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The Future of Magazines: From Print to Digital

Team PaperLit 02 Oct 2006

1. What to ask yourself before you embark on the digital adventure

Before you embark on a digital magazine adventure as immense as this one, you must ensure that you have asked yourself the important questions, those questions that will help you to make the most informed decision possible. Now, these questions will deal with many aspects of your magazine and career from the very basics of whether your readers reside online to figuring out who your competitors are. They will ensure that you are prepared to create a digital masterpiece.

As any traditional publisher will be able to tell you, creating a paper magazine is no easy feat. There are countless aspects that come into play, countless challenges that must be faced and the same applies when it comes to digital magazines. From deciding whether you have sufficient funds to assembling the right team to accompany you, it’s time that you decided whether you have what it takes to transform your magazine from print to computer screens.

We have created a digital guide geared towards traditional publishers which contains all of the dos and don’ts that will help you to succeed in the world of digital publishing. It has the rules that will aid you in your marketing journey and help you to succeed.

Download it for free!

Guide for traditional publishers going digital: all the steps that will make you succeded in publishing 4.0

When it comes to making that transition from print to digital, there are a number of aspects that you must take into consideration starting from the very logistics of making such a drastic change. When you are embarking on a journey like this, everything must be considered down to the very last detail which is no different from when you are beginning to create and publish a print magazine.

There will be some aspects that might seem a little foreign to you such as pricing strategy and formatting options for digital products. Following this, we must consider what interactive elements (videos or even affiliate linking) should be added to a digital magazine to entertain your readers.

As a traditional publisher, your knowledge and the tools that you have at your disposal will surely stand you in good stead, it’s just a matter of adapting to the digital age and embracing the future of publishing.

As we are all well-aware, print magazines are somewhat of a dying specimen and opportunities to monetise our content are hard to come by (well, at least the innovative, forward-thinking methods). In the world of hard copies and paper editions, we are taught to rely on the strategies that are rather outdated opposed to embracing the future of the publishing industry, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Welcoming the new and improved methods of monetisation is one way that you can really keep up with the future and show the publishing world who you are even as a print publisher.

Advertising

It cannot be denied that for decades, magazines (both online and on paper) have depended heavily on advertisements as their primary source of revenue. Ad sales offer publishers the rare opportunity to build relationships with advertisers that far surpass that one-issue deadline as well as give your readers the chance to buy products and services that will appeal to them that, without your help, they may never have been exposed to. However, if you are used to using ads as part of your print magazine approach, you may have to adjust the way that you think slightly in order to conquer the digital universe. After all, before you pin the success of your digital magazine on something like advertisements, you should ensure that you know how to use them properly and as efficiently as possible.

Affiliate marketing

If we look exclusively at digital magazines, we shouldn’t forget the power of affiliate linking which is perhaps the fastest-growing and most modern monetisation technique. Now, you may have thought that these were linking strategies are exclusively restricted to the bloggers, YouTubers and Instagrammers but think again! You could make use of them too. There are many e-commerce sites that offer affiliate programs that basically reward you for sending traffic to their site and increasing the number of sales and it is from this that you could make a tidy little profit.

Repurposed content

A lot of time and effort was spent strategizing and creating the perfect content for your print issues. Some of this content will undoubtedly be evergreen content able to stand the test of time. This content is an invaluable source of information for your readers. Content like this is powerful when trying to rank higher on search engines because you are providing resources that reach a wider audience. Readers will make repeat visits to your site (or to external sites) to view and consult this content. By using advertising on your site, you can monetise your blog.

For any business, magazine or endeavour in general, marketing is of the utmost importance and cannot be forgotten. Now, of course, there are numerous ways to market your digital magazine from the most traditional to the most radical and futuristic. But what techniques work?

Nowadays, traditional marketing methods have been proven to be somewhat inefficient and less effective than they once were: for example, how often are you handed a flyer on the street or receive a leaflet through your letterbox and actually read what’s written on it? You could move forward and embrace the future, utilising everything at your disposal and making something truly memorable. Here are some examples:

The digital world is your oyster, have no fear! It’s time to move forward.

5. How to succeed in the digital universe

Publishing is a field that has been based predominantly on paper for quite some time as has been previously mentioned and as it makes its transition to the screens of our computers, tablets and mobile phones, it’s clear that it isn’t so easy to survive and thrive. But that’s not to say that it’s by any means impossible. But what options are there?

First of all, start to diversify and offer something a little different to your readers from the standard magazine formats (from live events to teaming up with brands). Get informed about what your readers want, and, most importantly, collaborate with a reliable partner who’s able to guide you through the digital magazine world.