Publishing Update March 28

What does it take to improve readership and traffic? Content, of course! This edition we’ve got some content oriented info as well as some PDF and eBook insights … * Honor Thy Content: The Five Commandments of Editorial Excellence * So the Publishing Business Didn’t Die, After All * Magazine readers engage more with interactive than static print ads: Adobe * Apple’s bet on publishing * Printing Employment Shrinks, Shipments per Employee Rise * Tear down this PDF * Will Ebooks Jeopardize the Carbon Reduction Goals of the Book Industry? * Publishing experts take dim view of Apple’s new rules for iPads and iPhones — and more …

Fred Showker's Publishing Update What does it take to improve readership and traffic? Content, of course! This edition we’ve got some content oriented info as well as some PDF and eBook insights … * Honor Thy Content: The Five Commandments of Editorial Excellence * So the Publishing Business Didn’t Die, After All * Magazine readers engage more with interactive than static print ads: Adobe * Apple’s bet on publishing * Printing Employment Shrinks, Shipments per Employee Rise * Tear down this PDF * Will Ebooks Jeopardize the Carbon Reduction Goals of the Book Industry? * Publishing experts take dim view of Apple’s new rules for iPads and iPhones — and more …

Honor Thy Content: The Five Commandments of Editorial Excellence

In this article, you’ll learn… * Five key ways to captivate your audience with content * Three pitfalls to avoid in content marketing * How to identify your company’s voice when writing content
      Here’s a basic truth of content marketing: Your work must be in publishable condition before you hit the “post” button.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : www.marketingprofs.com

So the Publishing Business Didn’t Die, After All

What is there to conclude from the recent ranking of the top 100 publishers by the online trade magazine, MediaPost?
      It’s a ranking that claims to figure in traffic, plus – prestige, share of voice, content quality, overall design and UX, innovation and, well, importance. In other words, it’s as sketchy as any ranking. But it does illustrate the obvious, albeit hard to quantify, fact that the consumer publishing business – the business of gathering audiences by aggregating information and then selling those audiences to advertisers – has in a remarkably short period of time been turned on its ear.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : Michael Wolff – www.newser.com

Trendspotting 2011

David Rosenthal of Publishing Trends says : “You’re starting a new imprint? You mean now?”
      I keep getting that question, and I can’t blame my skeptical interrogators. Taken together, 2009 and 2010 were the Years of Great Uncertainty in publishing. All of our crystal balls proved to be about as useful as, well, crystal balls.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : David Rosenthal www.publishingtrends.com

Magazine readers engage more with interactive than static print ads

A new study finds that interactive advertising via digital magazine platforms such as Apple’s iPad can better engage readers and create stronger purchase intent than the same ads featured in print magazines.
      The study was commissioned by Adobe and conducted by Alex Wang, Ph.D, a researcher specializing in integrated marketing communications. It found that magazine readers are more likely to interact with a digital ad with interactive elements that with a static print ad.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : www.mobilemarketer.com

Apple’s bet on publishing

Apple’s upcoming subscription plan is making large publishing companies hysterical. Rightfully so. Some of them built a complete business model for the iPad based on a commercial agreement that is now being revoked. Apple is not only changing the rules, but it does so in the worst possible way – in their usual cold My Way Or The Highway manner.
      But one of the most interesting aspects of the maddening change is the strategic thought behind Apple’s move.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : www.mondaynote.com

Printing Employment Shrinks, Shipments per Employee Rise

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has made significant revisions to their employment data by industry. For US commercial printing (NAICS 323), they reduced employment by -8,800 workers. That’s nearly a 2% miss.
      This is part of the annual revision they make, and the national revision was -500,000. It’s not like the -8,800 were really there, it was just that the BLS wasn’t accurately counting the actual number of employees.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : Dr. Joe Webb

Tear down this PDF

The PDF document format is digital publishing’s worst enemy. For a large part, the news industry still relies on this 18-year-old format to sell its content online. PDF is to e-publishing what the steam locomotive is to the high-speed train. In our business, progress is called XML and HTML5.
      Picture today’s smartphone reading experience. We’ll start with a newspaper purchased on a digital kiosk. For a broadsheet, a format still largely used by dailies, the phone’s “window” covers 1/60th of the paper’s page. Multiply by 30 pages of news. You’ll need 1800 pans and zooms to cover the entire publication (plus, each time time you pinch out, you can take a leisurely sip of your coffee as the image redraws).
READ THIS REPORT Full story : www.mondaynote.com

Will Ebooks Jeopardize the Carbon Reduction Goals?

The shift towards ebooks is having a significant influence on every part of the book industry, from publishers working to reinvent their value proposition to brick and mortar bookstores fighting for their future.
      But what about the carbon footprint of the book industry?Does this shift represent an opportunity for the industry given the growing number of books sold without even one tree falling down? Or, maybe it is also a potential risk as ebooks can actually hurt the efforts of the industry to reduce its footprint? Well, apparently it can be both.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : www.triplepundit.com

Publishing experts take dim view of Apple’s iPad rules

Apple may not be able to call the shots with digital books and magazines as it did with music on the iPod, given that some of its publishing competitors are formidable tech firms themselves.
      Remember how Apple Inc. shattered the music business? Publishers do too – and they don’t want it happening to them.
READ THIS REPORT Full story : www.latimes.com


GO
SEE the previous PUBLISHING UPDATE

And, thanks for reading

Fred Showker

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