Online versions of magazines - good? bad? Just plain wrong?

I never thought I'd even be debating the pros and cons of what I believe to be the devils work, but there you go.

I work at a digital / customer publishing agency and we've got a fair few clients who want to put their mags online. But rather than building a really good website and repurposing the mag content for web, they want to use 'page turning' software - see this as an example: http://www.zmags.co.uk/showmag.php?mid=rwhqw

Back in the day...you couldn't track anything about these things, they were slow and involved downloading software or .exes to get them to run. Now you can use them online, track users through them, optimise the content for SEO, use data capture calls to action etc BUT...do people actually want to read a magazine online, how they would read it offline, or do they want to read magazine content within a well made website (with mobile access)?

I've got publishers wanting to make a quick buck and digitals screaming usability. Your thoughts??
 

Not necessarily bad - just a wasted opportunity

They're missing a trick here - surely a specially designed web site that can involve the reader, enabling them to click through stories and easily search associated content would be a much better option.

All the benefits of a web mag are completely lost with the page turning software.

Also, I don't always have the patience to read a whole mag on the web. It's more convenient to simply search for the story you're interested in rather than plod through the whole thing.

Good - as long as you realise that a digital edition should be used for very different reasons than a website.  If someone wants to go digital, they need a strategy.  Just putting a digital edition out for the sake of it is pointless, in the same way that just putting up a website with no thought will not gain results.  However, digital editions can be a useful tool for:

-         increasing controlled circulation lists at minimal cost

-         creating a better subscriber proposition

-         improving the sales story for advertisers

-         as a focus group alternative

amongst other options. 

The right software is also important, and I would suggest that there are better alternatives than the example you have linked to, which may also allow offline reading.

Personally, I also believe that magazine content has to be rewritten to make an effective website and that neither reader nor advertiser will ever get the depth off a website that I would off a digital edition. 

Matthew Parker

www.printandprocurement.com

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Interesting post, why not come to AD:SAUCE and hear what Ceros / Fresh Media Group have to say about it?  They produce digital editions for 99% of the big publishers and are speaking at the free-to-attend event:

www.adsauce.net

www.adsauce.eventbrite.com

It's wierd. You wouldn't film someone turning over pages of a magazine for TV or have an actor read it all on radio. The channel should dictate the best format. 

I think they're wrong.

I'm not going to go online so I can click on a button and wait for the page to turn over.

What's the point?

Digital edition/page turning software is much, much better now and it goes give, all-round, a better user experience than it used to. Sadly, I'm not sure it's the experience - in the case of many products - that they really want. As someone said, it's horses for courses and not many products really come to life when in the digital edition format. It certainly works better for special editions/reports than many other ideas ...

 Digital editions are good! Yet only in specific situations and for clearly defined tasks as Matthew Parker suggests..

Most people's attention seems to have focused on FULL issues, but we have found a powerful application for shorter, CUT-DOWN versions - sampling.

Research on sample iMAGS used by online subscription shop iSUBSCRIBE shows an average read time of 4.5 minutes (significant but much less than the average 34 for full digital editions). The statistics also show that the digital sample helps the consumer to make the decision to buy a print version of the magazine.

So, it's not about print versus digital. Or digital: good or bad. It's about using the powerful (and different)characteritics of digital to sell more magazines to the end consumer.

That's why PPA has contracted Digital Initiatives to create digital magazines for as many UK publishers as can give us a simple PDF file of their print magazine to build an online, digital directory at the core of the forthcoming Magazine Week (29 Sep to 4 Oct) with the slogan "Indulge your passion - try another magazine today."

Phillip McGeachy