3D Issue Blog, digital magazine and publishing news

7 September 2010

We often hear from customers that a key driver for going digital with their publications is because of the difficulties in measuring the performance and success of print material. Marketing teams are often required to demonstrate the impact of marketing activities, this is extremely difficult with printed catalogues and brochures, as once distributed who knows what happens to them.

So if you are looking to create digital editions here are  some top tips…

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6 September 2010

The paywall has been a much debated subject this year, particularly after Rupert Murdoch’s execution of a paywall system on The Times news site in June this year.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press,  Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, one of the most popular websites in the world discussed his views about paying for news content and how the ways in which paying for content could work.

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1 September 2010

When putting together the layouts and design of your digital magazine, there are some typical behaviours and usability issues that your readers may have adopted which you should consider and take into account at the design and creation stage. Although digital magazines are on the rise and becoming ever more popular they could still be a relatively new concept to your audience… so these few tips can help improve your end readers’ experience…

Test and adapt
Its a great idea to test out layouts and gain reader feedback, if you have a feature article or call to action that needs to be prominent in the publication try different placements, and see which placement gets found and responded to the most.

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25 August 2010

The 3D Issue software allows you to create and then host your own digital magazines. This allows you to have complete control of what and when you publish without reliance on third parties.

We are often asked ‘how’ to upload digital magazines to a website and if this is a complicated process. It is actually a very quick and easy process and we’ve put together this short video showing you a demonstration of uploading a digital magazine to a website. If you want more details about hosting solutions and what to look for check out this previous post.

This demonstration shows the Professional Windows version, however the Lite versions and the Professional Mac all follow the same uploading steps.

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23 August 2010

Seth Godin, the well known and bestselling author and marketing guru, has spoken out about his future plans for publishing, and in particular his move away from ‘traditional publishing’.

Godin has written 12 influential books including bestsellers ‘Permission Marketing‘, ‘Purple Cow’ and ‘Tribes’ he is also no stranger to digital ebooks…. Seth’s ebooks including free ebook ‘Unleashing the Ideavirus’ are among the most popular ever published.

Seth announced today in a blog post “Linchpin will be the last book I publish in a traditional way.” Seth says he has been seeking and sharing thoughts about the future of publishing with various industry experts this year in order to come to plan for his publishing future.  He says ‘It’s been years since I woke up in the morning saying, “I need to write a book, I wonder what it should be about.” Instead, my mission is to figure out who the audience is, and take them where they want and need to go, in whatever format works, even if it’s not a traditionally published book.’

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17 August 2010

It’s been a busy and positive first half of 2010 for digital publishing. Apple’s iPad has certainly had a huge impact on the digital publishing market since it’s launch and eased to a huge 3 Million sold – in just 80 days. The competition to the iPad is also set to heat up – see our recent post on the future devices that will compete with the iPad. There’s also been a number of iPad Apps released that have been classed as ‘sozines’  – dynamic publications that are populated based on a readers preferences such as Flipboard and Pulse. So a lot of developments in the last 6 months alone which has sparked a number of reports and studies that given interesting insights and predictions.

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16 August 2010

News Corp. is set to launch a new national newspaper which will be distributed on mobile devices, via a paid for App according to a recent LA Times article.

It is believed that the new digital newspaper is likely to compete with the other national publications including  USA Today and The New York Times and will be marketed towards those readers wishing to consume their news ‘on the go’.

This latest news may not come as a great surprise to many, and has perhaps been on the cards since Rupert Murdoch CEO, News Corp. voiced his opinions for the potential success of the iPad recently “We’ll have young people reading newspapers,” he said during a recent conference call. “It’s a real game changer in the presentation of news.”

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13 August 2010

It’s been reported that on 4th August 2010, Microsoft filed a trademark application for the name “ONIT,”  which has been described as a “An Internet website portal featuring information of general interest to men.” The portal will focus on providing “information in the field of entertainment, sports, fitness, recreation and leisure activity.”

This is not the first time Microsoft has delved into online magazines, Glo and WonderWall are other recent online magazine sites launched by Microsoft. They recently declared that the lifestyle sector is clearly one of their most popular categories on MSN reaching more than 8.2 million unique users a month.

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5 August 2010

So you’ve set up your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you’re tweeting and posting away but…… not exactly sure if anyone is listening.  Is what you’re talking about of interest to your networks? Are your posts / tweets being forwarded on to your networks’ networks? There are probably people talking about your publications right now providing valuable reader feedback (positive or negative) that perhaps you are not aware of?

When publishers implement Social Media activity there is sometimes an initial period of confusion and doubt about what and how to measure, what metrics and results to record and track.

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4 August 2010

It seems that nobody can hide from the digital publishing revolution.  It now appears that airlines could emerge as a serious contender in getting your publication in the hands of your targeted consumer base, especially for publishers in the travel industry.

Singapore Airlines announced yesterday that they are to replace their in-flight print magazine with a digital edition that can be viewed through their in-flight entertainment system.  The airline has a total of 3 magazines: SilverKris, KrisShop and KrisWorld, all of which will be made available through their in-flight monitors. Not only will it save the airline the cost of printing the physical magazine but they will also save on overall weight and fuel expenses.

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