Pontin continued, “For traditional publishers, the scheme was alluring. Because they were once again delivering a discrete product, analogous to a newspaper or magazine, they could charge readers for single-copy sales and subscriptions.”

Unfortunately, he argued, it all went terribly wrong. “The real problem with apps was that when people read on electronic media, they expect the stories to possess the linky-ness of the Web—but stories in apps didn’t really link.”

Now it’s a new day, but . Still, a lot has changed, if you’re to believe much of the internet chatter. But what does it all mean? Are apps the answer? Are magazines on websites going away? What about print?

����’s back to the future for print

For a while it looked like print magazines were a dying breed. . Specialty magazines, in particular, have .

Additionally, print magazines seem to be offering readers a viable alternative to newspapers. Here’s how:

• The daily paper depends on “breaking news.” With a 24-hour news cycle, people can get their hot news immediately online or on cable TV. They don’t have to wait for the morning paper. Magazines don’t depend on breaking news. So newspapers have lost one of their most important advantages.
• Newspaper stories, which tend to be rather short, don’t offer the more in-depth treatment magazine articles can provide.
• Magazines, especially niche publications, focus on a particular subject. Newspapers contain more general information without the level of expertise offered by magazine writers.

As newspapers become thinner and thinner and fewer and fewer, cable news and the internet will continue to provide news in bits and bites. Print magazines stand to pick up the ink-on-paper crowd looking for more meaty coverage, even at a premium price.

Website magazines are here to stay

Publishing a magazine on a website is a relatively simple and inexpensive proposition. HTML5 allows optimization of websites for all devices, including phones and tablets. Also, sites written in HTML5 can offer the kinds of features apps provide.

Mobile websites give magazines with a tight budget the chance to get their editorial and advertising in front of readers who prefer a read-it-anywhere digital solution. , “[T]he best part about [a mobile website] is that you can easily create an online magazine on your own. . . . And when you are done, the sharing possibilities are endless. You can embed it directly on your website or download is as HTML5. Or share it with our social media following.”

The mobile app insurgency continues

The truth is that magazine apps are popular. And there appear to be , one of which is the aforementioned “linky-ness.” For example, presspadapp.com claims that .

“Online publishing gives readers great opportunities to explore digital magazines,” pressadapp.com avers. By using hyperlinks within the content, readers can connect not only to other information inside and outside the magazine but also to websites operated by advertisers. Convincing advertisers of the value of links to their website helps sell digital ads.

So which mobile magazine app is best?

Of course, it depends on whom you ask, so more exploration is a good idea. But here are :

• �������Ƶ works with BlueToad to offer economical and versatile digital editions of your publication. You can . We can convert your print pdf files into enhanced digital publications, and even help with video, music and other fun enhancements! to learn more!
• Amazon Kindle Unlimited exposes magazines to millions of readers. The risk is that any individual magazine might get buried in the pile of competing publications.
• Zinio’s pricing is a bit murky, but the app offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to creating and distributing content.
• Issuu also provides a high level of exposure with its risk of burial. It also allows for sharing stories on Instagram and Facebook Stories.
• Joomag offers full online publishing on one platform that has the additional benefit being easy to use. It works for publishers of any size.
• Mag+ lets publishers create content apps which allows them to make apps from their digital magazines.
• Yudu gives publishers the opportunity to open previously untapped channels of distribution by developing communication apps.
• Zmags offers fast publication of interactive content that can improve engagement times by more than 400%.
• �������Ƶ can create custom apps to compliment printed products. Learn more about the apps here.

Why not go for the whole package?

Yes, it complicates things when you have to think about print, website and app, , you have to go where they go. And, while print is still alive and doing well, there are opportunities among the many digital devotees.

You want to tap every market and remember that there’s a lot of crossover. Print lovers like their tablets and their phones, and tablet and phone users like to sit down with a print magazine. Don’t forget laptop and desktop users, either.

