan has turned her brand into a multiplatform publishing empire. Not only does she have a strong affinity content program on the web but she also has a multiplatform magazine, live events, an online library, and a series of DVDs. They’ve expanded their footprint, and their Bible History Daily portal powers it all – it’s their largest source of new magazine subscriptions, event attendees, video, and book sales.

It’s breathed new life into the entire organization, putting them on a growth path, instead of the slow decline they’d experienced for upward of a decade before going through the Mequoda transformation.

Wouldn’t you agree that niche publishers are best equipped to take on multiplatform publishing? We think so. If you want to see how they all did it, let’s talk more. Also, leave comments below and tell me who you think is nailing niche publishing strategy.

The post When a Great Niche Publishing Strategy Spurs Growth appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

Association magazines have potential for B2B publishing success; plus, Facebook Instant Articles, the latest personnel moves, and more

Can association magazines transcend membership readers to engage in some serious audience development? One big name in the business is offering a resounding yes. We have to agree, of course. Legacies, startups, brands, B2Bs, and, yes, professional groups – the world of publishing welcomes all, and the right blend of content and distribution will help you appeal to many different kinds of consumers, in addition to making you an authority in your field. 

With a built-in niche publishing strategy, association magazines have an advantage over others. The Mequoda Method will help you maximize that advantage. We have a stable of B2B and association magazines already, and find tremendous success with them, because they’re run by businesspeople who know how to come up with a plan and stick to it.

FolioMag.com has more on the potential of association magazines, plus more news on Facebook Instant Articles, Verizon’s publishing experience, and the latest in industry personnel moves.

Association Magazines Can Expand Audience Beyond Members

Fascinating interview on FolioMag.com with John Maisel, publisher of Electrical Contractor, the flagship magazine of the National Electrical Contractors Association. Under discussion is association magazines’ ability to become industry voices that have B2B-like appeal for a readers outside of their membership.

“Editorially, the mission is to provide a broad menu of award-winning content that addresses the varied and changing informational needs of our audience, and deliver that content cross a broad venue (print; various digital media, web, apps, e-newsletters, social media, video, webinars, etc.). Audience engagement is routinely measured and monitored for new opportunities,” Maisel tells Tom Zind.

“I firmly believe that with all that’s going on in the publishing business (print, digital, VR, etc.) most associations have a tremendous opportunity to grow their share of voice over the next several years in whatever channel they operate. With many of the traditional B2B ‘big guys’ in a severe state of disruption and confusion as to direction, etc., associations are in a unique position to offer leadership, direction, stability, and dominance in their respective spaces.”

Nielsen to Measure Facebook Instant Articles

Nielsen will soon track performance of Facebook Instant Articles content, FolioMag.com reports.

“Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings – launched last year in partnership with Adobe, who helped provide analytics—look to apply daily measurement to the performance of digital-media content (both static and video) across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Nielsen says measurement of audiences on gaming consoles and other over-the-top devices will be available soon, as well,” Greg Dool writes.

“As the number of channels publishers pursue in the race to reach consumers continues to increase, the goal of providing advertisers with total audience measurement at times seems loftier and more elusive by the day. Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings are essentially an attempt to contextualize digital audiences in the same way Nielsen has measured TV ratings for decades. The ratings are currently available to Nielsen clients, with a syndicated roll-out expected sometime this quarter.”

Brands as Publishers: Verizon’s Experience

Another excellent interview on FolioMag.com, this one with Verizon Vice President of Corporate Communications Torod Neptune discussing his company’s foray into publishing.

“Brand journalism is at its core using journalism practices to redefine ‘news’ and how we communicate that news on behalf of our brand. So in order to reach journalists and other stakeholder groups in context of this new reality, we have to take a different approach to engagement beyond traditional media relations/print journalists. We know developing media that matches what our brand stands for with what our audiences care about is a more effective way to develop a dedicated online following, shape media coverage and drive measurable business results,” Neptune tells Tony Silber.

“In terms of what’s the same, our business still remains relationship-based, which will remain a constant, regardless of how we choose to drive for brand influence across the platforms where we choose to tell our stories. Ultimately, brand journalism combines traditional brand management and storytelling, bringing them together around a new and dynamic communications platform.”

Latest Peregrinations for Publishing Executives

Hearst has named Michael Hainey as executive director of editorial for Esquire and editor-at-large for Town & Country, FolioMag.com reports. Plus, Melissa Harris-Perry is now editor-at-large at Elle.com; Marcus Weisgerber has been promoted to global business editor at Defense One; and Jamie Elden is the new president and CRO at Nylon.

Association magazines will benefit from the Mequoda Method as strongly as any other publishers. If you’re a “member” of one, download our free Multiplatform Publishing Strategy Handbook today to get started!

To read more about assocation magazines and other news, visit FolioMag.com.

The post Association Magazines – Not Just for Members Anymore? appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

Decades of experience yield guaranteed profits for smart publishers

Succeeding in the digital age of magazine publishing can seem daunting … but it doesn’t have to be.

For publishers seeking answers to a thousand questions, Mequoda has the answers, and we’re revealing them at our Digital Magazine Publishing Workshop on August 2, 2016. That’s thanks to having spent literally decades promoting magazines to the reading public – first in print and now including all the many variables that modern publishing requires.

As we’ve explained before, publishers won’t maximize profits unless they deliver five different editions of each magazine in their portfolio: Print, digital editions on the Apple, Amazon and Google platforms, and the revolutionary new web edition that’s platform-neutral.

The problem many publishers have with this idea is that pricing and marketing so many different editions seem chaotic at first glance. But it’s not as challenging as it seems.

Consumers make it easy: Our research and testing on dozens of brands proves that readers don’t want to choose one platform – they want it all. The only question remaining is how you get them to actually hand over the money for “all.” And that’s where our combined experience with direct mail campaigns from the old print days and electronic promotions in the digital age comes into play.

How to price five different editions?

There are three schools of thought on pricing modern magazines. The traditional model involves discreet pricing of all their different editions. (We fear this is largely because said publishers don’t have the technology on their website to do anything else.) It usually looks something like this:

• $19.97 – Digital magazine
• $24.97 – Print magazine
• $29.97 – Website

But this isn’t well-suited for multiplatform publishers, because consumers won’t perceive any extra value for the $24.97 or $29.97 prices. The only reason to choose anything but the lowest price is if the he or she is one of the vanishing breed who prefers print, or would rather consume content sitting at a desk.

Then there’s universal pricing, in which the subscriber gets access to your content on all  your platforms for one price. This allows subscribers who buy your tablet edition to have access to your entire website, which allows you to build a long-term relationship, increase brand loyalty and sell your other products. From the publisher’s point of view, a subscriber is a terrible thing to waste, and anyone who subscribes to content on any platform, in any edition, is given premium access to his products.

The drawback to universal pricing is that the publisher is leaving money on the table by essentially giving away two additional products for the price of one.

That brings us to the method we’ve perfected to the tune of thousands of dollars in additional revenues (that our Gold Member clients thank us for). This is contrast pricing, which takes advantage of the natural human inclination to make choices based on the relative value of things compared and contrasted to other similar things. It also plays to that desire our consumers express to have it all, making it simple for your customers to get it by choosing the all-in-one option, thus generating more orders, higher customer satisfaction and increased revenues.

The contrast pricing theory has been beautifully illustrated in depth by Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, in his New York Times bestseller, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.

If you want to learn how to use contrast pricing to sell more digital subscription products, attend our Digital Magazine Publishing Workshop on August 2.

Offers, offers, offers

It’s true: Finding the offer that will make you the most money was tricky even in the olden days when print was the only choice. Now you’ve got to calculate that offer for five different editions (hopefully priced for contrast in bundles!). Do you give subscribers something for free as an enticement to subscribe? Do you give them a trial subscription? Introductory price?

Believe it or now, this decision has actually gotten easier in the Internet era. We invented what we call the Offer Continuum, and in ancient times, that included 12 types of offers. Today, because we don’t do things such as “cash only” or sweepstakes offers, we’ve boiled it down to six.

Through literally decades of testing, we’ve also determined the success rate of each type of offer, which we call the response index. The most successful offer is indexed at 100, and less successful offer types will only get a certain percentage of that.

The least successful offer is a hard offer, in which they pay with their credit card up front, and get nothing else — no trial, no premium. This offer delivers only 25% response compared to the #1 offer, and before the Internet and email, this could still be a good strategy because it saved publishers a ton of money in mailing bills and conversion series efforts. Now, of course, that advantage has disappeared, so we don’t see much of this around anymore.

