Paperless Publications: The Next Wave of Change

Record labels fought tooth and nail to resist it. Movies learned from the mistakes of their music counterparts and have just begun to embrace it. So it only seems fitting that the world of print would come to the same crossroads at some point. Will everything make the digital evolution? Record labels, movie studios and newspapers can tell you that there is a high price to pay for the resistance to change.

We recently worked on a project with the Missouri Society of CPAs. They wanted to create a digital version of their magazine, The Asset, to compliment the print version. After a quick email blast and a tweet or two, they had 200 subscribers make the move to their digital edition. Pretty impressive.

If those numbers don’t convince you, in the first week on the market 100,000 digital editions of Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol, were sold. On its first, Amazon reported that digital sales were higher than hard cover.

Does this mean paper will someday be extinct? Most likely not. From our perspective, it seems that the likely solution would be to continue to create cost effective print publications that can maintain a readership hold in the market while building expanded, fully featured digital components. We are in a time of transition and from the reader’s perspective, early adopters have made the switch. It’s not a matter of will others make the jump, but when will they jump.

Digital editions have already begun to add value to print. Paper copies are pushing people online. From there, a digital edition picks up where paper falls short. Advertisements in a magazine or phone book can be enhanced with animation, video, audio and hotspots. Items in catalogs can be easily shared across Facebook, Twitter or any number of networks. An article in a travel guide can be paired with a video or linked to an online slideshow for an instant virtual tour of the destination hotspot. With the click of a button, readers become instant gratifiers. Getting in on the digital evolution now is no doubt an opportunity to be a part of something fast-growing in an otherwise slowing market.

What’s on your desktop?

First came what’s on your iPod, then came what’s on your Pandora mix? Could the same be said for what digital publications are on your desktop?

All right, maybe that’s a stretch to assume that online publications such as digital catalogs, digital magazines and digital phone books are that overwhelmingly popular. However, we have seen continued growth in all digital look and feel publications, in addition to a number of unique ways that people are accessing these publications (i.e. full publication downloads, desktop icon shortcuts and social networking links.)

So maybe the question should be when do we reach the point where people ask if you’ve seen the latest fall catalog or if you’ve read such and such article in this month’s online edition? Maybe that virtual conversation is already taking place. Have you shared an entire digital edition or a specific product or an article in a travel guide? Or maybe you are working on a wish list from one of your favorite online catalogs? If so, drop us a line at marketing@dirxion.com!

A Better Way to Search

Imagine being able to offer your customers the power to search across all of your digital editions from one simple little search box. With Dirxion’s Catalog Library Search, the days of searching through individual  publications are gone.

By giving your customers the ability to search all of your online publications simultaneously, not only will you provide better search results, you’ll also boost the end-user experience to a new level of satisfaction. Your customers will now be exposed to products/articles/ads that they might not have otherwise seen.

One customer that recently took advantage of Dirxion’s Catalog Library Search is TED Magazine, the voice of top electrical distributors in North America. Try it for yourself.

The Catalog Library Search feature packs a lot of potential, are you ready to take advantage of it?