Apparently, publishers are finding strength in diversity—taking a diverse approach to distribution, that is. Adapting to the disruption that has come with the digital revolution isn’t easy, but it can work out. The key is not to reject new ways of doing business but to find what functions best in both the digital and print worlds and using it to succeed.

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But have you tried going back to something that began with magazines to help them use resources they already had to build revenue?

Whatever you call it, (a.k.a. content marketing, custom media, customer publishing, branded content, etc.) is a big deal these days, In fact, according to Killing Marketing author Joe Pulizzi, nine out of 10 North American companies use it, even if they’re not sure what label fits best.

What is custom publishing?

The as an endeavor that “marries the marketing ambitions of a company with the information needs of its target audience. This occurs through the delivery of editorial content—via print, internet, and other media—so intrinsically valuable that it moves the recipient’s behavior in a desired direction.”

See, it’s nothing new. Custom publishing is a marketing tool that has been in use for well over a century. Joe Pulizzi writes that the first example of custom publishing was , which gave farmers advice on how to make more money—and, incidentally, help John Deere sell more wagons, plows and tractors.

Little has changed in more than a century. Except, of course, the way information travels. And who turns information into “content.” And the cost of disseminating content. And, unfortunately too often, the quality of the content being disseminated. With the internet, anybody can be a content marketer and claim to be engaged in custom publishing. All that said, it doesn’t mean everybody does it well.

To work as a marketing tool, custom publishing has to maintain a high level of quality in the eyes of its consumers. ����’s a different kind of quality than applies to straight advertising. .

Why custom publishing works

As a marketing effort, custom publishing depends on its authority and believability for its success. Consumers have to trust the information. Apparently, the farmers who flocked to read Deere’s The Furrow trusted its content to lead them in the right direction. After all, several generations of farmers have read it.

Here are a few of the reasons custom publishing works:

• ����’s not advertising. As a matter of fact, it . It doesn’t want to be seen as advertising because its strength is in its credibility and usefulness.
• It helps keep existing customers loyal. AARP has its own magazine that highlights the lifestyles of aging celebrities, offers advice on many topics and generally presents a pretty good read. The information is often valuable and usually interesting, so it helps keep the association relevant to members. It also makes members feel cared for and important.
• ����’s . To be effective, a custom-published magazine, book, pamphlet, eBook, blog or any other media choice must appeal to a specific audience. It must be relevant to that audience. Therefore, much care is given to understanding the audience’s values and lifestyle. You aren’t going to publish Vegans Today if you sell steak.

How to use custom publishing

����’s established: Custom publishing has a good pedigree, and it has stood the test of time, even becoming more popular over the years. How can you turn it to your advantage? Here are some suggestions:

• Find out what your readers are most interested in. Hold some focus groups. Take some informal polls. Go to meetings and conventions your readers might attend. Use the data you gather to give your advertisers direction. In short, learn more about your readers so you can give the information to your advertisers.
• Tell your advertisers you can help them target their audience more effectively because you have the data. Wow your advertisers with information they might not already have.
• Offer your advertisers a value-added service—custom publishing—that addresses their audience’s specific interests and needs with editorial their customers will find useful and that increases the value of their advertising by backing it up with more objective information that isn’t as much about selling products and services as about helping their customers do more and better.
• Create advertiser packages that include custom publishing. This isn’t a giveaway, but you can offer reduced rates for creating custom-published materials when your advertisers purchase a multi-placement package and/or premium positioning.
• Give your advertisers space in your videos, podcasts, blogs and other digital media. This is the digital version of custom publishing. Because your readers trust you to provide accurate information, they’ll find your support of your advertisers more convincing than advertising alone. These days, you need to use every medium to its maximum advantage.

What’s old is new again

Everything, it seems, has a season. Just like hair styles go out of style and come back with a new twist, it’s our turn to embrace the new and improved version of custom publishing.  Our society’s love of the digital world has opened many new opportunities.

