Digital publishing news for July 10th
Barnes & Noble is in a tight spot with their Nook Book reader. Motley Fool dissects their latest quarterly results, saying “in the company’s most recent results, sales from Barnes & Noble’s Nook business plunged 34% year-over-year, while revenue from Barnes & Noble Retail, including BN.Com, declined 10% from the same period a year ago. The 34% decline in Nook sales follows the 26% fall reported in the company’s FQ3, ended January 31.”
So where does Barnes & Noble go from here? If they stop producing the Nook, they’d have to rely on 3rd party devices. “Microsoft, already a strategic partner in the company’s Nook business, seems to be a good candidate with its Surface RT tablets. However, its minute market share may not offer a lot in terms of the addressable market. Apple on the other hand, holds the lion’s share of the market in the tablet business with its iPads accounting for approximately 40%.”
With the tiny eBook reader market share that Barnes & Noble and its strategic partners have, it seems like many hard decisions lie ahead for the bookseller turned device-maker.
Sweet & Sour News For Magazine Publishers
The number of new magazine titles launched in the first half of 2013 continues to decreases reports Folio. “The number of magazine launches has been steadily decreasing, says MediaFinder, which notes that there has also been fewer magazine closings.”
Publishing Executive is also reporting on the topic.”In the first half of 2013, 97 magazines launched, and 29 closed, according to MediaFinder.com—the largest online database of U.S. and Canadian publications.”
Some good new from the MediaFinder survey is the number of magazine closure have slowed — 29 closures in 2013 versus 48 in 2012.
Twitter Experiment With Retargeting
Search Engine Watch is reporting that Twitter has started to offer retargeting for advertisers. Here is how Twitter explains their retargeting program:
“Let’s say a local florist wants to advertise a Valentine’s Day special on Twitter. They’d prefer to show their ad to flower enthusiasts who frequent their website or subscribe to their newsletter. To get the special offer to those people who are also on Twitter, the shop may share with us a scrambled, unreadable email address (a hash) or browser-related information (a browser cookie ID). We can then match that information to accounts in order to show them a Promoted Tweet with the Valentine’s Day deal.”
Twitter has made it clear that advertisers won’t get additional information about the Twitter user from the retargeting campaign.
Harper’s Gon’ Digital
They took their time, but Harper’s Magazine will finally be making its digital debut on iOS & Android in the fall of 2013. Mashable has the details on the publishers digital adoption:
“The title is working with 29th Street Publishing on a new iOS and Android app and also updated its website last October. The app would augment an iPad-ready version of the magazine currently available from Zinio. One possible area of improvement content integration. Currently, you can’t get access to Harper’s 163 year-old content archive with the Zinio subscription and if you want the tablet version and print, you have to pay separately for both. Compare that to The New Yorker, which provides free tablet and archive access with a print subscription.”
The article also mentions that Harpers will be available on Apple Newstand. While they may be late to the game, they have a big opportunity in front of them. “If Harper’s can find a way to finally embrace the digital revolution without short-changing its writers or compromising its brand that will be good news for readers everywhere.” For publishers, too.
On The Move At Allure
MediaBistro is reporting, “Stacy Bettman has been promoted from advertising director to associate publisher. Bettman has been with Allure since 2011″. The magazine also named Stacy Nathan as advertising director, “Nathan was most recently serving the same role with Marie Claire.”
