Many thanks for taking the time to comment on the blog post. I think it’s fair to say that my role at the event was to play devil’s advocate to the suppliers so I may have been more extreme than usual! Most of my suppliers have digital editions as part of their portfolio some of which, the virgin example, are very successful.

You raised some great points, in particular the importance of serendipity in the delivery of content that the user is unaware of. I believe that as the web gets increasingly crowded, the trusted intermediary role of the editorial team will become a very important differentiator for publishers.

However, I also believe there are some serious limitations to doing this with digital editions technology. I see the medium as akin to direct mail, it looks great on first inspection but then over time, the stats show that interest wanes.

My view on this is that users will initially scroll through the entire edition to see whether there is anything of interest. This is necessary because there isn’t a great deal of navigability apart from the contents page at the front and articles are generally not arranged by topic. It also explains some of the great engagement stats for the medium (which are almost always taken from the first edition).

If you do find an article you are interested in, it’s unlikely that it will be linked to similar topics in previous editions. So whilst you have serendipity, you don’t get the ability to drill down into related content once you find a topic of interest.

The other problem with delivering all the content to the user in a “package” is that it’s easy to throw away. If the user has one bad experience, the next email won’t even be opened. This equally applies to newsletter emails but at least you have the ability to scan the headlines to see if there is anything of interest before you click through or delete it.

You are right to say that designing for the iPad and mobile are going to create new challenges and that’s a major topic for another post! What I would say is that there won’t be a one size fits all solution that will work across all mediums. Mobile usage is much more like the screen experience, fast access to information is key, whilst the iPad is more of a “lean back” experience. We’re already seeing much longer dwell times on websites for iPad users as they are in much more of a “Browsing mode”.

Right now though, the iPad market is such a tiny percentage of the overall audience traffic that most publishers would do well to avoid the hype and concentrate on the web users. I believe that the best way to do this is with well designed, engaging, rich media content on a website and couple this to a well executed email alerts.

This will give an experience that is as at least as good as a digital edition with the added benefit of servicing traffic from a variety of sources. Whether that’s referral from a newsletter, search or social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, the potential audience is expanded from the readers you know (your email list) to readers you don’t (search and social media referred users).

It also means that your editorial team can use their expertise to provide serendipity via newsletters and on site linking/listings. Once users are engaged, the site can provide opportunities to give users a deeper experience by listing related content on topics they are reading about.

Ultimately, all this is about delivering the best value for your investment. Great content is expensive to create. Whilst digital editions have a place in the mix, I still believe that an integrated web publishing strategy is the best way to derive the greatest long term value from your content.

Unfortunately, the conference organisers didn’t record the event so I don’t have audio to go with the presentation but I’d be happy to talk to you further either on the phone or in person if you’d like to know more.

Mike

Web content can suffer from being a static repository of data – which is great for when someone wants to find something – or is actively looking for something.
Where interactive magazines could really excel is in building a community of readers – and giving publishers a chance to push new information out to these readers (which they may not look for, as they don’t know it exists yet…)

I think most publishers would agree that a direct copy of a print edition – turned into a pdf/page turner has a limited value.

But if we can design for the medium (phone / pad / screen) – we should be able to produce new format, engaging digital mags, that really do fit a consumer need.
OK, you may say we could push out content with a straight forward email newsletter and link back to the web content – but I think digital mags could offer a better environment and reader experience.

As a final point, the web content method also tends not to allow such a great deal of editorial control – as readers are usually searching data world-wide.
And yes, this can be great – people should be able to search and get results from anyone and everyone – see many sides of the issue etc etc.

But a trusted editorial presence could help to refine the information and have the benefit of delivering a more reasoned digest of the huge amount of data available.

People are busy – it can take a long time to comb the web to find the data you want.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone just sent the best bits to you in a nice little package you can read when you want?

Do you have audio to go with the slides?