Print is far from dead. There’s something substantial about words on paper. You need to embrace the dynamics of digital but remember the power of print. You can use both to make custom publishing work for your magazine.

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News Up, Gossip Down

A few years ago, digital technology and the internet seemed to be carrying out a takeover that spelled the end of ink on paper. Then print publishing rallied. It found it still had an audience, and a pretty big one at that. ����’s still holding its own – at least in part.

Way back in 2017, , “Print sales have been declining for several years as readers find their content online – but now, something unusual is happening.” He explained an unexpected trend in publication purchase trends.

“News and current affairs magazines are becoming more popular – but celebrity, gossip and fashion publications are still struggling.”

According to Fashion Monitor editor Sarah Penny, as quoted by McIntosh, readers are looking for an “authoritative voice” to help them understand current events, and they’re finding that voice in print magazines. Readers want fact-based analysis they can hold in their hands. This conclusion goes a long way toward explaining why magazines such as The Economist .

So how do these observations apply to your magazine?

Welcome to the Quasi-revolution

The print industry’s continued existence shows that it is clearly capable of evolving. Print magazines have changed and adapted. They’ve learned how to use appropriate tools to keep the presses running. To do this in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, though, between digital and print. By finding ways to make these media work together, they’ve discovered new pathways to success.

Ana Lobb, vice president of media and publishing at MPP Global, thinks the solution to the print vs. digital battle is “taking a customer-centric approach to engage new subscribers and deepen their relationship with existing ones.” So how does that work?

Lobb believes the first step is understanding that the choice between digital and print is a false one. Instead, the decision comes down to “what mix of print and digital.” What matters, Lobb says, “is understanding how customers want to engage with the publication, and then making it as simple as possible to do so.”

So what’s happened so far, as magazines have embraced digital tools, is not really a revolution. Print has not been deposed in favor of digital, but it has been forced to accept new ways of doing things. One of these is AI.

How Print Publishers Can Grow With AI

“In the case of publishing,” , “far from being a solution looking for a problem, AI really does have the potential to transform an industry that is under enormous pressure to stay relevant with consumers and to deliver results for advertisers and partners.”

At bottom, AI is a computer program, one people create to collect feedback and use that feedback to change the way it responds. This process leads to more and more effective operation. The post continues with, “it’s that responsive, adaptable nature that equips AI programmes to help publishers navigate the disruptive environment they face.”

So how does AI’s learning capability apply to your print magazine?

Lobb, believes the mix of print and digital is where AI can play an important role. Instead of hoping readers will figure out why your magazine is so great – with advertisers following suit, you can force the issue by giving them what they want almost before they know they want it.

Catering to individual tastes is of particular importance these days because, as Beth Braverman at says of print magazines, “Many of the brands that have survived . . . appear poised for a profitable future by leaning into print as a pivotal part of their strategy.” And how are publishers leaning into print? By finding their niche and exploiting it aggressively.

. The Harvard Business Review cut its frequency by 40% but kept its $99/year subscription price. It has seen a 10% increase in subscriptions. Popular Science cut its frequency from monthly to quarterly and raised its subscription rates. It also enhanced its visual content and opted for a better-quality paper stock. It saw subscription yields rise 30% per year.

Why were these publications and others willing to bet on their radical-sounding strategy? Because .

Now add the power of machine learning to the mix. Think of data analysis coupled with the ability of the computer program to learn from the analysis and respond appropriately and almost instantaneously. . Instead, said staff can spend more time producing the content that attracts readers – and advertisers.

That puts it this way: “AI also allows publishers to understand their audience at a much deeper level. By analyzing the mass of data created when users interact with their sites and cross-referencing with user’s stated preferences when they register, publishers can develop detailed profiles so they can automatically serve content and ads that are highly likely to appeal to users.”

Yes, the whatsnewinpublishing.com posts refer to digital magazines, but the power of AI applies just as thoroughly to print. Content really is king, especially in the niche publication market. ����’s just one more example of how print and digital, together, can be greater than the sum of their parts and keep print magazines a valued part of the publishing world.

