Exploring the World of Digital Circulation

Part 1: Four reasons to go digital

By Kelsey Voss
11/17/2008 -10:24 PM

Digital circulation is quite the hot topic these days. Concerns over production and postage costs drive publishers to consider digital circulation as an alternative to print. Digital circ is nothing new—it’s been around for years—but with the sounds of shuttering magazines echoing in publishers' ears, the lure is more enticing now than ever. And, it’s a great way to “go green”…even if that wasn’t the original motivation.

There are pros and cons to digital circulation. Today let’s go over some of the benefits to consider when exploring the world of digital circulation for your publications.

Certainly, the biggest benefit is cost. There’s nothing like slicing and dicing the production budget and saving all the expense that goes with mailing out a paper magazine. Sure, we can co-mail, co-bind, use cheaper paper, trim size, and so on. But what a boost in savings when you eliminate the printed version all together—even if it’s only for a certain percentage of your distribution file or just for your foreign subscribers.

Another benefit is flexibility. Editors and advertisers alike have room to spread their creative wings with digital. Advertisers can user hyperlinks leading right back to their sites. House ads can link to the publisher’s other products. Video, audio and other multimedia can be added to enhance an article or added to attract more buyers to a product in an advertisement.

Tracking and reporting is a major bonus: Never before have publishers been able to truly know how engaged subscribers are with the content. Once the magazine is shipped, they have no idea if the magazine is read from cover-to-cover or thrown in the trash. With digital, you can track everything. You can know who clicked through the publication, what pages they visited, and what links they clicked. You can know the subscriber’s browser version, where they live, how many times they opened the magazine and for how long. The reporting can get extremely detailed.

Lastly, the benefits of digital extends to the subscribers: All the fun perks used on Web sites can change the reader's experience from simply reading a PDF print replica to a Web-based, user-friendly experience offering enhanced editorial content and layers and layers of additional linked content. Digital is great for those who love to click through the magazine, archive issues on their computer, look up anything with a keyword, and send articles to friends and colleagues. Digital issues are easy to catalog and easy to revisit again and again.

Next week: Part 2: Four reasons to keep print
There are always two sides…

Kelsey Voss is Senior Director, Audience Marketing at Ziff Davis Enterprise.