Of course, magazine subscription marketing must include long-term calculations such as how many renewals you get from subscribers who came in on the softest offer vs. the hardest offer. That means years of testing your offers to determine which ones work for your audience and your bottom line, but this continuum is the place to start.

If you want to learn which offers work best, attend our Digital Magazine Publishing Workshop on August 2.

Now about those incentives …

When using offers that included premiums, publishers used to give away everything from key rings to coffee mugs – or even (surprise!) content. Nowadays, publishers give away sample issues in their digital app to entice customers to buy something. Self offers an actual archive issue; Consumer Reports offers what looks like an old issue, but could be an issue compiled specifically for the purpose. A case study noted that for Popular Science, when they tested a specifically designed sample issue against a free trial, the sample issue, showing off the best of the digital edition, easily bested the free trial offer.

(Don’t hesitate to run your own similar test, though. Free trials are classic marketing techniques for a reason!)

There are plenty of other options, including access to, say, your digitized library. Mequoda’s clients and other publishers we study closely provide an array of incentive ideas. An effective technique in digital content marketing is “self-liquidating premiums”—having the value of premiums exceed the entire purchase price of your product.

Another incentive – or is it price? – concept to consider is introductory pricing, with two different prices for new subscribers and renewals, and step-up pricing, a strategy that has three prices: One for new subscribers, a slightly higher one for renewals, and an even higher price for those who have already renewed once.

If you want to learn which incentives generate the most subscriptions, attend our Digital Magazine Publishing Workshop on August 2.

And now, to put it all together …

If all of the above sounds confusing, have no fear. Mequoda has already organized, tested and documented exactly the right prices, offers and incentives for today’s digital publishers. And we teach it all to ambitious publishers, in just one day. This year we’re teaching our Digital Magazine Publishing Workshop on Tuesday, Aug. 2 in Boston, when my executive team and I will share all our strategies with you.

Because we teach it all in a single day, there’s no need for long hotel stays and no wasted time. Reservations for this one-day workshop that will change your business forever are now being taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

Here’s what you’ll learn at the Digital Magazine Publishing Workshop:

What American Magazine Readers Really Want to Buy 

As the author of the nation’s largest multi-year magazine study, The Mequoda 2016 Magazine Media Study, we’ll show you that consumers still value print products, and for which types of magazines they specifically prefer it. You’ll hear about the attributes of app-based magazines that appeal to consumers. You’ll also learn that consumers are divided on which platform is valuable to them – underscoring the need for triple platform publishing. You even hear about trends in spending for both print and digital editions.

This data will drive your decision-making going forward and provide a foundation for every publisher at this event to understand how Americans view magazine media and their consumption preferences. You’ll use our study’s results in designing products consumers will buy, read and renew.

And if you have any questions about this data, the author of the study will be on hand to answer them, interpret the data in the context of their experience working with hundreds of magazine publishers, and help you understand what it all means and what you should do about it.

The Five Magazine Editions You Can and Should Create

Here’s where you drill down into these editions discussed above and how to generate all of them without adding dozens of new staffers. We’ll discuss the attributes of each of these five editions in depth, what makes each one special and, of course, best practices for creating, delivering and marketing them.

The Prices, Offers, and Incentives You Must Test Now

Pricing and marketing all these new and unfamiliar editions might seem a long way outside your comfort zone, but Mequoda can make it seem like child’s play.

You’re about to discover the keys to the pricing revolution! Our research and testing on dozens of brands proves that readers don’t want to choose one platform – they want it all. And with our tried and true contrast pricing strategy, you can make it simple for your customers to get it by choosing the all-in-one option, generating more orders, higher customer satisfaction and increased revenues.

We’ll also walk you through a 13-week test program built on the same strategies we’ve used to build direct mail campaigns for decades. By the end of this session, you’ll understand all the variables and offer construction that still work in the digital age: hard and soft offers, introductory pricing, auto renewal, payment gateways. You’ll also learn the best practices that are required in a world where credit card continuous service is becoming the norm. 

How to Run an Integrated Multiplatform Marketing Campaign

Yes, we’re a long way from the old direct marketing days. But that doesn’t mean a marketing campaign has to be complicated. First, using the offers we just discussed, we’ll discuss the radical differences between that old-fashioned direct mail marketing and the new email marketing, which allows us to promote a magazine 52 times a year instead of just two, four or six times.

We’ll discuss how magazine cover story selection can drive sales in these campaigns, and explore incentives, premiums, special issues and free reports – how all of these are used to drive orders in the digital age. And all of this comes with a very disciplined campaign framework based on a 13-week cycle so that marketing is literally managed with Six Sigma discipline. This approach allows you to run 52 campaigns efficiently, fights fatigue and maximizes overall circulation, revenues and retention rates.

How to Upsell Print-Only Subscribers into More Expensive Digital Packages

The single biggest revenue opportunity available to publishers switching from print-only to a multi-edition magazine system for print, tablet and web editions lies in upselling your legacy subscribers into a multi-edition (or as we call it at Mequoda, multiplatform) package.

Based on the fundamental renewal principles that our executive team has used for decades, we’ve created an 18-effort postal and email renewal program in which we use offer, price, platform and incentives to maximize the number of customers that will choose to upgrade from being print-only postal renewals to multiplatform, continuous-service customers who now enjoy unlimited access to your premium content on all five platforms – and renewal mailing costs become obsolete.

You’ll get the same renewal program, upgraded for the digital era, that we introduced at TIME in 1995, and used at Computerworld, Modern Drummer, PC World, Consumer Reports and all of our highly successful niche publishing clients. You’ll learn exactly how to implement it and how to work smoothly with the leading fulfillment companies.

A Step-by-Step Roadmap for Making the Digital Transition

We know we’re proposing a significant change in the way you create, distribute and market your magazines. We know it sounds daunting – and we don’t recommend that publishers cherry-pick our strategies, or try to execute the Mequoda Method without the training we deliver in this workshop. So we’ll take all of the strategies you learned earlier and lay out a project timeline in which we identify all the milestones necessary for your transformation journey.

You’ll follow along through all the steps necessary for changing your production flow, and we’ll discuss how new bonus content like extra articles, videos and slideshows can be incorporated into your digital offerings.

We’ll also walk you through the process of becoming partners with Apple, Amazon and Google, how to select the right software, and how to troubleshoot the approval process.

You’ll even get a timeline for building a magazine website featuring all the features and functionality required for your profitable new system, accessible on all screen sizes and read in linear fashion. Everything from generating new issue announcements to promoting individual articles is included in this master schedule for your entire production, distribution and marketing programs.

12 Case Studies of Publishers Like You Who Have Blazed the Trail to Success

At end of the day, all of this theory is great – but we don’t stop there. You take home a list of 12 mentors you can follow as they execute this revolutionary publishing system every day, from Countryside to The Economist, from Loss Prevention to The Dark Report.

We’ll discuss the product offerings for both B2B and B2C publishers on our mentor list, studying their platforms via a multiplatform brand wheel, and discuss content strategy, audience development channels, pricing and revenue strategies.

All of our case studies will be live, cutting-edge mentors that you can follow after the program to use as a benchmark set for setting your own policies and for developing test ideas – so you won’t be left behind as the new magazine world continues to develop.

This is also a great opportunity for burning questions and drilling down into the way our examples apply to you.

You know that the magazine industry is evolving at an explosive rate, and that traditional publishers must keep up to thrive, or even survive. At the Digital Magazine Publishing Workshop on August 2, 2016, you’ll learn the strategies that hundreds of publishers already know, and that thousands more will be embracing in the years to come.

I urge you to register now, before all seats are filled. As much as we’d like to offer this workshop to more publishers, we just don’t have the time as we always put the needs of our 20+ Gold Member Organizations first – clients who have learned the Mequoda Method and value our help in implementing it for them.

The post The Prices, Offers, and Incentives You Must Test Now appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

Tracking the latest digital magazine publishing trends brings news from New York Media, Condé Nast, Greatist

There’s no shortage of interesting digital magazine publishing trends to watch, but hovering near the top has to be magazine subscription marketing.

With all of the “ad”-versity facing the industry – ad blocking programs, ad viewability, ad tech, etc. – it’s no wonder that digital publishers are trying to circle back and discover other ways of monetizing content. Subscriptions, of course, are a classic route, but it’s a route that has undergone some serious construction and detours since the heyday of blow-in cards.

MediaPost has a couple of recent stories on magazine subscriptions in the 21st-century. Let’s start the week right there!

New York Media Enlists Sailthru to Help Increase Magazine Subscriptions

New York Media isn’t messing around when it comes to boosting visitor conversion, as MediaPost reports that the media company has brought in Sailthru to maximize engagement.

