Don Nicholas

Founder & Executive Publisher

Don Nicholas serves as Executive Publisher for Food Gardening Network and GreenPrints. He is responsible for all creative, technical, and financial aspects of these multiplatform brands. As senior member of the editorial team, he provides structural guidance, sets standards, and coordinates activities with the technology and business teams. Don is an active gardener whose favorite crops include tomatoes, basil, blueberries, and corn. He and his wife Gail live and work in southern Massachusetts surrounded by forests, family farms, cranberry bogs, and nearby beaches. Don is also the Founder of Mequoda Systems, LLC, which operates and supports numerous online communities including I Like Crochet, I Like Knitting, and We Like Sewing.

Articles by Don Nicholas

Digital Magazine Publishing

How to Promote a Magazine Digitally

Digital publishing success comes with a multiplatform publishing approach. Digital publishers who recognize this are finding numerous way to reach their audiences, building subscribers from social media, through email, and funneling

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

App Publishers Experiment With Products, Tackle Problems

App publishers are on the cutting edge of multiplatform media, but with great power comes great responsibility. Software changes, shifts in consumer tastes, and evolving devices and platforms all pose

17 Tips for Starting a Membership Website

The answers are not always obvious, even to a seasoned print or digital publisher. Starting a new website is very different from running an existing property. Over the past 10

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Video, Ad Viewability Define Recent Digital Efforts

Video ad viewability continues to be a crucial part of multiplatform publishers' plans, particularly if you're working under an advertising-reliant revenue model, of course. But even if you're not, solid

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Social Publishing Platforms: A Siren Song for Publishers

Social publishing platforms are all the rage for publishers looking to repurpose content, cultivate audience, and drive traffic, and providers' offerings are becoming more sophisticated and specialized. Or, in Facebook's

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

News From Online Magazine Publishers: App Updates, Launches + Push for Archives

Online magazine publishers are focusing on tightening up their apps and archives in the evolving effort to bolster digital product. In the midst of all of this activity, Talking New

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Hugely Successful Advertorial Examples You Can Learn From

With these new-age advertorial examples, you'll re-think your native advertising game Sixty seven percent of Americans think advertorials, also known as custom content, or native advertising content -- add value to

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

TheStreet Experiments With Digital Magazine Subscription Tactics

When it comes to experimentation, digital magazine subscription models are made for trying new things and fiddling with formulas until you find the right fit. Integrating events into your mix

Responsive vs. Fluid Design: Do You Have to Choose?

Design is a delivery mechanism for content – nothing more and nothing less. The more elegant, the better, of course, but getting caught up in appearances is never a good

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Platform Publishing News: Of Juggernauts and Jobs

Digital platform publishing is credited with having ushered in an ongoing golden age for media, and the latest industry developments are doing nothing to dispel this notion. Four recent articles

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

5 Key Consumer Stats for Your Tablet Publishing Plans

As part of a smartly executed multiplatform strategy, tablet publishing is a profitable enterprise built on cross-device content practices, good design principles, and making sense out of industry trends. Recently,

Which Digital Newsstand Should You Use?

Digital Magazine Publishing

Which Digital Newsstand Should You Use?

There are plenty of digital newsstand options in today’s landscape. If you have a limited budget, don’t waste time by publishing on the wrong digital newsstand. Which should you be

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Digital Advertising Trends: Data, B2B, and the Two-Horse Race

Knowing the latest digital advertising trends can translate into dollar signs for publishers. In this roundup, drawing on a handful of articles from MediaPost's Media Daily News, make note of

What is Newsjacking?

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

What is Newsjacking?

Breaking News! Did I get your attention? If so, you may intrinsically be drawn to the concept of newsjacking, even if you aren’t quite sure what it is. Newsjacking is the process

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Online Video Distribution at the Top of Publishers’ To-Do Lists

Quality content built for repurposing: check. Multiplatform tactics like free downloadables, a blog, and live events: check. A relentless social regimen: check. You've crossed off all of these items as

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

The Publishing Future: Video, Native, Data

Predicting the publishing future is no mean feat: Most magazines are too busy pivoting in and out of trends to get ahead of the game. But it's our job to

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Publishing Industry Trends: Online Ed Tech, Ecommerce + Events, Broadening B2B

This week's roundup of the latest publishing industry trends includes the continued focus on monetizing ed tech, plus one media company's melding of events and e-commerce. We'll also get a

What is a Digital Newsstand?

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

What is a Digital Newsstand?

You won’t find a digital newsstand at the corner of a city street. The digital newsstand is the latest step in the evolution of digital content publishing. These digital distribution

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Niche Strategy + Cross-Device Content Serving Publishers Well

Nobody knows niche strategy like we do, which is why we love to see big-name legacy publishers adopting it and smaller, scrappier sites finding success with it. The same goes

Event Marketing Ideas for using Sponsor Contests to Attract New Attendees

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Event Marketing Ideas for using Sponsor Contests to Attract New Attendees

One of the biggest mistakes event organizers make is that they keep on promoting to the SAME AUDIENCE. You’ve developed a great database of prospects. You continuously update your list,

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Programmatic Ad Sales for Publishers: The Road Ahead

Are the robots finally taking over? Does the emergence of programmatic ad sales as a preferred revenue model signal a sea change for publishers? And, if so, are you ready?

The Organic Audience Development Strategy Handbook

Claim your FREE digital copy of Organic Audience Development Strategy: How to Convert Website Visitors into a Profitable Email Subscriber Base now.