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Contextual marketing—it gets personal

To use contextual marketing most effectively, you have to on an individual level. You might need to know things like:

• What interests them
• What they do at work and at home
• Where they go to eat, shop and be entertained
• What they buy when they’re eating out, shopping and being entertained

You want to know as much about them as possible.

Then it’s what you do with this data that makes the difference. You develop information—such as an ad—that answers your potential customers’ needs and desires and present it to them at the right online or mobile moment. That’s contextual marketing at its ideal.

Using contextual marketing to gain subscribers

Let’s say you publish a digital version of your magazine about preparing healthy meals. You’re probably looking for people who like healthy foods and food preparation and who enjoy cooking for themselves and their family and, when they eat out, prefer restaurants serving healthy food.

Now imagine these people going on a Google or other search engine quest for healthy seafood recipes. They go to the search engine and click on a likely link. Later, they decide to check on a recent event reported on CNN’s website. Along with the news, up pops an ad for your magazine. Having recently searched for recipes, they’re intrigued and click on your ad to find out more. Your chances of converting a subscriber are much improved.

Attracting advertisers with contextual marketing

News websites like CNN use contextual marketing to synchronize their ads and news content. When you bring up a particular story, the ads that share the screen relate to the content you’re viewing. The same can be done on blog pages and social media sites like —and on your magazine’s site.

One of the methods for is to place their ad with relevant content so readers are more inclined to pay attention to them. The same principle holds for online ads. Knowing their ad has a better chance of getting a response because of its context is a strong incentive for advertisers to work with your magazine.

How to develop your contextual marketing program

Whether you’re trying to sell your magazine or your advertisers’ products and services using contextual marketing, collecting good data is crucial. A customer relationship management (CRM) program offers the technology you need to do the job, as long as you pick the right software. So do your research.

Once you’ve got your CRM in place, you’re just a from launching your contextual marketing effort. The CRM will help you:

• Establish customer lifecycles to determine where customers are in terms of purchasing. This step allows you to see whether your prospects are leads or buyers.
• Create the ideal buyer persona or personas so you can figure out how best to reach your prospects and turn them into customers.

To , you should also spend some time on:

• Improving search engine optimization (SEO) by including keywords that your customers are most likely to use in their searches.
• Finding out what content performs best so you can , as well as formats, that your viewers respond to most readily.
• Making sure your website is user-friendly so visitors don’t have to work too hard to find the content they want.

The advantages of contextual marketing

For both your magazine and your advertisers, . Here’s a brief summary.

Better targeting. Customer behavior data is key to contextual marketing. The data allows you to target potential customers when they’re ready to make a purchase.

Better experience for customers. Personalization gives contextual marketing the ability to fulfill customer wants and needs when they arise. Customers find their solutions almost immediately.

Better engagement with customers. Contextual marketing lets you start and maintain a conversation with your customers. You’re not just selling them something. You’re setting up a two-way communication.

Better efficiency for customers. When a potential customer enters one of your keywords, your ad appears. There’s no wading through extraneous information to get to the point. Contextual marketing saves your customers time and effort.

Better revenue for you. Improved targeting, user experience and customer engagement lead to more conversions and more sales, which mean more revenue.

Is it time for you to adopt contextual marketing?

:

“In marketing, the primary goal is to send the right message to the right people at the right time using the right channel.

According to the Harvard Business Review, the four Ps of traditional marketing (price, placement, promotion, and product) needs to be shaken up and contextualized according to the particular needs, wants, and circumstances of your customers.“

Even if you don’t use contextual marketing to sell your online publication, offering it to your advertisers could go a long way toward raising your advertising revenue even as it makes for more engaged and satisfied subscribers.

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“We are in the next phase of evolution in marketing and publishing,” according to Omeda, a company specializing in gathering and segmenting audiences for media companies.  Omeda concludes that, to generate revenue, publishers “have the business structure set up and the capabilities needed to effectively target the right audience at the right time” and they should partner with advertisers to add value.

