Are you using your web reports? Magazine publishers should always be promoting their online web communities. Along with this task is the responsibility of moderating participant interactions. In this competitive publishing world you’ll want to make sure the few bad participants don’t spoil the fun. Keep your logs and IP tracking analytics active so you can investigate visitors with bad intensions. Your magazine website privacy policy can clearly state that you use cookies and visitor statistics to improve the online experience for your readers. Advanced monitoring can also be setup for those visitors (or competitors) who are attacking your brand.

Magazine publishing software is getting more innovative in this digital publishing age. Some new online digital software tools are giving innovative options to publishers for electronic online digital editions. Publishers are learning how their paid circulation or trade publications can benefit from digital delivery and instand conversion or results for advertisers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Why not let users generate ad content? The service is expected to provide teen girls a method of social scrapbooking online with flip-book type presentations. Advertiser sponsors provide non-branded content and the teen members take it from there with their own creativity.

What I love about this MediaWeek Article and concept is seeing a publishing organization leverage new and valuable content from advertisers. Magazine advertisers have tremendous high value content and it’s time for publishers to start asking for it to use in innovative web and digital presentations.

As more magazines come to the realization that their readers expect social interaction from the publications website, we can expect to see more technology acquisitions like reddit and Hearst Magazines eCrush.com.

A viable trade and consumer focused magazine brand will have both an interactive website and digital magazine edition by the end of 2007 or will probably be quickly losing market share to the competitor that has decided to take this space away…

Anything reasonable that can help magazine publishers demonstrate their value to advertisers gets a thumbs-up in my book. Brandweek’s Todd Wasserman covers the new mobile phone campaign several print magazines are using to attract m-commerce transactions. Read the rest of this entry »

When a major magazine publisher makes a move to embrace technology and tools for brand extension online you know there’s probably a strategy well beyond the surface value of the deal. Read the rest of this entry »

As social networking and bookmarking are taking off, we are starting to see some good social media software tools. Even just a few months ago, you’d have a hard time finding social bookmarking tools compatible with your magazine content management system. In many cases, publishers without major software budgets or in-house developers have manually linked to del.icio.us and other tagging links. Read the rest of this entry »

While publishers sometimes feel like they are pulling teeth to get their advertisers to hit deadlines for print media creative, it’s worth asking for other digital media advertising creatives. Why you ask? Didn’t we just admit it’s tough enough already just to get this issues print ad? Here’s my magazine advertising tip of the month.

By asking your media buyers about other creatives, you are forcing your publishing team to open the door to alternate forms of advertising. If your advertisers DO have other creatives your now able to ask about those media formats and placements. You’ve opened the door to discuss how your magazine brand can also offer website, digital edition, event, streaming, etc… placement for this advertising. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s hard for a small publishing business to compete with larger publishing and media companies. The smaller titles have always had their niche and community to connect with readers. However, digital initiatives are allowing innovative publishers to reach and connect with more and more people online and to offer them social interaction that was once only the playground for the niche pubs.

So for those independent publishers that have waited to improve their website, create a blog, start their podcasts, and begin using a digital edition the competition is about to heat up.

In an interview with Advertising Age, Ann S. Moore, Time Inc. chairman and CEO states,

The days of selling single media are seriously waning. Having a robust digital strategy is critical for every media brand…

Moore continued based on the focus of using “Trust and Transformation” to define their own strategic business philosophy, also the title of her speech for the October Association of National Advertisers meeting.

So if you’re not sure how to start a digital strategy for your publication, just start looking around and see how the major magazine media companies are implementing electronic tools to extend their brands online.

According to the JEGI Group who tracks merger and acquisitions in the media sector the largest increase YTD over prior Year is for Marketing & Interactive services with 63% growth. B2B Magazines M&A down 22% and Consumer Magazines up 16%.

Is the strong growth in marketing and interactive related to a higher confidence in Web 2.0 or the rapid growth of social networking sites. Either way, publishers ought to be thinking about their role as marketers and the interactive nature of their offers, advertising, events, and promotions. In other words, hey publishers – what are you doing to get interactive with your readership?