How to Use Website Architecture to Collect Email Addresses

How to Use Website Architecture to Collect Email Addresses

If at least 2% of your website visitors aren't converting into email subscribers, then you're reading exactly what you should be. And most publishers are averaging much less than a

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Digital Magazine Subscriptions: Slate Reflects on One Year of ‘Plus’

Last week, we came across a cool, candid essay from Slate Editor-in-Chief Julia Turner on the occasion of Slate Plus's first birthday. From the beginning, Slate has emphasized that Plus

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Multiplatform Media Pointers: From Social Strategies to … Holograms?

Finding the right formula as a multiplatform media publisher means experimenting with methodologies while maintaining a disciplined approach to content. In other words, rotating tactics around a solid strategic core.

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Online Magazine Publishing Audiences Are on the Rise, MPA Says

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its first-quarter 2015 Magazine Media 360° report, and the year-over-year data is encouraging for online magazine publishing companies.

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Bryan Welch, Mequoda Master, Resigns from Ogden to Head Up B the Change Media

Let's start the week with personnel moves both major and minor, per Folio:, plus a look at how digital ad revenue did in 2014 according to the IAB.

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

All Digital Magazine Advertising Roads Lead Back to Viewability, Targeting

Digital magazine advertising is by no means the only way to generate revenue in publishing – subscription strategy, events, and membership benefits drive performance, as well – but it remains

Digital Magazine Publishing

Digital Publishing Platforms: Launches, Acquisitions, Reorgs

Deft use of digital publishing platforms is a must for magazines looking to solidify their place in the industry. Thanks to astute observers like Talking New Media, we can monitor

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Mobile Publishers: Advertising + Video Trends

eMarketer is full of new data for mobile publishers and multiplatform media companies this week. Here are five stories of interest for digital magazines and other brands:

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Online Publishing Companies Responding to Latest Trends

Finding an edge is always at the forefront of online publishing companies' efforts. Today, we look at how Time Inc. is taking its operations to the next level, how digital

Website Taxonomy Mistakes That Publishers Make Too Often

Website Taxonomy Mistakes That Publishers Make Too Often

Your website taxonomy is how you speak to those who are looking at your website. Publishers live in the visual world and have a habit of going for over-designed websites

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Social Media for Publishers: The MPA’s Latest Report

The shifting landscape of social media for publishers stood still for at least moment this week, as the the Association of Magazine Media's 360° report on the first quarter of

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Is Niche Publishing the Secret of Atlantic Media’s Success?

Another week, another new social platform! Plus more video models and one of our favorite topics: niche publishing. Let's take a look at three articles tackling these trends from the always

US Digital Magazine Circulation Tops 80M While AAM Continues to Underreport Digital Versus Print Sales

Digital Magazine Publishing

US Digital Magazine Circulation Tops 80M While AAM Continues to Underreport Digital Versus Print Sales

So is the underreporting of digital magazines sales the fault of publishers themselves, or should AAM's audit be modified to accommodate universal pricing and packaging? We think it's time to accommodate.

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Video, Viewability, Monetization on Publishers’ Minds

With emergent factors like video, viewability in a mobile world, and website revenues rightfully obsessing digital publishers around the world, finding solid data to focus the head-spinning stream of opinions,

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

How Content Gets Profitably Recycled in Multiplatform Publishing

When you recycle a can or plastic bottle, you can wait and listen to the sound of the machine crushing the can. It's almost as if the nickel it spits

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Publishing Industry News: Acquisitions, Launches, Staff Moves

For the second time in 2015, a leading online learning platform is making huge publishing industry news – but this story goes well beyond the $186 million Lynda.com investment back

5 Ways Your Website Taxonomy Should Work For You

If your website taxonomy is perfect, it means that your readers are never confused by the language on your site. It means they know what they're clicking on and subscribing

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Digital Publishing Solutions for Ad Blocks, Platform, Video?

While the problems publishers deal with can seem to multiply with each passing week, the good news is that technological advances, best practices, content innovations, and other digital publishing solutions

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Digital Publishing Strategy: 3 Keys From Wired, Meredith, & EW

Three of the biggest names in the business recently gave us a glimpse insider their digital publishing strategy via interviews with top trade magazine min. Let's take a look at how

Digital Magazine Publishing

The Best Digital Magazines?

Tell us, what's the best digital magazine, in your humble opinion? The last time someone you knew won an award, did you agree that they were the best person to win?

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Multiplatform Media a Priority for Publishers

Multiplatform media is the answer for publishers: If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't be in business – because we wouldn't have any client success stories! The best part about

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Magazine App Publishing: Success Stories and Cautionary Tales

Magazine app publishing can be a volatile enterprise if you don't have the right plan in place. Mequoda Members know that you can't just throw a replica product up on

What is Website Taxonomy?

Website taxonomy needs to be clear and easy to understand so your audience members can find the information they seek. The mobile version of your website has to be even

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Digital Magazine Business News: A Noteworthy Redesign + Ad Considerations

In the digital magazine business, today's trendiest practices could be taboo tomorrow, and vice-versa. That's why it's so important to build a durable core product that's solid enough to withstand

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Online Publishing Companies: Email + Tech Trends

Creating strong content is fundamental to success for online publishing companies, but the work doesn't stop there. Mequoda Members know that email prowess and tech savvy can go a long

Digital Magazine Publishing

20 Tablet Publishing Tips You Can’t Afford to Miss

If you own a tablet that you use often, is it hard to imagine what life was like before it? I have friends who use their tablets to cook every

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

Digital Publishing Companies Making News, Moves

The year 2015 has seen a positive net gain so far for digital publishing companies, with sustained good news offsetting any bad. Overall, the industry has become more nimble in

Multiplatform Publishing Strategy

February Magazine Publishing Industry Report From MPA

The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released its latest Magazine Media 360° report – tabbing year-over-year numbers for February, along with the top performers in the magazine publishing industry –

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