“New York has a variety of different articles and subjects and topics of interest. Every New Yorker is going to have their favorite parts of the magazine. Why not reflect and highlight that and build an engagement based on what a reader is excited to read? … We select from the available content to match the content with your individual interest. We’ll actually scale all the available content and see which of the articles you are more interested in. We are going to highlight those in the daily newsletter and prioritize those,” Sailthru CEO Neil Lustig told Sara Guaglione.

“Part of our platform is some data science on which of your users are likely to churn and engage them differently and not wait for them to actually churn. … You have to adapt to the reader, find out where they are and communicate to them the subjects that they are interested in and in the mode they want to read it in — an app, web site, email, but more likely it’s a combination of all three. You can’t do this manually, you have to do this with machine learning. … If you don’t do that, you care going to lose readers.”

Subscription Boxes Among Latest Digital Magazine Publishing Trends?

MediaPost reports that Condé Nast properties Allure and Brides are collaborating on a subscription box, which seem to be permeating the publishing world.

“Allure and Brides magazines are collaborating on a bridal-themed Allure Beauty Box for summer 2016, the first of many beauty box collaborations between Condé Nast titles to come. The Beauty Box is Allure’s monthly subscription-based service containing product samples curated by editors. According to a statement, Allure will later release a travel-themed box with Condé Nast Traveler, a back-to-school themed box with Teen Vogue and a male grooming one with GQ,” Guaglione writes. 

Greatist Founder and CEO on Secrets of Millennial Media Success

Recommended interview recently posted at MediaPost with Greatist founder and CEO Derek Flanzraich.

“The way we reach millennials is starkly different from how other next-generation media companies are going about it. Search makes up such a large percentage of our traffic. Search is thought of often as bad. But for us, it’s completely organic. We write high-quality content in an authentic, fun voice. How we package and frame it is doing especially well in social and search,” Flanzraich told Guaglione.

“We monetize by creating engaging campaigns that resonate with millennials, shaping the way they think about our brand partners. It’s pretty amazing that we get to work with amazing brands like Kind, FitBit and other advertisers and help them shape their message with millennials. We are very selective about brands we work with, and when we work with the brands, we work to tell their story convincingly.”

Which digital magazine publishing trends are you tracking? Let us know in the comments!

To read more about digital magazine publishing trends, visit MediaPost.

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What is a digital magazine really? Is it clickable, scrollable, web-accessible, or all the above?

Magazines are designed to be read from front to back. They have covers and a table of contents. Magazines are arranged in a series of articles. Portals are not meant to be read from front to back, and are in no way linear. Users may begin on an article they found through search and hyperlink their way across the site in a matter of seconds. There is no true table of contents, although there is arrangement in the form of categories, topic pages, and related articles.

So what is a digital magazine? It’s a bit of a hybrid, and it’s not necessarily just an online magazine, although it could be!

Digital magazines and their many mobile formats

The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly ABC) defines a digital edition as distribution of a magazine’s content via electronic means. The digital edition must maintain the same identity of the host publication by maintaining the same brand characteristics.
 Mequoda agrees with this definition.

When a magazine goes digital and becomes an app, it becomes alive. And that’s scary for some publishers. Suddenly, ads become more valuable to advertisers because they can be clicked. Content becomes more rich because it can also be hyperlinked to references and authors on the web. Live content can be embedded into a magazine so the editorial content doesn’t stop at the final publish date.

And if you’re not ready for that kind of transition or development project, then your magazine has suddenly become ancient.

Many publishers in this situation, hurrying to keep up, launch digital replica editions. These editions are simple digital mockups that subscribers can read and download onto their mobile devices, in many cases they are PDFs. In our last survey of digital magazine readers, this was the least desired format to read a digital magazine because their most desired feature is scrollable text, whereas most replica editions require readers to pinch and zoom in order to read the text.

The more desired digital magazine formats include a replica plus and reflow plus.

Digital magazine subscription websites

A digital magazine may also come in another shape and size: a magazine subscription website.

A magazine subscription website archetype is set up to build subscriptions for a related print or digital magazine and to provide access to issues of the magazine online, often in an HTML format. I Like Crochet is a magazine subscription website, and TIME and MetroParent both have web magazines in their magazine susbcription websites (click those links to see them). All require registration for full access to the site; both offer their magazine content online; and both are organized by issue. We recently reviewed all three to determine the best features of great magazine subscription websites.

A magazine website is only a magazine website if the user can view or download an issue of a magazine—one that is linear and periodic, has pages and a regular frequency, and can be viewed in HTML, downloaded as a PDF or downloaded to a mobile device.

Many people refer to any website that carries a legacy magazine brand and magazine content as a magazine subscription website; however, if the content is not organized in a magazine format and issues cannot be viewed or downloaded, it doesn’t meet our basic criteria of being a magazine subscription website. It is, instead, a periodical subscription website.

As you may read in our description of the perfect digital magazine website, we think every publisher should offer their magazine in print, mobile, web, and library formats. In addition to the traditional digital formats, we suggest the addition of an archive of back content organized by topic (what we refer to as an online magazine library). Altogether, this forms a magazine reference website.

What is a digital magazine to you?

The combination of a magazine’s attributes make it desirable and “survivable” for some part of the reading population and that, paper or tablet, the essential attributes of a magazine will not change.

Consumers who love magazines are not going to let publishers change the characteristics of a magazine that have made the medium so successful over the years. However, there’s always room for improvement in format and accessibility.

When you think of the term “digital magazine,” what do you think of? Let’s discuss in the comments.

The post Let’s Clarify: What Is a Digital Magazine? appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

The media companies making the latest publishing business news include Conde Nast, Time Inc., and IAB

The watch word in recent weeks has been “reorg” when it comes to the publishing business news we’re following. Top-tier personnel changes, the elimination of the staff title “publisher,” and big waves being made in the advertising world are signalling an even more interesting time for digital magazines than we’re used to.

Let’s go to MediaPost.com for some of the latest headlines!

Conde Nast Readies for Reorganization …

Count Conde as the latest digital publisher to, well, cut the title of “publisher” from its operations. MediaPost.com reports that the change is just one of many the mega-legacy is undertaking.

“While the precise shape of the reforms remains unknown, many media watchers speculate that CN may be eliminating the role of publisher at some or all of its magazines. That means consolidating top leadership in order to enable more cross-brand sales spanning the company’s various properties. Sales could possibly organized around advertising categories, rather than individual titles,” Erik Sass writes.

“If CN scraps the publisher title, it will be in good company; several of its peers have already taken the plunge. Earlier this month, CN rival Hearst eliminated the traditional position at Elle Décor in addition to several other magazines, joining Veranda and House Beautiful, which both scrapped the publisher spot several years ago.”

… as Time Inc. Launches ‘Multi-Magazine Hubs’ …

Time Inc. is implementing multi-magazine hubs for the production process as well as new digital desks, MediaPost.com reports.

“Murray said the goal of each digital desk will be to ‘profitably grow’ Time Inc.’s digital audiences as well as help serve digital advertiser demands. Each desk will include reporters and editors from different Time Inc. brands who will continue in their roles, as well as coordinate with desk heads,” Sara Guaglione writes.

“This reorganization is likely an effort to pool resources from brands to better attract mobile and social audiences, as well as offer advertisers scale. … Murray stressed that the formation of the digital desks and magazine hubs is “not a centralization of edit teams” but reflects the ways Time Inc. reaches digital and magazine audiences differently.”

… and IAB Debuts New Ad Unit Portfolio

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has made a big announcement, MediaPost.com reports.

“The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on Monday released an overhaul of the ‘IAB Standard Ad Unit Portfolio‘ for public comment. The goal is to address brands’ growing need to reach consumers across multiple screens at scale, with ad units that integrate aspect-ratio–based flexible ad sizes. Flexible ad sizes allow for creative to adjust to a variety of screen sizes and resolution capabilities,” Tobi Elkin writes.

“Developed by the IAB Technology Laboratory, the portfolio incorporates the LEAN Principles of lightweight, encrypted, AdChoices supported, and non-invasive advertising within all of its display, mobile, video, and native ad formats. Each of the specs is based on HTML5 technology and informed by industry surveys, user research, and testing.”

Which publishing business news are you staying abreast of? Let us know in the comments!

To read more publishing business news, visit MediaPost.com.

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Listing this year’s best new magazine launches; plus, the future of Men’s Health and how The Atlantic handles changing social media patterns

Healthy print brands make for healthy multiplatform publishers – that’s a core Mequoda tenet. Today, we’ve got some examples of that: the 30 hottest new magazine launches, a big staffing move for Rodale’s Men’s Health, and The Atlantic’s adept social media strategy. Let’s get right to it with some recent articles from minOnline.com.

