Streamlining and using MIUs can help mobile magazines overcome cross-device frustrations; plus, reaching millennials via video
Mobile magazines face cascading challenges when it comes to monetization. User behavior, tech headaches, newsstand confusion, and advertising demands can complicate the implementation of a platform that – regardless of any hurdles – simply must figure into your plans in one way or another.
At Mequoda, we believe in breaking down that process to ease the transition and maximize your revenue potential. Our Mequoda Method has helped hundreds of mobile magazines not only establish themselves, but also succeed beyond expectations.
In a recent article for Publishing Executive, president of PSCS Consulting President Linda Ruth – one of our 8 niche publishing thought leaders you should follow – lays out her own plan of attack for mobile magazines … and deploys one of our terms in the process! Let’s start there today.
Are Publishers Complicating the Answer to Mobile Magazines’ Challenges?
We agree 100% with Ruth on the fact that mobile magazines can do more with less in an effort to simplify operations – especially when first starting out (or starting over) – while getting the most you can out of content. Bells and whistles are great, but a quality core product is better. In her article, Ruth talks about a few ways publishers can accomplish that goal. She also discusses responsive design and template considerations.
“One approach is to miniaturize the magazine. Publisher content is chopped up into bite-sized bits and provided in the form that Mequoda describes as ‘minimum information units’ (or MIUs). That’s the approach that Guitar World adopted early this year when they made their lesson DVD content available in an app comprising about 200 lessons, about 5 to 15 minutes in length. Users can try a lesson for free before committing to a purchase, and push notifications will alert the user when new lessons are released,” Ruth writes.
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Condé Nast: Reach Millennials Via Video
Elsewhere on the Publishing Executive site, Ellen Harvey interviews Condé Nast Vice President of Digital Video Operations Larry Baach about how to reach millennials. If that’s on your to-do list, check out this interesting conversation.
“Besides being a highly shareable, cool piece of content, video has another significance to publishers – it is replacing the written word,” Baach says. “Video as contextual or a companion to text is morphing into something more. Now there are full stories being told in video.”
Andy Kowl Reflects on Content After SIPA
Our friends at SIPA just completed their latest conference, “Content Transformation: New Models for Profit.” More than 300 publishing executives gathered to discuss business management, sales and marketing, content, new revenue streams, and customer focus. Sounds like our kind of party.
“The annual conference of the Specialized Information Publishers Association is a celebration of the value of content. Last week here in Washington at the Capital Hilton more than 250 publishing professionals came together, the majority of whom sell content far more than they do advertising,” Andy Kowl writes. “They sell reports, education and training, up-to-the-minute data, webinars, databases, market studies, site licenses, loose-leaf reference volumes, CEUs and even subscriptions. … If you are not yet selling content, there are probably more ways to do so than you realize.”
Are you selling content? Are mobile magazines a topic of interest to you? Download our free Multiplatform Publishing Strategy Handbook today for advice on that and more!
To read more about mobile magazines in the news, visit Publishing Executive.
