The Gilbane Group recently put out a 135-page study on the digital versions of magazines and newspapers. Authors Steve Paxhia and Bill Rosenblatt found that there has been impressive growth both in the number of titles and subscribers, a trend they expect to continue.
In the two-year period from June
2005 to June 2007, the number of publications reporting digital replica editions
for audit purposes grew from 107 to 230. That represents a growth of 215% for
the period. Also, the number of
digital subscriptions grew from 773,194 to 1,713,637, representing growth of
222%. The penetration of digital
subscriptions compared with the total subscriptions also grew, from 13.3% to
15.0%, demonstrating increasing acceptance of digital editions.
One of the more interesting conclusions at which the authors arrive is the high value placed on archiving. Paxhia and Rosenblatt write, “The continued popularity of search engines results from readers seeking information on a specific topic or finding an answer to a question. A significant benefit of a digital replica edition is that it stands as a record of what was happening in an information domain(s) during a certain time period. For example, The Guardian has built an extremely robust archive of over 1 million pages. This archive has become a very important research tool for students, scholars, and experts and has become a valuable part of The Guardian's digital publishing strategy.”
They also expect a growth in smaller localized publications
and expect to see more technology providers offering “self-service” or
SAAS-modeled services to make the costs of providing digital editions more
affordable. “We also believe that
the number of hybrid periodicals/catalogs, advertorial publications, and custom
publications will grow significantly over the next few years. There will be
increased opportunities for publishers to deliver school editions in digital
formats, as well as to license collections of their content by itself or in
conjunction with other content to provide readings for high school and college
courses.”
Finally, they write, “The technology will continue to get better; publishers will move to a true cross-media publishing strategy; collaboration techniques will change the current authoring and reviewing metaphors; online communities will become even more important to brand building; and the population of ‘Web natives’ will continue to increase, driving the increased readership of digital editions.”
The report, “Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions: Growth, Trends, and Best Practices,” can de downloaded free of charge through http://gilbane.com/
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