Samir Husni’s Top 30 Hottest New Magazine Launches

We look forward to this every year as a nice barometer for the publishing business: Samir “Mr. Magazine” Husni‘s 30 hottest new magazine launches (this edition includes Mequoda Master Bryan Welch‘s well-deserving B). Head over to minOnline.com for his full column leading up to the min Awards on December 8.

“In reaching my decision on what makes a magazine ‘hot,’ by far the number-one criteria point is the audience’s reaction to that magazine. How did the overall marketplace react and how did its intended audience respond to it? And, just as important, how did the industry behave toward it? These questions are the first thing I ask upon selection of the Hottest 30. Then, once I’ve answered those initial questions,  I really get down to work. Remember my mantra: Audience First,” Husni writes.

“So without further ado; here are the 30 Hottest New Launches for 2016 in alphabetical order: B Magazine, Bake From Scratch, Beekman 1802 Almanac, Celebrity Page, Classic Sewing, Color Magic!, FabUplus, Forged, Galerie, GQ Style, Hola!, Interior Design Homes, J-14 Decorate!, Jarry, Kazoo, Live With Heart and Soul, Living the Country Life, Lonely Planet, Misadventures, My Herbs, Pallet, Permaculture, Providence, Southern Cast Iron, Spoonful, SwimSwam, Tablet, The Clever Root, Tread, Women’s Golf Journal.”

New Men’s Health Editor on Future of Magazine’s Brand

Matt Bean is returning to Rodale after a successful stint at Time Inc., and minOnline.com has a great interview with him.

“Men’s Health is a powerhouse brand, which I’ve known for years. What clinched it for me was meeting (or re-meeting) the core leadership team that Maria [Rodale] has put in place. Nobody wants to follow the same old script. Everyone wants to move quickly. The new folks there get it, and everyone else I trust and know well. In a period of industry-wide transition, trust and vision are the two most important ingredients. Rodale is small enough to allow change to happen more quickly, where risks can be embraced. You need to shake it up and take chances, and it feels like we’re willing to do that now, and we have the team to do that. It matters to me that we have a different perspective, from the top down. Maria’s the only female CEO among the major magazine publishers. That’s incredible. She’s proven that she is willing to make bold moves. And Beth Buehler, who just took on the COO role, is phenomenal. She and her team will be crucial partners as we move ahead,” Bean tells Caysey Welton.

“Finally, we need to add new voices to the mix of writers and experts. I’ll be reaching out to many of the best and brightest minds to help us build the pipeline. The brand’s perspective has never been more relevant, but we need new voices in the fold to help it take shape and evolve along with the reader.”

Atlantic Senior Editor on Social Media Strategy

Highly recommended and relevant minOnline.com interview with Atlantic Senior Editor Caitlin Frazier on how the magazine adjusts to shifting social media patterns.

“There’s more competition for the social user than ever before. And a lot of those competitors are appealing to the identities of their users, whether it’s publishers targeted at women, men, Millennials, progressives, conservatives, parents, singles, etc. It’s impossible to think of the social media user as any one thing. Because today, it’s everyone. But that’s both a challenge and an opportunity. How can we cut through the noise and build an audience of core readers? That’s the real reward,” Frazier tells Jameson Doris.

“I’ve been doing social and audience development work for almost five years and online audiences have become much more sophisticated. You can’t just serve everyone the exact same thing in the same way. A reader needs a reason to follow your main Facebook page, and your politics-focused page, and your Instagram account. And tailoring all those things and understanding the nuances of the audience takes more work and more staff.”

What are your thoughts on these new magazine launches? Any you would add? Let us know in the comments!

To read more about new magazine launches and other industry news, visit minOnline.com.

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Multiplatform publisher news for keeping up with a changing industry

We begin today’s multiplatform publisher news with a look at Condé Nast, who is making a big move by eliminating the role of publishers. minOnline has the story, who says “The reorganization — anticipated even before the cross-title combination of creative, research, copy teams in October — adds new capabilities to the publisher. These include the division of sales between brand-specific and industry-specific teams, and the creation of a new events and experience business. It also eliminates the Condé Nast Media Group (CNMG), which previously oversaw ad programs spanning multiple titles.”

“The new structure comes as publishers across the industry look to consolidate resources and find more efficient ways to bring in revenues. Similar overhauls at other magazine companies, including the elimination of publishers at Time Inc., have eliminated brand silos while giving advertisers simplified access to multiple magazine titles.”

The article continues by discussing how publishers have been repositioned into new roles. “Six publishers were repositioned into the newly created role of Chief Business Officer, a multi-brand position that focuses on revenues and client relationships at set titles…In addition to the business officer role, Condé Nast has added industry-specific ad sales, under the leadership of Chief Industry Officers. This position is much like the “category sales” created by Time Inc. in a similar restructuring last July.”

Next, we’re looking at Salon Media Group, which has received an investment from Spear Point. Folio: has the story. “Spear Point Capital Management has invested $1 million into Salon Media Group. The deal, which closed last Friday, gives the public-equity firm 29 percent of the common stock for the 22-year-old publicly held web magazine.”

“Spear Point isn’t new to the media game. The activist hedge fund, which invests primarily in publicly traded companies with less than $2.0 billion in market capitalization, holds about 5 percent stake in TheStreet.com, according to New York Post.”

The article continues with news on some new management from Spear Point. “Along with the investment come three new board members — Spear Point managing partners Ron Bienvenu and Trevor Colhoun, and Dick MacWilliams, who will serve as chairman.”

On the topic of staff changes, we’re seeing news out of Meredith Corp. Folio: has the story. “Just one week removed from a quarterly earnings report touting “record-breaking” company revenue, Meredith Corp. has laid off 40 staffers, a company spokesman confirmed to Folio:.”

“The cuts represent just over 1 percent of the 3,800 employees at the women’s publishing giant, whose brands include Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, and Shape, among several others. The company declined to provide specifics on which roles were eliminated in this latest round of restructuring — which arrives about 15 months after a similar culling of around 40 staffers in late 2015 — but did note that half of those let go are located in Meredith’s New York office, where much of the Des Moines, Iowa-based company’s sales and marketing talent is concentrated.”

The article continues by considering the current positioning of Meredith. “The reorganization comes at a time of heightened speculation over a potential Meredith-Time Inc. merger, rumors that helped drive both companies’ stock prices to 52-week highs in recent weeks. Bloomberg reported on January 5 that Meredith had officially approached Time Inc. to express interest in such a deal, but both sides have remained tight-lipped since.”

We wish the best to all of these multiplatform publishers making moves.

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Driving website traffic happens beyond Facebook in the world of social; Meredith launches brand for Facebook and hubs; Google outlines Flexible Sampling for publishers 

Driving website traffic is always on the mind of audience development managers. We’re seeing publishers acting in accordance with this notion, as they dive deeper into a variety of locations, including Facebook, but also beyond Facebook.

Today we begin with a look at the shift away from Facebook as publishers try alternative social networks. Digiday reports, “Facebook is still a big source of referral traffic for publishers overall. But it has declined as a referral source relative to Google and left publishers frustrated with lagging monetization opportunities in key areas like video. Meanwhile, other platforms have stepped up, offering publishers more attention (Google and Apple News), financial rewards (Snapchat) and a growing audience and better user experience (Instagram).”

The article continues with examples of publishers (CNN and HuffPost) trying other audience development strategies for driving website traffic. “CNN’s platform distribution team is de-emphasizing Facebook while increasing its focus on Apple News — Apple’s news aggregation app that’s baked into its mobile devices — and Snapchat, said Andrew Morse, evp at CNN, who oversees its digital editorial efforts.”

“HuffPost was the biggest publisher on Facebook last year in total likes, comments and shares, by NewsWhip’s measurement. This year, it’s been making a big push to diversify beyond Facebook to Twitter and Instagram, where it sees a lot of room for growth, said Ethan Klapper, global social media editor for HuffPost. Along with that change in platform focus, he’s reassigning the social team to be subject-centric and audience-centric, rather than platform-centric.”

Our next story looks at Meredith’s new wellness brand and its strategy to focus deeply on Facebook and its social hubs. MediaPost reports, “Meredith Corp. is launching a wellness and health vertical called Strive, which will be distributed on Facebook and on hubs across five of its titles, including Martha Stewart, Shape, Better Homes & Gardens, Parents and Eating Well.”

The article continues with information on the publishing team and the vertical’s focus. “Strive has a team of about 10 dedicated to the new vertical. Jennifer Braunschweiger, editor-in-chief of Strive, will work in collaboration with the editors of Meredith’s titles to create unique content to fit each brand’s specific audience.”

