More about magazines
In a recent blog post, we briefly mentioned some of the misconceptions people have about what actually constitutes a digital magazine. Today we’re going to delve a little deeper into the world of newsletters and digital magazines, starting with simple newsletters and working through to stand-alone digital magazine apps.
At the most basic level, you can send a simple text email newsletter to a list of subscribers either using an automated mailing list or simply copying and pasting a list of addresses into the email recipient line. (Note that if you do this by hand, you should put the addresses in as bcc – blind carbon copy – not cc; this way you respect your contacts’ privacy and don’t share information which isn’t yours to share!)
There are many email newsletter mailing services available now which handle regular or sporadic mail outs. These allow for some level of formatting and design, and usually have functions to take care of issues such as subscriber privacy and the requirements of unsubscribe options as well as having ways of keeping track of sign-ups and click throughs and other useful statistics. This kind of newsletter service is usually either free (for a limited version of the software or for one that carries advertising) or paid for on a monthly basis, and each different service has its own limitations regarding number of subscribers who can be mailed at one time, number of mail-shots per month etc.
Another kind of periodical in digital format is the online magazine or newspaper – essentially a fully-fledged website, updated more or less regularly behind-the-scenes, often using a complex content management system (CMS).
This type of on-line publication is really no different from a website or blog. Sometimes there is a clear separation between issues, but often they are updated on a continuous basis, with older articles simply being pushed off the front page to be accessed via a category button or by using a site search function. Subscribers may be notified of updates by means of a simple email or can visit the site to see what’s new. Note that, as with an ordinary website, you have to be connected to the internet to read the articles, and unless there is a password access system, the content is available to non-subscribers.
For organisations who already produce a print magazine, there are various ways in which this can be digitalised, and various ways in which it can be distributed in digital format.
Many small organisations use software such as Word to produce a publication for distribution to members; this may be printed, but is often simply sent out as an email attachment. If the subscribers do not use the same software, they may not be able to open the file, and even if they can, the formatting is often not conserved. This is why pdf files are so useful, as they can essentially be read on all systems and the pages are seen exactly as they were designed. Of course such documents can be sent as attached files or downloaded from a website, and, once downloaded, the magazine can be read without a connection to the internet. Links to websites and email addresses can be made active, although these will only work where there is an internet connection.
Many print shops accept pdf files for digital printing, so you may already be producing a print-ready pdf file which you can distribute to subscribers who want a digital version of your publication. The main disadvantage here is that the magazine has been designed for a print format, not for reading on-screen: it is still limited to the familiar page structure and does not take advantage of most digital functionalities. If your twenty-first reader is reading on-screen, why should they be given a document designed around a format that has been in popular use since the fifth century?
In order to make the onscreen experience more like the familiar page turning of a traditional magazine there are software services that take a pdf document and generate an online flip-page presentation. When you click on the edge of the image, the page appears to turn. Although some services allow for this animation to be embedded directly on your own webpage, the resulting publication is generally only accessible online.
This brings us to the final stage of digital magazines: magazine apps. Here, instead of going back to make the digital publications more like their traditional forebears, we move forward to take advantage of all the possible enhancements and functionalities that digital technology provides. (Or at least those that are useful and relevant to the specific publication – we aren’t advocating the use of unnecessary bells and whistles.)
A magazine app is a stand-alone application that can be downloaded to a device such as a tablet or iPad and read without an internet connection. It is lean-back media, designed to take advantage of the specific device’s functionalities – change from vertical to horizontal display, scrolling text rather than traditional pages, screen swipe navigation etc. – and can include audio files and videos. Different devices use different formats, so usually Android and iOS versions are produced.
There’s still more to be said about magazine apps, but for the moment we’ll leave you with this marvellous advertisement from Time Magazine, which makes clear the amazing potential for magazines of the future – a future which is already with us!
Tantamount 