So how can you, as a publisher, ?

First, there’s the data

Scattershot marketing is on its way out. Today’s word is “targeting.” Fortunately, you have a leg up on the targeting process, and you can offer your advantage to your advertisers.

Omeda states the case succinctly: . As advertisers and publishers focus increasingly on niche markets to keep costs down and customer response up, detailed and accurate information about the people who might buy their product or service becomes more valuable.

Then there’s building relationships

It can be argued that marketing is a conversation, a way to establish connections that become mutually beneficial relationships. , writes Greg Brown at Hubspot, involves “.” Basically, Brown says, curation gives “advertisers and audiences more of what they both want.” And what do they both want? Connections. In other words, relationships.

As an example, Brown cites T Brand Studio, a project undertaken by the New York Times that has seen considerable success by helping “advertisers build powerful, lasting, and memorable bonds with their audiences” by supplying strong custom content carrying the advertiser’s brand.

The tactics might vary from publisher to publisher, but the strategy remains consistent. You can:

• Help your advertisers identify their target audience
• Provide the means to deliver what that audience wants
• Build revenue for your advertisers through the target audience
• Increase revenue for your magazine through higher levels of advertiser participation

����’s a relationship where everybody wins—audience, advertiser and publisher.

Ad diversity and segmentation

As already noted, helping advertisers with their marketing extends far beyond offering online or print ad space.  As Brown says, publishers “have infinite resources at their disposal: content and audiences are valuable building blocks.”

Beyond the content and audiences publishers can deliver, advertisers can benefit from a variety of tactics, including:

• Sponsoring webinars to educate target audiences
• Magazine-sponsored conferences and events
• Social media support
• Branded content that offers information readers want

In today’s highly competitive environment, where publishers and advertisers vie for an audience, the more powerful the impact you can make on readers the better. The key is to do much more than toss out an advertiser’s name and a generic message.

Segmentation, based on all the data you have about your readers, allows you to give your advertisers an invaluable targeting tool. With your help, they can tailor their message to smaller “sub-audiences” who are far more likely to respond to it. Segmentation creates efficiency, and more efficiency translates into increased profitability. In the meantime, you develop a new revenue stream by providing the data and other services.

Overcome ad blocking

Why should advertisers appear in your online edition if their ads will be blocked and never reach readers? , and some advertisers are reducing their participation as a result.

Greg Brown suggests that the solution is not to fight the software but, rather, help readers gain the control they want. If this sounds counterintuitive, it is. But sometimes it’s not a good idea to go with intuition.

You should ask yourself why your readers opt for ad-blocking. “Take a step back to figure out why your audiences might be using ad blocking software,” Brown writes. “Are your banner ads too obtrusive? Are marketing messages irrelevant? Take the time to uncover the ‘story behind the story’ by digging into these questions.”

Helping your advertisers tailor their marketing messages to make them attractive and relevant to the audience could go a long way toward making ad blocking irrelevant. The idea isn’t to stop ads from appearing but, instead, to find a way to make them as valuable as other content.

Brown offers several resources to help you tackle the ad-blocking challenge:

Rely on performance, not history

Sarah Sluis quotes Eric Zinczenko, CEO of Bonnier Corp., who spoke during the American Magazine Media Conference in 2018:

She also cites American Interest Media President and CEO Andres Clurman as saying, “There is a disconnect between what [marketers} think and feel [about the magazine experience] and . . . the KPIs and marketing science.”

In other words, your history as a highly respected publication is less important to advertisers than their key performance indicators. Appearing in an iconic magazine is no longer a vanity move. It has to pay off in profits.

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The benefits of good mailing list hygiene

Good data on your mailing list can offer real benefits for your magazine’s efficient operations and profitability, according to Dan Saltzman, the mailing expert at The Ovid Bell Press. Good list hygiene “saves time because the post office does not like to deal with undeliverable or returned mail that can hold up the process of getting the product to the consumer,” he says.

