Launching Your Magazine Online Before Print Could Be a Savvy Decision
It used to be that launching a new magazine required vast amounts of seed capital. All the normal expenses of any new business with one daunting addition, a print bill. After that, you would need even more cash for list acquisition, mailing expenses, as well as other enormous expenses to get this shiny new magazines to the newsstand. Still, in the end, most of those copies you spent so much capital and effort producing find their way to the shredder.The term that come to mind is “bleeder.” Back in the day of print only publications, this was the term used to describe the unfortunate circumstance of publications revenues (ad/subscription/newsstand) falling far below production costs. Basically, you were marked with an unavoidable fate. Amazing how many tried and tried until the bitter end, only to discover what they knew in the first three months was actually correct. Publishers today can circumvent that costly “doomed to fail” model of the past and go direct to the consumer through the internet. Smart phones, tablets, and readers have now emerged as a preferred method of distribution. The best part, no paper and no ink.Even better, when you put your content online, you immediately access data, through your analytics, of behavior patterns within that content. In short, you are conducting a de-facto perceptual study. Eureka! Now you know what content your gathering and publishing is the most compelling to your reader. This is very valuable to your advertisers and allows you to better position messages in banner ads on their behalf.It is even possible to take the top ten-percent (10%) of your content and layer it all into an annual printed copy that your sure has strong interest in the market. How many magazines can launch their first printed edition knowing that every story/editorial/pictorial will be popular? Covers, contests, and promotions can also benefit from the knowledge gained through retrospective analytics. For instance, you will know exactly what image was most viewed online. Maybe that is your cover shot? Picking the right cover shot can take a lot of time and effort due to the subjective opinions of a small group. With a large data sampling from your online edition, you know almost exactly what that perfect shot will look like.In short, the advent of digital editions has removed large financial barriers into the publishing space, while at the same time helping publishers and editors better understand their audiences interest and spending patterns to the best benefit of their advertisers.