4 creative ways to cut your digital publishing costs

Its seems that every day we are been bombarded with news of PRINT PUBLICATIONS CEASING TO EXIST, collapsing under the fall of advertising revenue in print editions and ever growing costs.

Some companies seem to be taking dramatic steps to cut down their costs by taking advantage of a growing number of outsourcing techniques:

1. Writing2. Designing3. Distribution4. Advertising

Publishers are now availing from a number of growing services that provide them with an arsenal of articles covering every topic imaginable that have been proof read and fact-checked. One such company is Demand Media, who have about 7,000 freelance writers on their books where they pay between 5 to 15 dollars per article.

1. Writing

Demand Media are owners and digital publishers of websites of a slew of websites such as eHow.com, livestrong.com and cracked.com. While most content is created for their sites, they are now crossing over to traditional publishing by licensing their content to mainstream publishers.

In 4 years they have gone from a handful of websites to a global team of freelance creators who produce thousands of articles a day. The company was co-founded by Richard Rosenblatt, best known as the CEO of Intermix media, owner of MySpace, when they sold the company to NewsCorp for $580m.

1. Writing cont.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about tweak.com, a new startup based out of Dublin that will allow publishers and individuals to search through a massive library of professionally designed adverts and page layouts.

Tweak.com, founded by Ger Connelly, previously owner of StockByte and sold Getty Images in 2005 for $130m, hopes to have 11 million designs ready by the end of the first year. It reminds me of iStock.com but for adverts rather than images.

2. Designing

Users will be able to not only surf through their predesigned ads but the user will also be able to alter the ads to suit their needs before purchasing and download the press quality advert.

Imagine the time your designers would save.

You can now tap into the quality of design work that you could traditional see in publications such as GQ or Cosmo.

2. Designing cont.

Every publisher should have a digital edition on their site. A recent survey (June 2010) found that while a traditional reader would spend between 1 to 2 minutes a month reading articles on a publishers website, over 70% said that they spend between 15-45 minutes reading a digital magazine. Imagine what that type of engagement would mean to your advertising revenue.

3. Distribution

I have been pondering the massive difference between the engagement of the reader on a webpage article and a digital edition and i believe that it because of the user experience offered with digital editions is vastly more enjoyable.

I read a great blog over the weekend about a user experience company that wrote an article on the importance of user experience in product development.

3. Distribution cont.

To prove this they invested $50K in a fund that bought shares in companies that they believed had a great User Experience (UX) strategy.

Within 1 year that fund grew by 40%, far exceeding any market average

3. Distribution cont.

Digital editions are popular because they offer the same content in a more engaging manner.

The reader is completely comfortable in navigating through the content as there is no learner curve and as digital editions are full screen, when you are reading a digital edition thats all you see.

You can completely immerse yourself in the content without distraction.

3. Distribution cont.

3D Issue is a software solution and not a service so once you purchase it, thats it.

There are no additional costs, recurring charges.

You can manage everything yourself and store them in-house.

3D Issue digital editions can also communicate directly with your Google Analytics account so you can record each action of your reader.

3. Distribution cont.

While at the moment there is no online advertising company specialising in adverts for digital editions, I think that the interest in the iPad and the type of stats that are coming out about the engagement of readers, publishers will find it easier to signup advertisers to their digital edition offerings.

Even as a value added service to existing advertisers.

4. Advertising

As 3D Issue provides you with the ability to communicate directly with your GA account, you will be able to show advertisers a market validated report on how effective their adverts have been.

4. Advertising cont.

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