“Editorial will include stories on aging, food recipes and interviews. Braunschweiger said video will be a large component of Strive, and it will begin to roll out next month. She said Strive differs from other health and wellness brands because all of its editorial will be backed by research and peer-reviewed medical studies.”

Our last story looks at Google’s replacement of “first click free” with “flexible sampling, the new rules of the program, and how it can aid in driving website traffic for publishers. MediaPost reports, “Richard Gingras, vice president of News at Google, explains how the Mountain View, California company has been working with publishers, allowing each individual publication to determine the best number of free articles and pieces of content, if any, that each reader can access before they have to pay.”

The article continues with new updates to the service. “Along with the news, Google published a set of detailed best practices to help publishers implement flexible sampling and make it easier for readers to subscribe. The two types of sampling that Google advises publishers to use are known as metering — which provides readers with a quota of free articles to consume before encountering a paywall — and lead-in, which offers a portion of an article’s content without it being shown in full.”

Is driving website traffic on your mind too? Do you need help creating an effective audience development strategy? If so, set up a time to chat with us. We have extensive experience with helping publishers increase their website traffic numbers.

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Steve Lacy, Meredith’s executive chairman, has evolved the company over the years to become the biggest multiplatform publisher in the business, and that involves turning to a variety of partnerships to make up for a decrease in advertising revenue

An organization needs to meet its audience where it exists to survive as a multiplatform publisher, and changing with the times is what allows some publishers to stay relevant and profitable when many around are unable to do so.

Today we’re looking at an interview with Steve Lacy, Meredith Corporation’s executive chairman, and the process of its multiplatform publishing strategy development throughout the years.

We begin with an introduction to Meredith Corporation’s assets. The NY Times reports, “For now, Meredith owns 40 magazines to go with its 17 television stations and 50 websites. The Time Inc. deal gave new life to Meredith’s digital and video operations, increasing the number of unique monthly visitors to its websites from 80 million to 170 million. And Meredith officials say the company will generate $700 million in annual digital advertising revenue.”

The article continues with a look at the company’s initial foray into multiplatform publishing. “In 1922, after serving as the secretary of agriculture under President Woodrow Wilson, Mr. Meredith introduced Fruit, Garden and Home, later renamed Better Homes and Gardens. After his death, the company went public, moved into the television business and expanded its magazine portfolio with titles including Country Home, Wood and Midwest Living. It has since added Family Circle, Parents, Shape, Allrecipes, Martha Stewart Living and Magnolia Journal, among other publications.”

As the years progressed and advertising revenue came to a place of decline, Meredith turned towards other initiatives to stay relevant as a multiplatform publisher. “To make up for the decline in print advertising that has afflicted the industry, Meredith has turned to other sources of revenue, including a retail partnership with Walmart and a Better Homes and Gardens real estate agency. But with a focus on evergreen subjects, it has proved better able to weather the downturn than media companies that chase after the latest news-break or trend.”

“More than 60 percent of Meredith’s $1.7 billion in revenue comes from its magazine business. The company has also been able to keep costs low in a way that executives at the New York-based Condé Nast and Hearst can only envy.”

Perhaps it’s the connection to the Heartland that is helping Meredith Corporation with the success it has found. Stephen Orr, editor in chief of Better Homes and Gardens, shares his opinion on the company’s culture. “The Midwestern aspect of it — the base of it and the headquarters of it being in Des Moines — I think does infuse the whole company with a kind of Midwestern practicality.”

Do you want to take a multiplatform publisher approach that meets your target audience through a variety of channels like the ones Meredith Corporation has utilized? If you’d like to discuss how we can help you increase your audience, revenue and profits, please reach out to schedule a no obligation chat with a member of our consulting team.

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How to sell digital magazines online as the demand for many platforms rises

It’s amazing to look back just 5 or so years ago, when digital magazines were still something of a novelty. Today, it’s a given that print publishers have some version of a digital edition of their magazine, either app or web.

There are also publishing entrepreneurs who have launched from scratch with print, digital and website simultaneously, and even established websites with no magazine at all are beginning to create their own magazines – multiplatform publishing run backward, so to speak.

But even as they’ve become part of the norm, everyone is still trying to figure out how to sell digital magazine apps and web magazines in this brave new world. Sometimes the newest and hottest ideas are just that – ideas. We’re focused on strategies that have actually been executed and demonstrated to work.

So here are 8 strategies we’ve compiled for selling digital magazine apps and web magazines, and as always, we welcome your ideas in the comments below.

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 1

Track device users: If you’re making even the smallest effort at online audience development, you’re getting a sizable number of unique visitors to your website. You should always identify those visitors who arrive on a mobile device, and deliver a floater with a digital subscription offer they can’t refuse. This will help you sell digital magazines in the future because you’ll have the benefit of data to guide your decisions.

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 2

Keep the whole pie: At Mequoda, we always build a web magazine subscription website as a companion to our Gold Members’ magazines. Besides the obvious benefits of audience development, subscription websites are vital in selling digital magazines, because you can do so directly from your website.

If you also have an app, take the money yourself. Send them to Apple for fulfillment, and you don’t owe Apple a dime. Why? Because Apple’s primary interest is selling iPads, and as long as your subscription website isn’t a competitor retail site, the company is happy. Bonus: You get to gather the customer’s data, which Apple doesn’t willingly share and is a sore point for many publishers.

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 3 

Leverage your back issues: There’s gold in them thar archives! One of the product bundles offered by Scientific American includes print, digital and the incredible archive that SA fully digitized – a couple hundred thousand articles, dating back to the magazine’s first issue in August 1845 and including contributors such as Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.

And while few publishers have an archive as old and rich as SA’s, most legacy publishers have older content that their subscribers would love to access. For instance, Mequoda Gold Member Biblical Archaeology Society has digitized back issues of its current magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review, along with its retired titles. Bundling that archive with the digital magazine (and leveraging decoy pricing) consistently delivers more sales and revenue than the digital magazine or the library alone.

BAS, by the way, combines Best Practice 2 with Best Practice 3 for a profitable two-fer!

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 4

Practice Six Sigma subscription marketing: Launch a high-frequency Six Sigma email spotlight program focused on selling more magazine subscriptions. For one client, we increased the number of magazine spotlights from the standard 2-3X per week to 5X per week and introduced editorially-driven creative to alternate between offer-driven creative. We saw a 70% increase in their TOPX (total orders per 10K email subscribers) from this program.  

The email campaigns are planned and measured in 2-week cycles, where we identify the 5 best performing spotlights and the 5 worst performing spotlights in a given 2-week cycle. We keep the 5 winners and include them in the next 2-week email cycle, and we replace the 5 losers with brand new creative.

Meanwhile, we are also testing the offer. For example, for this particular client, we ran one offer for 4 weeks and we ran a different offer for the next 4 weeks. The reason we recommend doing offer testing sequentially is because of the multi-device nature in which our consumers engage with our content.

For example, they may be reading your emails on their phone, but prefer to visit your website on their computers to subscribe to your magazine. In this scenario, we’d want the consumer to be able to find the same offer on your website as they saw in email. This can present a challenge of course in measuring attribution, but we prefer this approach as it provides a cleaner read on the strength of a particular offer when it’s the only one being promoted across web, email and social. 

While this approach is a significant amount of work, requiring active coordination between editorial and marketing, on-the-spot analytics, great copywriting, and interaction with fulfillment to manage the offers, we have seen it work and strongly recommend all publishers try it. For more, read Six Sigma Subscription Marketing: 12 Offers That Boost Response Rates.

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 5

Start with a soft offer: Selling your magazine without a soft offer, like a free trial or a free incentive, is tough. We’ve seen hard offers work with low introductory prices, but at full price, selling these alone can be a hard way to make a living.

Hard offers typically deliver only 25% of the response that can be generated using soft offers, such as free trials and free issues.  We experience a higher response rate when we test trial offers that include incentives such as free special issues or other digital content available only to premium subscribers.

With introductory pricing, we recommend using two different prices for new subscribers and renewals. Another option we often recommend is step-up pricing, a strategy that has three prices: One for new subscribers, a slightly higher one for renewals, and an even higher price for those who have already renewed once.

Start thinking about new ways you can begin subscription offer testing and how you’re going to leverage your editorial team and their expertise to craft intriguing copy specific to what the consumer will find in the current or archived issue of the magazine you’re promoting. Start coordinating with your fulfillment team to create different offer types to include free trials and monthly price points billed quarterly or bi-monthly. 

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 6

Sample issue: As I’ve mentioned before, some publishers give away sample issues, or have a metered paywall to entice customers to buy a subscription. A case study noted that for Popular Science, when they tested a specifically-designed sample issue against a free trial, the sample issue, showing off the best of the digital edition, easily bested the free trial offer. (Don’t hesitate to run your own similar test, though. Free trials are classic marketing techniques for a reason!) 

