Digital edition

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A digital edition is an online magazine or online newspaper delivered in electronic form which is formatted identically to the print version. Digital editions are often called digital facsimiles to underline the likeness to the print version. Digital editions have the benefit of reduced cost to the publisher and reader by avoiding the time and expense to print and deliver like a paper edition.[1] This format is considered more environmentally friendly do to the reduction of paper and energy use. These editions also often feature interactive elements such as hyperlinks both within the publication itself and to other internet resources, searching and bookmarking, and can also incorporate multimedia such as video or animation to enhance articles themselves or for advertisements. Some delivery methods also include animation and sound effects replicating page turning to further simulate the experience of their print counterparts.[2][3][4]. However, the popularity of these facsimile digital editions is limited because they provide neither the best reading experience to the customer, nor a viable revenue stream to the publisher.[5][6] Additionally some publishers are using other electronic publication methods such as RSS to reach out to readers and inform them when new digital editions are available.[7]

Current technologies are generally either reader-based, requiring download of an application and subsequent download of each edition, or browser-based, requiring no application download (such as Adobe Acrobat[8]) and is often Flash-based. Some application-based readers allow readers to access editions while not connected to the internet. Dedicated hardware such as the Amazon Kindle is also available for reading digital editions of select books, popular national magazines such as TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes and popular national newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Other E-book manufacturers that deliver digital editions include Plastic Logic and Sony.

Archives of print newspapers, in some cases going back hundreds of years, are being digitized and made available online. Google is indexing existing digital archives produced by the newspapers themselves or by 3rd parties.[9][10]

Newspaper and magazine archival is not new with microform film formats solving the problem of efficiently storing and preserving though the format lacked accessibility. Many libraries, especially state libraries in the United States are archiving their collections digitally and converting existing microfilm to digital format. The Library of Congress provides project planning assistance[11] and the National Endowment for the Humanities provides funding through grants from its National Digital Newspaper Program.[12]

Digital magazines, ezines, e-editions and emags are sometimes referred to as digital editions but some of these formats are published only in digital format unlike digital editions which replicate a printed edition as well.

Contents

[edit] Digital Magazines

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

Adoption by publishers accelerated when the circulation-audit bureaus such as BPA to give publishers the same credit for subscribers receiving digital-replica editions as for subscribers receiving print; this concept is being extended to other media reached by a publication’s brand [13].

A 2008 report funded by digital-replica technology providers and auditing agencies counted 1,786 digital-replica editions having more than 7 million circulation among business-to-business publications, of which 230 editions were audited [14] [15] The same report counted 1,470 digital-replica editions of consumer magazines having 5.5 million digital circulation, of which 240 editions were audited. These authors estimated that by yearend 2009 there would be 8,000 digital magazines, having a combined distribution of more than 30 million people

Surveys have shown that, while not all subscribers prefer a digital edition, some do because of the environmental benefit, also because digital magazines are searchable and may easily be passed along or linked to. One such survey funded by a digital publisher reported on inputs from more than 30,000 subscribers to business, consumer and other digital magazines [16]

[edit] Digital Magazine Business Models

  • Reduced printing and distribution costs.

The ability for publishers to save by moving some or all subscribers from print to digital is widely accepted. Oracle magazine, which has 176,000 of its 516,000 subscribers receiving digital according to its June 2009 BPA circulation statement, is said to be the most widely circulated digital edition of a business-to-business publication. Publishers who do this need to choose whether to make some issues all-digital, move some subscribers to digital edition, add some digital-only subscribers, or send all subscribers the digital edition

  • Paid subscription revenue

In 2009, a major consumer magazine, PC magazine, went all-digital, charging an annual subscription fee for its digital-replica edition [17]

Many consumer magazines and newspapers are already available in eReader formats sold through booksellers. The Barnes and Noble ecommerce site had 1,289 digital magazines available for purchase as of late October 2009.

  • Sponsorship and advertising revenue

Digital editions often carry special “front cover” advertising, or advertising on the email message alerting the subscriber to the digital edition. Publishers also produce special digital-only inserts, such as this advertiser sponsored supplement appended to the September 2009 issue of Healthcare IT News, and rich-media ads or advertorials, such as these video profiles in Habitat magazine.

  • Designed-for-digital issues

Another approach is to replace entire printed issues with digital ones, or to use digital editions for extra issues that would otherwise have to be printed. An example of that is Consumer Goods Technology July/August 2009 issue, which was designed for the digital format, rather than being a replica of a printed issue, and has digital-only sponsors.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Kanter, James. "Reading Green On Demand". New York Times. http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/reading-green-on-demand/. 
  2. ^ "Product". CerosMedia. http://www.cerosmedia.com/page/product-information-users. Retrieved 2008-07-01. 
  3. ^ "Olive ActiveMagazine". Olive Software. http://www.olivesoftware.com/products/activemagazine.asp. Retrieved 2008-07-01. 
  4. ^ "Digital magazine features & benefits". nxtbook media. http://www.nxtbookmedia.com/products/magazines/features-benefits.php. Retrieved 2008-07-01. 
  5. ^ "Presenting Content Online: Where Digital Editions Fail". idio. 2009-02-22. http://platform.idiomag.com/2009/02/presenting-content-online-where-digital-editions-fail/. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
  6. ^ "Digital editions: trying to solve the wrong business media problem". Rory Brown. 2008-01-12. http://rorybrown.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/digital-editions-trying-to-solve-the-wrong-business-media-problem/. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
  7. ^ Murdoch, Rupert (2008-11-19). "The Future of Newspapers: Moving Beyond Dead Trees". Hawaii Reporter. http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?ed92812b-bf9f-4872-af4d-e16e267d431e. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  8. ^ "Digital magazines: a history". Magforum. http://www.magforum.com/digital_history.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-01. 
  9. ^ "Bringing History Online, One Newspaper at a Time". Google. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/bringing-history-online-one-newspaper.html. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  10. ^ "Canadian Digitized Newspaper Content to be Featured in Google News Archiv". Press Release (Paperofrecord.com). Dec 02, 2008. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/PaperofRecordcom-Completes-Sale-Digital-Newspaper/story.aspx?guid={5A34DF5A-BADC-487F-ADC9-20D66E45DA92}. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  11. ^ "National Digital Library Program Project Checklist". http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/prjplan.html. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  12. ^ "National Digital Newspaper Program". National Endowment for the Humanities. http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/ndnp.html. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  13. ^ BPA Brand Reach Report announcement 2009
  14. ^ The Gilbane Group, Digital Magazine and Newspaper Editions, May 2008
  15. ^ Folio Magazine Supplement, Digital Magazines, 2009
  16. ^ Texterity, Inc., Profile of the Digital Edition Reader, May 2009
  17. ^ PC Magazine Goes 100% Digital, November 19, 2008
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