Publishing your magazine on the web – whether it exists already in printed version or it is native digital – with the abundance of digital publishing platforms it has become a super easy task. The only really hard thing is to find your way around the dozens of different available options. So how do you find the best digital publishing platform for magazines?
Points to consider when choosing a digital publishing platform for magazines
As with any other thing, truth be said that there doesn’t exist a solution that is absolutely the best one, everything depends on what your needs and expectations are. So you first of all have to investigate the characteristics of your magazine and your goals as well as the time and the budget you want to invest in it. For example, how many issues are you going to publish in one year? How do you expect to reach your audience? Are you at ease with third party ads displaying on your magazine pages header or do you prefer to be in control of all advertising? And last but not least, are you technological-savvy or do you prefer an approach that allows you to do things without knowing “how they are made inside”?
These are crucial questions, and answering them honestly will greatly speed up your search for the digital publishing platform that is more fitted to your magazine.
Voice App or not Voice App
Also, another important factor to consider is if you want to engage your customers with a voice app that delivers your magazine content and services across smart speakers and voice controlled assistants, like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. According to comScore, by 2020 50% of all searches will be voice searches and this, combined with the 100 million Alexa-enabled devices and the 400 million Google Assistant devices circulating worldwide opens the route to new really interesting business opportunities.
For example Amazon, who detains The Washington Post, is already experimenting with voice content, delivering to Washington subscribers news headlines, articles, and more, through Alexa enabled devices.
So, another important turning point in your search for the perfect digital publishing platform is whether it offers a voice app option or not. Think about it carefully, because now you could have the possibility of being an early adopter and of having a privileged position in the voice search ranks.
The main digital publishing platforms for magazines
As we mentioned before, there are many platforms between which you can choose. Let’s have a closer look at some of the most widely known.
MobiLit by PaperLit
If you already have a printed version of your magazine MobiLit is the perfect solution for you, since it excels in creating a perfect digital replica or PDF magazines (and if you do not have a PDF version MobiLit offers also services of digitalization and datalization of texts). MobiLit also offers a state-of-the-art web reader and it gives it for free, with the limit of up to 12 issues per year. The web reader can be embedded into your website. The plus of MobiLit technology is that it allows embedding into the digital version of the magazine multimedia contents and hyperlinks, so the resulting content is more engaging to readers. Thanks to its being part of a bigger group of tech companies (Datrix) MobiLit by PaperLiyt can offer to its customers also AI, automatic summarization, digitalization of printed text and monetization services so that content is not only created but also made fruitful.
To help you in your choice PaperLit offers a step by step guide on digital magazine creation.
Issuu
Is one of the main and most renowned digital publishing platforms for magazines. It is mainly PDF based, so you first have to upload a PDF version of your magazine. Then ISSUU converts it using customized design or its templates and makes it available on all the main social media as well as on desktop and on mobile web. Issuu provides an embedding function, so you can embed your digital magazine where you want.
KitaBoo
Differently from other platforms, KitaBoo is a digital publishing platform that focuses on ebook creation rather than on magazines (but it also manages magazines, of course). It allows you to create your own ebook or magazine and to publish it creating a fully branded app. So if you also want to publish ebooks this could be an interesting solution.
Mag+
Mag+ is mobile focused. It lets you design your content (magazine, but also other kind of documents), then it builds a customized fully branded app with analytics, messaging, and more
and then distributes it. Once your app is on customers devices you can update it with new content or new features, like video, audio or slideshows.
JooMag
Joomag claims to be the “all in one digital publishing platform”. Just like PaperLit it features integrated solutions that go from content design and creation to distribution to marketing. You can start from a PDF version of your content or you can create your magazine from scratch using their online editor. You can incorporate videos, plugins, music and slideshows. It has a newsstand, where users can instantly publish their content and let JooMag visitors access it. It offers CRM and integrated analytics.
So now it’s only up to you choosing the platform that you like the most or that is more suitable to your needs or to your business style. Becoming a digital publisher has never been so easy!