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 7 

Low-tech paper: There’s no excuse not to market to your existing print subscribers. Include a special offer for them when you have to send a renewal or billing notice anyway, and the cost is minimal.

How to sell digital magazines, Best Practice 8

Promote them: This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s shocking to us how many publishers (and we’re talking big players) have elaborate websites hosting subscription pages to build print circulation … but their digital products go unmentioned. On the platform where they’re most likely to find their tech-savvy readers! Don’t hide your digital editions under a barrel!

What about you? Got any tips or tricks we should include in this list? Selling digital magazines is an area where we could all use new ideas, and one that’s changing daily.

This post was originally published in 2013 and is regularly updated.

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Three subscription pricing strategies that work

While the challenge of choosing the right subscription and single-copy pricing strategy is not new to magazine publishers, it’s virgin territory for most subscription website publishers and for many publishers exploring the digital newsstand landscape.

Even magazine publishers are faced with new economic realities when pricing publications online.

The marginal cost of delivering a digital subscription to your own website is near zero. The cost of delivering digital issues via digital newsstands and app stores is based on remit and the cost of delivering a digital issue paid to your digital publishing software provider (Mag+, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, etc.).

While the above is new, an Excel spreadsheet can help you map the right solution easily. The tougher decision is deciding how to position subscription versus single copy or limited access. It would be nice if there were a one-size-fits-all solution to this problem. There’s not. Depending upon your brand, delivery channels, and publishing economics (user, sponsor, or some hybrid of the two), one of these three solutions might be best for you.

Traditional pricing

You’ll find that those who aren’t bundling products through Universal Pricing or Contrast Pricing will be best served by the guidelines below:

Be fair and balanced: If you want to neutralize price in the subscription versus single-copy decision-making process, use the fair and balanced approach. Assuming you’re selling either a monthly issue or monthly access or both, set your price ratio at four-to-one. For a mass-market consumer brand, it might ideally be $19.97 per year or $4.97 per month (issue).

Encourage sampling: Consumers generally don’t like commitment. When considering the purchase of an information product with which they’re unfamiliar, they largely prefer to buy one. If you want to encourage this behavior and thus maximize your single copy or monthly access sales, price your annual subscription at $19.97 and price monthly access or single copies at $2.97. This pricing strategy still provides a powerful incentive to take the annual option, but will result in a much higher percentage of people that take the single copy or monthly access price. It’s worth noting there’s a huge difference in the long-term economics of selling monthly access to a subscription website for $2.97 on a recurring basis, than selling a single magazine or newsletter issue through a subscription application for $2.97 on a non-recurring basis.

Push the subscription: If your overall economics favor selling subscriptions, consider what many now call “no-brainer pricing,” which sets a ratio of about two-to-one. Assuming we’re still talking about a subscription priced at $19.97, this strategy would dictate a single copy or monthly access price of $9.97. Note: In all the above cases I am avoiding avalanche price barriers like $10 and $20. You should, too.

While many magazine and newsletter publishers have avoided building subscription websites and thus avoided the above decision matrix until now, the rapid growth of tablet computers and the sale of tablet-based app subscriptions is dragging them to include digital subscription marketing in their core long-term publishing strategy.

If you’re not bundling your services, follow the guidelines above.

However, as publishers begin to include website access in their long-term publishing strategy, they’re beginning to discover other ways of bundling web access into print and digital packages. The first, Universal Pricing, bundles platforms at a discount, but the second, Contrast Pricing, we’re finding is more profitable and gets consumers to pick higher priced bundles.

Universal pricing

Universal Digital Access, as a policy, creates an environment where subscribers can safely sample different platforms without fear of being left behind. From the publishers point of view, a subscriber is a horrible thing to waste, and anyone who subscribes to content on any platform, in any edition, is given premium access to their subscription website.

Contrast pricing

While some mega-publishers still employ the universal pricing strategy, others have moved to our new favorite pricing model, contrast pricing – also known, less politely, as decoy pricing.

Contrast pricing takes advantage of the psychological phenomenon in which human beings, when asked to make a choice, tend to rely on the relative value of things compared and contrasted to other similar things. This theory has been beautifully illustrated in depth by Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, in his New York Times bestseller Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.

It’s the same phenomenon, Ariely notes, that causes our headaches to persist when we take a cheap pain pill, but magically alleviates them when we take a much more expensive remedy. As long as we have something to contrast a purchase with, we’ll choose the one that seems most valuable by contrast.

Ariely most famously examined The Economist a few years back, before digital magazines, when it made this offer:

• $59 – Subscription to the website
• $125 – Subscription to the print edition
• $125 – Subscription to the website and the print edition

The decoy price was the middle one: $125 for the print edition alone, when you could have the print edition and the website for the same price, was undesirable, and only served to establish the higher value of the last offer. That’s what I call maximizing your revenues!

Although we don’t have any numbers from The Economist to show how well it worked, Ariely ran a test by asking students to choose which offer they’d prefer. Unsurprisingly, the decoy worked beautifully, driving consumers to the highest priced offer:

• $59 – Website only: 16%
• $125 – Print edition only: 0%
• $125 – Website and print edition: 84%

Next, he removed the decoy price that made the last offer seem to be the most attractive. The results changed dramatically:

• $59 – Website only: 68%
• $125 – Website and print edition: 32%

The lesson? Bundle that digital magazine with at least one other product, and make sure you have three or more offers to drive more buyers to the highest price point.

More subscription pricing data on the way

Every week I hear from a colleague or client who has new data about the best pricing and promotion strategies for their digital subscription websites and digital apps. In many cases, they hadn’t even considered how single copy or monthly access pricing should play into their overall marketing and pricing strategy. That’s changing quickly. As new data and case studies appear, you can count on us to cover them here, and in our upcoming live events.

In the meantime, read more about Six Sigma offer testing and our 12 best offers to test. If you need help developing a strategic marketing plan for your subscription publishing business, please schedule a call with our consulting team. 

This post was originally published in 2014 and has been updated regularly.

The post How to Choose the Best Subscription Pricing & Single-Copy Pricing Strategy for Your Subscription Websites appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

What is a digital magazine really? Is it clickable, scrollable, web-accessible, or all the above?

Magazines are designed to be read from front to back. They have covers and a table of contents. Magazines are arranged in a series of articles. Portals are not meant to be read from front to back, and are in no way linear. Users may begin on an article they found through search and hyperlink their way across the site in a matter of seconds. There is no true table of contents, although there is arrangement in the form of categories, topic pages, and related articles.

So what is a digital magazine? It’s a bit of a hybrid, and it’s not necessarily just an online magazine, although it could be!

Digital magazines and their many mobile formats

The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly ABC) defines a digital edition as distribution of a magazine’s content via electronic means. The digital edition must maintain the same identity of the host publication by maintaining the same brand characteristics.
 Mequoda agrees with this definition.

When a magazine goes digital and becomes an app, it becomes alive. And that’s scary for some publishers. Suddenly, ads become more valuable to advertisers because they can be clicked. Content becomes more rich because it can also be hyperlinked to references and authors on the web. Live content can be embedded into a magazine so the editorial content doesn’t stop at the final publish date.

And if you’re not ready for that kind of transition or development project, then your magazine has suddenly become ancient.

Many publishers in this situation, hurrying to keep up, launch digital replica editions. These editions are simple digital mockups that subscribers can read and download onto their mobile devices, in many cases they are PDFs. In our last survey of digital magazine readers, this was the least desired format to read a digital magazine because their most desired feature is scrollable text, whereas most replica editions require readers to pinch and zoom in order to read the text.

The more desired digital magazine formats include a replica plus and reflow plus.

Digital magazine subscription websites

A digital magazine may also come in another shape and size: a web magazine library.

A web magazine library is sold as a subscription for a related print or digital magazine and provides access to issues of the magazine online, often in an HTML format. I Like Crochet is a magazine subscription website, and we recently wrote about six other impressive web magazine libraries we like, which includes TIME, Scientific American, and Harvard Business Review. All require registration for full access to the site; all offer their magazine content online; and are organized by issue.

Many people refer to any website that carries a legacy magazine brand and magazine content as a web magazine library; however, if the content is not organized in a magazine format and issues cannot be viewed or downloaded, it doesn’t meet our basic criteria of being a best-practice web magazine library or subscription website.

As you may read in our description of the perfect digital magazine website, we think every publisher should offer their magazine in print, mobile, web, and library formats.

What is a digital magazine to you?

