You don’t have to pick a primary or favorite digital magazine publishing platform – as we see from leading media companies, multiplatform strategy leaves it wide open, and the more the merrier
When we say digital magazine publishing platform, the image that forms in our mind’s eye is one a jumping-off point, a launching pad, even a diving board. It’s a not a social media network, or a static website, or any digital property with some copy slapped up there, but rather just the beginning of a publisher’s efforts in content distribution and marketing.
There are no limits when it comes to multiplatform publishing, so you must not allow industry observers or “experts” define the scope of your goals. Seemingly every week brings with it a new way to reach consumers with your articles, videos, white papers, podcasts, archives, and more. It’s not easy, but at least it’s not boring!
TheMediaBriefing.com has some great recent coverage from its live events touching on these very topics and more. Let’s take a look!
Al Jazeera: Multiplatform Publishing and Audience Engagement
Al Jazeera’s AJ+ reports billion monthly views and 40 videos produced per day, TheMediaBriefing.com reports. How has the once primarily broadcast-based network fared so well as a digital magazine publishing platform? By going with the flow and responding to audience behavior.
“As audiences increasingly turn to multiple platforms, including mobile devices, for news and information, this expansion will allow U.S. and non-U.S. consumers alike to access the network’s journalism and content wherever and whenever they want,” Al Jazeera Global Executive Director of Digital Media Yaser Bishr told an audience at the recent Digital Media Strategies conference.
“We want to expand more. Not through TV though, through digital. … We spend a lot of time trying to understand engagement. We want to empower our audience, engage, inspire, experience, defy. We want to share stories that engage conversations.”
Time Out on Digital Magazine Publishing Platform Priorities
Chris Sutcliffe covered Time Out Digital CEO Noel Penzer‘s talk about his company’s digital transition at TheMediaBriefing.com‘s recent Monetizing Media 2016.
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“The business has evolved so much over the last three years. For us it hasn’t just been about monetising media, it’s about monetising what we stand for and what we are as a brand. Yes we moved from being a print product to a digital publisher, but two things haven’t changed for us. Consumers place the trust in our content and our brand. We need to stay true to what we are. But how we’ve leveraged what we do as a brand has been central to the transition,” Penzer said.
“But Penzer also noted that the transition wasn’t over yet. He remarked that print advertising revenue is still a large part of their revenue mix, and that the company is looking to grow its ecommerce and events propositions still further to become a more stable organisation. Ultimately, he argued, what matters to a brand is knowing its mission. He said that in the next few years many media companies should stop thinking of themselves in such a narrow bracket, and really concentrate on the brand and its relationship with audiences if they want to expand.”
Quartz CEO on Formula for Success
Jay Lauf‘s leadership at Atlantic offshoot Quartz in the four years since its launch has been masterful. In this piece at TheMediaBriefing.com, he describes what has informed his work at the digital magazine publishing platform.
“That Quartz started under a new banner is essential. Lauf recalls frequently being asked why they didn’t just become the international business channel for The Atlantic. The answer: it would have started out working too well. Lauf explained how The Atlantic already has a successful editorial construct, CMS, site design, engineers, sales team and that this would have kept Quartz from being inventive. ‘We would have just plugged this concept into that system,’ he said,” Tola Brennan writes.
“And all the thinking Quartz has done to rethink their journalism in a mobile and social space seems to have worked. ‘Traffic growth from the beginning has been completely organic,’ said Lauf. In July they hit a new high of 20 million uniques globally. Sky-high though is not the goal. Lauf doesn’t think that reaching 100 million uniques is needed for success: it’s more keeping the integrity of the brand. ‘It’s a defined, specific audience we trying to serve.'”
What qualifies as a digital magazine publishing platform according to your criteria? Let us know in the comments!
To read more about digital magazine publishing platform considerations and other industry news, visit TheMediaBriefing.com.
