Digital Distribution Research - Magazines in General

Digital distribution of magazines is crucial in an age where print journalism is on the decline and the internet is the new news norm. Most magazines follow these steps when looking to distribute their magazine on a digital platform.

  • Using a Magazine App: Distributing a magazine through an application is a proven method to reach contemporary readers, and the popularity of things like the iPhone's built-in "News" app makes this method all the more viable. Quick distribution is assured through this method. With a magazine app publishers can display cleaner layouts, easily navigable pages, and leverage multiple interactive features like high quality multimedia (i.e. videos or clips), share buttons to social media platforms, or in-app or external links. Analytics capability is another benefit of publishing through an app. Obtaining data is quicker and easier, which makes it far more convenient to analyze, say for the sake of targeting and improving internal publishing and distribution strategies. Digital publishers can utilize any kind of design software in order to publish, design, and enrich their magazine. The designed applications can then be distributed to digital marketplaces such as the Apple App Store or the Amazon Kindle Store. The readers can then download the app on their device, and once installed, publishers can then send notifications and subsequent issues through the app.

  • Using a PDF: PDF magazines are another excellent option for small publishers or those having limited resources. They can be easily created and exported using any design software or PDF editor. PDFs are often considered as an enhanced digital version of a print magazine with the advantage of portability. Unlike in print materials, a publisher can add interactivity by providing hyperlinks, jump links, info graphics, or high-quality images to give an edge to the static magazine content and enhance readability. The designed PDF magazines can be easily distributed to the readers in the form of a downloadable PDF over the mails or websites or any other marketing mediums. This gives an option to the readers of whether they want to the downloaded and read the magazine on their mobile phones or desktops.However, in PDF magazines, the file size needs to be carefully monitored as this often becomes a limitation where readers have a difficulty and downloading and scrolling through PDFs if the file size exceeds a few tens of millibytes.

  • Using a Website: Distributing your digital magazine over a website is a great option if there are no resource constraints. Creating a complete website for the magazine helps in reaping long-term benefits and gaining popularity in the magazine market. In addition to increasing website traffic, this process has better readability, broader consumer base, enhanced user-experience, share-ability, and no storage limitations. Beneficial for both publishers and readers, the magazine issues or articles can be easily uploaded, updated, and read by the readers. The audiences have the freedom to access the magazines as and when desired using various browsers on phone or desktops. Every single piece of content has a designated page with lots of interactivity and scope of improved user engagement. Adding video and impressive images to gain, retain and grow more audience is just a click away. It allows a better communication flow between the publisher and user in terms of comments and feedback. Not only this, one can scale the features of their magazine like adding the buttons to their social media platforms, and utilizing analytics services to get feedback and improvise. To create a website magazine, a publisher can pick the best fit from a number of website publishing services in the market, some of which are absolutely free.

While all the mentioned distribution approaches have many similarities, each of them possesses unique attributes. I could choose a single method or go forward with a hybrid policy comprising of more than one plan. A combination of multiple platforms may be what can me come across more readers and potential subscribers.

Comments

Popular Posts