In most cases, our answer is \u201cboth\u201d.<\/p>\n
Why? What role do these solutions play in the magazine publishing world? Why do they work best when are used together?<\/p>\n
Come and get to know it.<\/p>\n
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Online magazine \u2013 why, when, for whom?<\/h2>\n
Statistics show that print revenue falls each year<\/a> while digital increases. If this trend will continue (everything points to it), digital newspaper publishing account for 50 percent of the total revenue in just a few years. Publishers should be prepared today to grow their business in times of the increasing demand for online formats.<\/p>\n More and more publishers start running an online magazine, treating it as a chance for development, distribution extension, or an additional source of income, and rightly so. The world statistics report<\/a> that pandemic sped up digital transformation in many organizations, including publishing, what is also confirmed by our customers.<\/p>\n One of them is a Japanese women\u2019s information magazine, Poco\u2019ce<\/a>. Its print version was distributed in the city center of Tokyo. Moving to the digital sphere gave them the possibility of maintaining continuity of distribution during the pandemic when selling print versions was difficult or impossible.<\/p>\n Since the beginning of our digital publishing adventure (it’s been 10 years!), we\u2019ve heard a lot of different reasons why publishers opt for an online magazine. Among all responses we\u2019ve received to this question, these were the most popular:<\/p>\n But the most common answer was different.<\/p>\n With print declining and thus falling interests in traditional advertising, the online magazine has become a sea of alternative income opportunities, and I’m not talking just about moving the advertising into digital. Although the revenue from online ads was somewhat disappointing for some time (which was caused by the increasing use of AdBlock), today we can talk about a revival of this strategy.<\/p>\n The LiveRamp in cooperation with Digiday published a report called \u201cThe State of Publishing: Monetizing inventory without third-party cookies\u201d<\/a>. They surveyed 55 advertisers from brands and agencies \u2013 as well as 52 global publishers \u2013 from traditional news publishers to community sites.<\/p>\n What did they find?<\/p>\n Of course, publishers can also monetize their content by direct selling of one-time single issues. However, it\u2019ll bring relatively little money, while the ideal effect of running an online magazine is to generate some recurring capital.<\/p>\n It is possible when publishers focus on optimizing for long-term customer lifetime value. The path to achieve it leads through the paid subscription model.<\/strong><\/p>\n Strategies like a hard paywall require users to pay for access to all content and are usually recommended to well-known titles with a solid place in the industry. Smaller companies can start with soft\/metered or freemium paywalls. They offer free access to a part of the articles while the rest is intended only for subscribers. It’s a great tactic to show people the value of the content and encourage them to see more.<\/p>\n The Economist<\/em> offers their digital edition for free but only for people who subscribed to their print issues. The second option is to subscribe only digital version with unlimited access to the app, website, archive, podcasts, and newsletters.<\/p>\n Online magazine can generate revenue from archival content (digital e-kiosks usually have unlimited storage). National Geographic<\/em> offers several free articles on their website and in the mobile app. To get access to all content, you must subscribe. A similar tactic is used by Colors<\/em>, the magazine published by… Benetton, a famous Italian fashion brand. Have you heard about this publication?<\/p>\n The flexibility and universality of the online magazine make it is a great form also for non-publishing brands.<\/strong><\/p>\n Not all online magazine producers are publishers per se. Many companies in any number of different industries create and distribute digital publications. Why do they decide to do this?<\/p>\n The answer is simple.<\/p>\n They also have to take care of their customers, keep them up-to-date, inspire them with interesting new content, and engaged them. The great examples are The Red Bulletin Magazine<\/em> published by RedBull and Airbnb Magazine<\/em>. You probably know these brands greatly, and know that neither of them is a publisher in a traditional approach. Both of these publications were created to keep customers enthusiastic about the brands and the lifestyles associated with the products and services.<\/p>\n There are more such examples of online magazines creating by brands that are not related to the publishing world strictly. While these ones charge subscription fees, many other companies simply give these bulletins for free.<\/p>\n Does it make sense?<\/p>\n Online magazines play an important role in a business strategy \u2013 whether it is distributed for free or not. It’s always about retaining the customers and taking them to the next stage of the sales funnel, no matter if you are an entrepreneur or a publisher.<\/p>\n Many organizations and publishers create free magazines only for marketing purposes. It doesn\u2019t give them direct income, but benefits like a solid base of readers and a lot of data which is always straight equivalent to some kind of growth.<\/p>\n The benefits of distributing a free magazine are usually far outweighed by the effort made to make a magazine.<\/strong><\/p>\n At every critical moment on the path of exploring your content, you should catch potential customers and give them content they want and need that will monetize in the future through various channels.<\/p>\n Let’s take a look at the path the reader follows when discovering your content.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the process of search of content, the reader encouraged by the title of the article, or cover photo, visits your website or your online magazine. How much time do visitors spend with the article?<\/p>\n Well, if you\u2019re an active Internet user, you probably guess that not so much because you\u2019ve experienced the same many times (enter the page, quick look, and… leave). 55% of website visitors spent fewer than 15 seconds actively on a page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Not so long, huh?