Flights Go Digital

There is nothing worse than being couped up in a tight airplane seat with nothing to do. If you’re lucky enough to have an in-flight movie, there is a 90% chance it will star the Olsen twins. And your choice in reading materials range between the Airplane Safety Instructions, SkyMall, and … SkyMall. If I buy another ramp or staircase made for dogs, I’m going to have to get a dog.

Finally, there is another option; something never before possible. Airlines have started introducing in-flight wi-fi.  For the ‘low’ price of about $10 for flights under 3 hours long and $13 for longer flights, your laptop or smart phone can surf the web while you are 30,000 feet in the sky. Using cellular towers, this air-to-ground connection can deliver speeds comparable to DSL modems.

For publishers going digital, all this means is that there is yet one more place that your readers will always have access to your work.  It may not seem like a large change but more than anything it is evidence that the world is continuing to adapt into a digital atmosphere. For the first time your audience will have the potential to read your magazine and do their Christmas shopping in your catalogs while they are miles above the ground.

Virgin Airlines, Southwest, United, Delta, and American have all started integrating this technology into select airplanes. It would be nice if the wi-fi feature was complimentary, but in a time where it costs extra money to check your bags that is obviously not likely.

Paying or not, a very recent study shows that 76% of frequent fliers said they’d switch flights in order to have access to wi-fi. This service seems like a no-brainer for people constantly traveling for business, but it will also be glorious for anyone looking for alternative entertainment options.  It’s sad, but I think internet is the only up-charge I could talk myself into paying on an airplane. The ability to read a digital magazine while chatting with friends on Facebook would be justification enough for me to fork out the cash.

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.

PCC Natural Markets Launches Bi-Weekly Digital Circular

PCC Natural Markets, based in Washington, is the largest consumer-owned natural food co-operative in the United States. Always on the forefront of innovation and sustainability, PCC Natural Markets has most recently made the decision to publish their bi-weekly circular online. The new digital circular is an exact replica of the printed version, only enhanced with some really cool elements. With the digital circular, shoppers can build a dynamic shopping list, bookmark pages, print pages, email the pages or the entire circular to a friend, view the delicious offering of natural foods in stunning detail, and last but certainly not least, subscribe to the the PCC Natural Market’s RSS feed (to be alerted when new ads or products are announced).

The Shopping List - A Must Talk About Feature

This feature is one that will certainly make your shopping experience in-store ten times easier. In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

1. Log on to the PCC Natural Markets website, and click on the green “What’s On Sale” button, which will be in the bottom, right side section of the screen. (This will launch the latest digital bi-weekly circular.)

2. Once the digital circular is in front of you, you’ll be presented with PCC Natural Market’s fine selection of foods that they currently have on special. Go ahead and flip through using the arrow in the upper right side of the page, or you can “grab” the corner of the page and virtually flip it with your mouse (as if you were turning the page of a print circular or catalog.)

3. As you are browsing through the pages chocked full of mouth watering foods and come across something you want to buy, click on the picture or item description and it will automatically be added to your virtual “shopping list”. Cool, right?

4. As you wrap up your virtual shopping trip, you can then click on the “Shopping List” tab on the left side of the page, and it will open another window displaying your entire shopping list. At that point, you can adjust the quantities and make any final adjustments to your list.

5. Finally, the fun part! Print your list by clicking on the “print” button, which appears just above your shopping list. It will then print out a nicely organized list that you can take into the store with you, allowing for a much more pleasant and faster shopping experience. Better yet, you also have the option of emailing the list to someone. Why would that be useful? Lets say you’re at home, and your spouse (who gets off of work in the next half hour) just so happens to pass by a PCC Natural Markets on the way home. You could email the list to your spouse at work and then he or she could pick up the items on their way home. Very cool!

So if there’s a PCC Natural Markets store in your area, your shopping experience just became a lot more fun! Even if there isn’t one near you, you can always check out their latest digital circular, play with all of the fun features and hope that one comes to your area soon!

More Publishers Going Digital Every Day

A recent article in “Digital Edition Trendwatch” from AudienceDevelopment.com, was a fantastically well written piece that talked about the rapidly growing popularity of digital publications. All different types of companies, whether they produce a catalog, or even music, are finding that going digital with their work is not only great for Mother Earth, but also a huge cost cutter. Perhaps best of all - it’s what their customers want.

We’re already over a month into 2009, and people want information as fast as easy as possible, and what better way to get it to them than a digital publication?

The article also speaks of the ad revenue possibilities, and how many companies are finding that it’s becoming easier to sell into their digital publications, simple due to the fact that everything is trackable. It’s a lot easier to track conversions from a digital magazine rather than from it’s print form. Advertisers (even the “old school” ones) are starting to realize that in a big way, and they’re jumping on board left and right.

I highly encourage you to head over to AudienceDevelopment.com and check out the article here. It’s a great read.