The combination of a magazine’s attributes make it desirable and “survivable” for some part of the reading population and that, paper or tablet, the essential attributes of a magazine will not change.

Consumers who love magazines are not going to let publishers change the characteristics of a magazine that have made the medium so successful over the years. However, there’s always room for improvement in format and accessibility.

When you think of the term “digital magazine,” what do you think of? Let’s discuss in the comments.

The post Let’s Clarify: What Is a Digital Magazine? appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

The best way to bring people back to your web magazine is through curated special collections. Here’s how one publisher is doing it well.

When walking in to a massive library or bookstore, it’s hard to decide what to look at without becoming instantly overwhelmed by all the possibilities. The same goes for an online web library for your magazine or newsletter, and if you aren’t effectively capturing subscribers’ attention regularly, renewal rates can slip. Reminding them of what they have access to on a regular basis can increase engagement, especially if you curate the content for them.

One of the ways our clients are effectively engaging their web library subscribers, as well as attracting new subscribers is by creating “special collections” of curated content.

One such client is the Biblical Archaeology Society. They publish the BAS Library, which includes over 7,000 articles from 40 years of Biblical Archaeology Review (1975 to present), 20 years of Bible Review (1985 to 2005 complete) and 8 years of Archaeology Odyssey (1998 to 2006 complete).

Within the BAS Library are their special collections where they showcase an archive of articles around their best premium content. In addition to engaging existing subscribers, these pages can be used as marketing tools with preview copy doubling as email promotions.

For example, they have a special collection called “Women in the Bible.” The introduction to this collection reads:

Although the Bible is largely a product of the male-dominated societies of ancient Israel and the first-century C.E. Roman world, some of its most fascinating, evocative and inspiring characters are women. BAS editors have compiled a special collection of articles from Bible Review on various women in the Bible, from Esther and Judith to Mary Magdalene, who helped shape Biblical history and the message of the scriptures.

Indeed, a savvy library curator may choose to focus not only on creating special collections around themes, but may also take advantage of the depth of their library content to create collections that focus on coverage that is no longer part of the current magazine.

Another collection in the BAS Library is called “The Historical Jesus” and it includes historical articles about Jesus, the man, dating back as far as 1989.

BAS has over forty special collections currently, and that list is growing. They have a collection specifically for Easter, for specific historical events, and ones for special authors, like Victor Hurowitz, a now deceased professor of Bible, archaeology and ancient Near Eastern studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel. In commemoration of his illustrious career, Biblical Archaeology Society put together a collection of his most popular articles.

Other benefits of creating these special collections include:

• An added benefit you can add to your sales page that details the number of curated collections you have
• Improved usability for subscribers who are interested in specific topics
• Increased engagement from existing subscribers who may feel overwhelmed by the volume of content to which they have access
• Converting special collection pages into email promotions for potential and existing subscribers

How to create special collections:

1. Start with a plan to create a minimum of 6-8 special collections before promoting that section of your library.
2. Come up with 6-8 unique topics that you have five or more resource-rich articles about.
3. Create your 6-8 special collections pages, which include an introduction to the topic, followed by a list of the library articles about that topic, ideally in order of publish date, unless it makes sense to organize differently.
4. Create a new page/section in your web library, where you can introduce your special collections, and list them.
5. Have a plan in mind to add a new collections to this page every month, at a minimum, until you’ve run out of topics.
6. Use the content of these collections to create library preview emails to send to current subscribers giving them a reason to use their subscription, and to prospective subscribers giving them a reason to join. Rotate through these emails and recycle them, promoting the special collections regularly.

Subscription marketers must relearn and rethink how they promote content in the age of the Internet. Instead of promoting the next 12 issues, you can promote back issues, special collections and categories of content that can span decades. This provides many, many options for launching a diverse marketing program. This type of marketing program empowers a content marketing frequency that would be unthinkable if you were only promoting the next 12 issues.

As we’ve mentioned in past articles, for the more than 40 web libraries we manage, promoting past content often produces results that are double or triple the new order volume we see when promoting current or future issues. Once you see this reality, the foundation is quite simple given the depth of evergreen content that most special interest magazines and newsletters can access in their archives.

If you’d like to explore how we could double or triple your online magazine, newsletter and membership sales, please schedule a free consultation with a member of our marketing services team.

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Mequoda and WPR partner with a performance-based revenue-share relationship to grow subscription business

As one of the world’s most authoritative sources on world politics and international relations, World Politics Review (WPR) has been successful at penetrating the corporate, government and educational markets. Now, they are partnering with Mequoda Systems to aggressively grow their individual subscriber business.

Publisher Hampton Stephens says, “We know there’s demand for individual subscriptions based on our limited marketing efforts, but we needed the resources of a top-tier marketing organization to effectively and aggressively scale our individual subscriptions business. Mequoda has the best business processes we’ve seen for getting the job done.”

The WPR website will remain largely unchanged as part of the transformation. The Mequoda Systems marketing and technology teams are using an array of third-party software platforms that include Unbounce and Chargify to manage sales letter landing pages, order pages and paid subscription entitlement.

“We felt their technology was in good shape and wanted to immediately focus on putting business processes in place that would lift revenue. Our technology team is working with their existing website developer to make the necessary modifications for deployment of a full scale Six Sigma email marketing program that will include content previews and hard-hitting sales letters written by our marketing team,” said Don Nicholas, Mequoda Systems CEO.

Stephens also notes that he was impressed by Mequoda’s preference for a performance-based revenue share relationship. “I think their preference for a compensation method that rewards success says a lot about their confidence in our product and their marketing abilities.”

Mequoda Systems publishes and markets 21 special-interest media websites working with 16 different content producers that include magazine publishers, newsletter publishers and membership organizations. If you’d like to learn more about working with Mequoda, schedule a time to chat with a member of our marketing services team.

The post World Politics Review Partners with Mequoda Systems to Grow Premium Subscription Business appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

When walking in to a massive library or bookstore, it’s hard to decide what to look at without becoming instantly overwhelmed by all the possibilities. The same goes for an online web library for your magazine or newsletter, and if you aren’t effectively capturing subscribers’ attention regularly, renewal rates can slip. Reminding them of what they have access to on a regular basis can increase engagement, especially if you curate the content for them.

One of the ways our clients are effectively engaging their web library subscribers, as well as attracting new subscribers, is by creating “special collections” of curated content.

One such client is the Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS). They publish the BAS Library, which includes over 7,000 articles from 42 years of Biblical Archaeology Review (1975 to present), 20 years of Bible Review (1985 to 2005 complete) and 8 years of Archaeology Odyssey (1998 to 2006 complete).

Within the BAS Library are their special collections where they showcase an archive of articles around their best premium content. In addition to engaging existing subscribers, these pages can be used as marketing tools with preview copy doubling as email promotions.

For example, they have a special collection called “Women in the Bible.” The introduction to this collection reads:

Although the Bible is largely a product of the male-dominated societies of ancient Israel and the first-century C.E. Roman world, some of its most fascinating, evocative and inspiring characters are women. BAS editors have compiled a special collection of articles from Bible Review on various women in the Bible from Esther and Judith to Mary Magdalene, all of whom helped shape Biblical history and the message of the scriptures.

The BAS has over forty special collections currently, and that list is growing. It has collections specifically for Easter, for specific historical events, and for special authors like Victor Hurowitz, a now-deceased professor in the department of Bible, archaeology and ancient Near Eastern studies at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel. In commemoration of his illustrious career, the BAS put together a collection of his most popular articles.

Other benefits of creating these special collections include the following:

• An added benefit you can add to your sales page that details the number of curated collections you have
• Improved usability for subscribers who are interested in specific topics
• Increased engagement from existing subscribers who may feel overwhelmed by the volume of content to which they have access
• Converting special collection pages into email promotions for potential and existing subscribers

Subscription marketers must relearn and rethink how they promote content in the age of the Internet. Instead of promoting the next 12 issues, you can promote back issues, special collections, and categories of content that can span decades. This provides many, many options for launching a diverse marketing program. Such a marketing program empowers a content-marketing frequency that would be unthinkable if you were only promoting the next 12 issues.

For the web libraries we manage, promoting past content often produces results that are double or triple the new order volume we see when promoting current or future issues. Once you recognize this reality, the foundation is quite simple given the depth of evergreen content that most special interest magazines and newsletters can access in their archives.

If you’d like to explore how we could double or triple your online magazine, newsletter, and membership sales, please schedule a free consultation with a member of our executive team.

The post How to Curate Library Content to Engage and Retain Web Magazine Readers appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

Are you ready to learn how to start an online magazine for your new or legacy magazine brand? Try these tips!

Knowing how to start an online magazine requires first understanding the differences between an online magazine and the dozens of other publishing models available to you.