<\/p>\n It\u2019s enough to encourage visitors to sign up for your newsletter, download a guide or install an app. The key is to choose a few interesting topics for your potential readers and put them somewhere on the website in a form that triggers action, e.g.:<\/p>\n Look how The Guardian<\/em> encourages people to download their news app. There are two short statements on their website:<\/p>\n \u201cA curated version of our responsible intelligent journalism set on the pace of your day\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cGet the latest news in real time. A new and faster way to catch up on every breaking news story and all the latest developments as they unfold\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It sounds engaging, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n In the times of fast-leaving website visitors, a news app can be a chance to keep them for longer. The point is to convert one-time visitors into monetizing subscribers.<\/strong><\/p>\n Both the website and the magazine can trigger the installation of the mobile app. This, in turn, can bring a lot of good.<\/p>\n If your one-time website visitor or accidental magazine reader won\u2019t see anything interesting, he leaves and the chance he\u2019ll come back is small. News app is a great way to keep readers longer, make them come back, whereby they become regular readers what is equal to generate additional revenue and grow subscription programs.<\/p>\n In essence, mobile apps improve publishing brand exposure and encourage readers’ engagement (push notification, rich media, social media easy sharing, etc.). Thanks to this tool you can also gain useful information on your user base, which will give you a massive competitive advantage in the market. And most importantly, you can gain profits.<\/p>\n These are just a few reasons why magazine publishers decide to launch their own mobile app.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been already running an online magazine that is read by a loyal audience, launching a news app can be the next step in your development. This tool will answer different needs. If you want to enter the publishing future, you have to consider having a news app to draw more traffic to your magazine and help you with lasting in the competitive market.<\/p>\n Have you ever wondered in what circumstances your readers read your content?<\/p>\n Online magazines are usually published periodically: weekly, monthly, quarterly. People know when to expect the news issue; they can read them when they have time to do it \u2013 when they sit at home, or just resting somewhere.<\/p>\n The news app is a chance to have more frequent contact with the readers. Notifications they receive, remind about the brand, give the freshest news, and usually are read immediately because we all have a smartphone with us all the time. The Ofcom report<\/a> found that the average phone user checks their phone every 12 minutes. What’s more, reading news is placed on the list of 10 daily most common uses for smartphones<\/a>.<\/p>\n The ongoing contact with the readers is not the only reason to have a news app. It\u2019s a tool for every publisher who:<\/p>\n These benefits aren\u2019t trumped up.<\/p>\n Data from a survey on news consumption<\/a> shows that there has been a huge change in recent years in this matter. Reading online news via a smartphone more than doubled between 2013 and 2021, while the same activity via computer or laptop decreased by over 20 percent in the same time period.<\/p>\n Americans favor mobile devices over desktops and laptops for getting the news. According to a Pew Research Center survey<\/a>, roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults (57%) often get news this way (this percentage is higher when it comes to younger people). Only 30% of people claimed to do it on a desktop or laptop computer.<\/p>\n This trend is growing not only in the United States, but it applies to the rest of the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n Spending on mobile news apps in Europe<\/a> grew by more than 50 percent between 2019 and 2020, suggesting that news apps could soon become the preferred option for consumers willing to pay for news content.<\/p>\n Many newspapers and magazines companies have already had a mobile app to retain their current readers and draw new users. For publishers is a chance to monetize.<\/p>\n The strategies of monetization news app content are quite similar to these ones used with an online magazine.<\/p>\n In both cases one of the popular method is selling single magazine issues. The in-app purchases implemented in your app turn it into another sales channel.<\/p>\n Almost 85% of consumers prefer mobile apps to mobile browsers for online shopping<\/a>. What’s important, the same reason goes for news apps<\/a> and online magazines as well. According to a survey done by Compuware<\/a>, users choose mobile apps due to a number of their advantages: they are quicker, more feasible and simpler to browse and provide a better user experience.<\/p>\n Another news app monetization way is advertisement.<\/p>\n According to journalism.org<\/a> mobile advertising revenue continued to grow rapidly in 2020, increasing from $87.3 billion in 2019 to $102.6 billion. Between 2011 and 2020, mobile advertising revenue increased roughly sixtyfold, from $1.7 billion in 2011 to $102.6 billion in 2020. In 2020, mobile advertising revenue comprised two-thirds of digital advertising revenue on mobile and desktop devices, up from 5% in 2011.<\/p>\n This may be due to the fact that the ads are well-oriented towards the readers and tailored to their interests. Also, publishers are more interested in paying attention to analyzing the reader’s data. The latter will soon change a bit due to policy privacy changes introduced by Apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n The great alternative to ads is a paywall, which can also be set in the mobile app.<\/p>\n Do any examples prove that paywall in the news app works?<\/p>\nThe role of an online magazine in the publishing strategy<\/h3>\n
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Online magazine helps with diversifying income<\/h3>\n
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Is profitable to run an online magazine by non-publishing brands?<\/h3>\n
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Free distribution of online magazines<\/h3>\n
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![\"news](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.presspadapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/the-guardian.png?resize=871%2C525&ssl=1\")
News app as an extension of the online magazine<\/h2>\n
Why should you consider a news app if you already have an online magazine?<\/h3>\n
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The statistics speak for themselves<\/h3>\n
![\"reading](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.presspadapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/reading-online-news.png?resize=593%2C361&ssl=1\")
How to monetize online content thanks to the news app?<\/h3>\n
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