Saltzman adds that a clean list “saves publishers money because they can get the best discounts on postage and save on printing cost. You don’t want to waste money on a product that doesn’t do what it’s designed to do—get in readers’ hands and provide the information they’re looking for.”

Specifically, :

• Fewer returned pieces. Address validation cuts down on mail that can’t be delivered and so is returned to sender. Reducing returned mail saves postage costs.
• Better address data. Making sure the address data is correct when it’s first entered is an important part of list hygiene and makes ongoing maintenance easier and more effective.
• Happier customers. Your readers receive their magazine consistently, keeping your relationship with your readers strong.
• Lower costs. Better postal rates and fewer wasted magazines translate directly into savings.
• Faster delivery. A standardized list format, along with inclusion of ZIP + 4 and other information can improve delivery by as much as two days.

How mailing lists get “dirty”

The problems that affect list hygiene don’t have to be big. They can be as small as a wrong apartment or suite number. But Saltzman says that, often, it’s simply the age of the list that’s an issue. People move, and if the publication doesn’t keep up with the changes, magazines don’t get delivered. In essence, they’re wasted paper and ink.

How do you keep mailing lists clean?

Several tools play a part in good list hygiene:

• De-duping
• National Change of Address (NCOA)
• Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS)

De-duping is exactly what it sounds like—getting rid of duplicate addresses so you aren’t sending too many magazines to the same place and wasting ink and paper.

The offers up-to-date change of address information that can help you reduce your undeliverable mail. The system finds errors and corrects them before your magazine gets into the mailstream. The United States Postal Service requires that first-, third- and fourth-class mail be run through the NCOA system every 90 days.

ensures that the mailing list consists of addresses within the United States. It also:

• Standardizes address formats
• Corrects addresses
• Updates addresses
• Verifies addresses

Taken together, de-duping, NCOA and CASS provide a comprehensive approach that removes the barriers to delivering your mail in a timely manner and with the greatest accuracy possible.

How to put list hygiene tools to work

The simple solution to good list hygiene is to let the company that handles your mailing do the job. Ovid Bell Printing, for example, uses , an all-in-one solution designed to meet the needs of high-volume mailers.

Publishers who opt for the service know that their mailing list will be updated through the United States Post Office’s NCOA records at least every 90 days. If they wish, Ovid Bell will do the updating with each mailing. The lists themselves are returned to the publishers so they can use them to correct other lists they might have for other purposes. Use of the BCC Mail Manager Full Service software helps ensure that publishers receive the best possible pre-sort of three-digit, five-digit, carrier-route postage discounts.

How to prepare your mailing list

For mailing services provided by companies like Ovid Bell Printing, there are some guidelines to follow when you prepare and send your list:

• To make files smaller and protect file integrity, Zip or stuff them.
• Send them in Excel spreadsheet (.xls, .xlsx) with each line in the address in a separate column. Be sure to include column headers, such as Name, Title, Address 1, Address 2, City, State, ZIP. Eliminate any columns containing extraneous information.
• Comma- or tab-separated data files (.cvs, .dat, etc.) are acceptable because they should import easily into Excel if they’re created correctly.
• Submit a test file prior to the first mailing for processing and evaluation.

For Ovid Bell to inkjet labels, addresses can have a maximum of eight lines. The first two lines are for Postal Service use only. Each line may contain 40 characters. An additional messaging area can be located to the left or right of the label. This area may contain a maximum of six lines with 40 characters per line. For Label Aire labels, the maximum number of lines is eight with a maximum of 30 characters per line.

Maintaining a clean mailing list can be a relatively easy job as long as it’s done regularly. Moreover, it’s the doorway to more cost savings if you take advantage of other mailing services that depend on good list hygiene for their effectiveness. and other distribution methods can have a significant effect on mailing costs. In the end, the cleaner the list, the more you save, no matter how you deliver the goods.

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