These differences range from the obvious – a comparison with print products, for instance, is pretty straightforward – to the more nuanced: say, discerning an online magazine from a digital magazine. What could possibly separate the two other than terminology?

As it turns out, plenty. And there’s one crucial contrast that we’ll focus on here:

An online magazine, also referred to as a web magazine, is an HTML-prepped periodical built using responsive design, making it easily readable on a desktop, tablet or mobile phone’s browser. It’s often accessed as a subscription or print + digital combo. It’s self-contained, consumed in larger chunks for longer periods of time, and ideally includes a trove of archival content.

An online magazine is just one type of digital magazine.

If you’re still reading this, you have probably concluded an online magazine model is better suited to your publication, and you’re looking for help on how to start an online magazine.

But if you’re still unsure as to whether your content fits the mold of an online magazine or a digital magazine app (or, for that matter, an electronic newsletter, et al.), here’s a good litmus test:

Will people subscribe to your online magazine based on the quantity and quality of your content?

More to the point, will they actually sit down to read it from front to back?

In other words, will it be “appointment” or “event” reading, as opposed to intermittent check-ins for news updates and headlines?

Did you answer “yes” to all three of those questions? If so, let’s explore how to make it happen.

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 1

First things first: Find your niche.

You’re going to have a tough time starting a national news magazine these days, considering there are scores of national news magazines already out there – some of which are struggling to adapt to the new publishing paradigm.

Instead, aim for a more specialized area of interest. A niche. A hobby. A historical subject. A region. What are you an expert in? Does it match up with a void in the marketplace – or, even if not, can you do it better than the few publications out there? Can you generate enough content to sustain interest? It’s never been a better time to be a niche publisher.

Check out our case study on Prime Publishing’s I Like Crochet. It doesn’t get any more niche – or inspiringly successful – than that!

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 2

Decide how you’re going to monetize.

Yes, your revenue will likely depend largely on subscriptions, but you have a ton of options when it comes to magazine subscription website business models. And once you select your plan of attack, you have another decision to make: how to choose the best subscription pricing strategy.

Will you bundle products? Will you offer tiers and contrast pricing? Will you lock readers in or let them roam a bit?

And, of course, might you make a push for ads, as well?

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 3

Build your infrastructure and plan out how your content will take shape.

How do you envision your online magazine? Do you have a design in mind? More importantly, are you ready to commit to a content management system (CMS) that will give life to your online magazine and help manage your editorial workflow?

Mequoda members use our Haven CMS, which integrates everything from audience development to e-commerce to subscription (and even event) management, along with the standard publishing software, of course.

If you have a lot of content – or plan to – you’ll need a strong foundation to support it.

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 4

Use content you have, or start creating content.

Arguably your greatest asset in charting out a course for your online magazine is your capacity to host an online magazine library.

If you’ve been in the print business for a while, or even if you’ve been blogging or distributing newsletters, you must capitalize on that existing content and not let it go to waste.

Remember: If you’re a legacy publisher with existing content, you don’t have to start from scratch with an online magazine!

Update, reformat, standardize, and incorporate your evergreen articles and posts into an online magazine library.

Call a couple of colleagues or make a hire, because this step is going to take considerable elbow grease. The good news? It will end up generating significant revenue once all of that front-end work is done.

How to Start an Online Magazine: Step 5

Determine how you’re going to develop an audience.

Yes, this means marketing starts now. The most successful new online magazines are those that are using the platform to serve an audience that they are already reaching through some other medium.

How do you do this? Again, you have a lot of options: email and freemiums are a must in attracting visitors you can convert into subscribers. So, too, is social media. Finding a good press release service is key, as well.

Do you now have a better grasp of how to start an online magazine? Are you a legacy publisher simply looking to reach into the digital realm? If so, reach out and schedule a call with a member of our marketing services team and learn how we can increase your online audience, revenue, and profits.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2015 and has been updated.

The post How to Start an Online Magazine With These Five Strategies appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

When we talk about multi-platform publishing, some publishers think we’re talking about the difference between laptops, desktops, and tablets. But those are simply the devices we deliver content through.

We’re talking about content repurposing, on many platforms.

Repurposing content is a core tenet of the Mequoda Method, but we can’t take credit for inventing the tactic. Rather, any publisher worth their salt – whether print or digital – has always run some variation on this theme. Why? Because it rewards your best work, saves you from excess work, gives you a ton of versatility, and will make you money while you sleep.

Content can be published and distributed on many platforms – a Portal, an online directory, free white papers, paid handbooks, print magazines, podcasts, digital magazines (including a web edition and app editions), live events, digital events, membership libraries, and more. If you’re wondering “Shouldn’t email and social be on this list?” – that’s a good question – we consider email and social to be marketing platforms, not publishing platforms, even though we are huge advocates of using those channels to deliver high-quality content and not just promotional messaging. This helps keep subscribers and followers engaged. If you’re also wondering “Shouldn’t mobile be on this list?,” that’s another good question – no, we consider mobile a device type instead of a publishing platform archetype. You can view any type of multi-platform content on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

Publishers everywhere are creating multi-platform content. Ed tech is hot, and it fits nicely into a multi-platform content approach, enabling as it does online archives, subscriptions, events, and video.

It’s not difficult to take a cursory look around the industry and find digital publishers who try to fit square pegs into round holes instead of sticking to what works for their hard-won audiences.

Slate’s Slate Plus is a membership predicated on premium content. This model is gaining in popularity among digital magazine subscriptions. The product certainly holds its own when it comes to digital magazine subscriptions. For $35/year, Slate Plus membership gets you (on top of the magazine’s standard offerings): ad-free podcasts, less ads on the site overall, members-only articles and newsletters, early-access to high-profile content, and other advantages. At the beginning of the pandemic, they launched a metered paywall as a way to funnel more people into their membership.

Podcasts have come in and out of vogue over the years, currently on an upswing. “Podcast creators, increasingly publishers like Slate, FiveThirtyEight, and Vanity Fair, struggle to reach new listeners because podcasts can be difficult to discover online, often isolated from the constant stream due to the limited shareability and SEO traction of audio. This makes it challenging for podcast creators to grow their audience beyond their most loyal followers,” Ellen Harvey writes on PubExec.com.

Video, on the other hand, is hot, especially brands who are leveraging YouTube’s massive network. Vogue has gotten a lot of traction with their “73 questions” series, where they interview celebrities, asking 73 questions while they walk through each room of the celebrities’ home. They have a number of different “columns” like this that are wildly popular.
Bon Appétit has also invested much into video, which you can find on YouTube and also on their website. They too have a number of different reoccurring columns, which they refer to as seasons.

And while live events may not be the highest revenue source of last year or this one, digital events are booming. Most publishers we know are making more profit, with more attendees than ever, by moving their events online.

So, how does this content get created? Does the premium content get recycled? We assume so in many cases. That’d be the smart thing to do, even if they’re just recycling it much later to non-paid members, or using it as sample content to gain more subscribers.

But even these modern examples of multi-platform publishing are not exactly what we’re talking about when it comes to creating multi-platform content on the cheap.

Taking one product and making it many products

Want to go cheap? You can go cheap. And you can produce a lot of content and profit that way.

You don’t even need a whole new content department, just some savvy editors. Magazine publishers who recycle content strategically are building giant multiplatform publishing businesses by recycling content like so:

There are, of course, many different versions of this cycle depending on what you’re publishing, but the premise is the same: Take one thing and turn it into many things.

Create the most accurate content by compiling first-person knowledge from reputable sources and making it available to your audience through various platforms.

1. Start with a magazine article.
2. You can then use that content to create other products. At this point, you simply ask one of your designers to add the article as a chapter to the latest handbook you’re developing.
3. And while they’re at it, they can turn it into a downloadable e-book. No need for other content.
4. From there, you can break it into three portal posts.

But the best part comes after:

1. Each of those portal posts promote the free ebook.
2. And that free ebook promotes the handbook.
3. And that handbook promotes your magazine.

There could also be podcasts, videos, or special edition magazine apps that come out of this transformation.

The circle of content life – isn’t it beautiful?

If you want to get stealthy, online events are the best high-fidelity user experience, with the highest price point. You can turn research, stories and photos from your articles into slides in a powerpoint deck. And then turn around and use your speaker decks and transcripts to create articles for your site.

Most publishers will be most comfortable producing downloadable media, like books, special reports, or video pieces. Or, if you’re like The New Yorker, you ask the article writers to record their pieces and offer them as an audio subscription.

How do you recycle content? What’s your strategy? Let’s chat in the comments.

The post How to Create Multi-Platform Content Quickly and Cheaply appeared first on Mequoda Daily.