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In many ways, the internet has generated a real alternative to print and, in some cases, has gone so far as to eliminate it as a means of production.

The good news is that, despite many attempts to introduce digital products, newspapers and magazines have not been as badly affected by the rise of the web as the doom-mongers predicted. Newspaper publishers already make editorial and advertising content available on the internet and magazines have followed suit to an extent, but few have placed the entire content of their publications online.

In the early days, when newspaper publishers put their copy on the internet it was simply a facsimile of the print publication. However, they soon learned that to compete with other websites, the internet edition had to publish information as soon as it became available.

The magazine market was somewhat different, here publishers took time to develop their internet strategies. As a result, software has been developed that creates interactive online magazines. In this area one company in particular has caught my eye. Ceros, part of the Fresh Media Group, has developed an application to generate web-based magazines, or ‘digital editions’.

At its simplest Ceros converts a magazine’s PDF files into a digital edition. But the results can also be interactive; one of Ceros’s USPs is its page-turning facility, which simulates turning the pages of a printed magazine.

US company Texterity provides a similar service for magazine publishers. But it has the added benefit of enabling copies distributed in this way to qualify as part of a magazine’s audited circulation, a major boon for us publishers.

Adding value
The problem is that many of the early adopters of e-magazine technology simply replicated print editions online. This model does not work as the results are difficult to read and do not add value to the printed product.

Now we are increasingly seeing modification of print editions for publication online. While these versions often look like the print magazines, they allow for different media within the pages such as video streaming or interactive advertising. The drawback is that in many instances publishers still expect consumers to pay for content.

The concept of trying to charge for digital editions is flawed and we are already seeing approaches to get around it. Mygazines.com allows digital magazines to be uploaded to the site for sharing. Although it is trying to get publishers to upload their content, I believe its members also upload magazines to the site and, if this is the case, it’s only a matter of time before publishers get aggressive about protecting their copyrighted content.

Most interesting has been the introduction of a new type of digital edition magazine where there is no printed edition. In the UK, Dennis Publishing has launched a number of digital-only free titles. These make use of interactive media for viewing images and video within the pages.

I still find these e-zines too print oriented. If you are going to have a digital edition then I think it is far better to have a true web page, as most newspapers and magazines do. The problem is that this has extra costs as publishers cannot simply reuse print-ready files.

You may ask what e-zines or digital editions have to do with the print industry? Well, as sceptical as I am, I see them as an opportunity for printers to offer a service to customers keen to make use of the internet. An example of this in the UK is magazine printer Pensord, which offers digital editions to its clients as part of its service. This reuse of editorial content online could also be used to offer magazine content abroad, in the shape of print on demand, in the same way that newspapers do.

30-SECOND BRIEFING ON... DIGITAL EDITIONS

• The internet has become a real alternative to print, but despite many attempts to introduce digital reading products, the circulation of newspapers and magazines has not been impacted as much as some first feared
• Newspaper publishers soon realised that, in an era of instant information, the internet edition had to compete with other news websites by publishing their content as soon as it became available
• The magazine market was somewhat different and publishers took time to develop a strategy and, as a result, new approaches that allowed the creation of interactive online magazines were developed
• Two digital edition software developers – Ceros in the UK and US-based Texterity – have been particularly successful. And in the publishing arena, Dennis Publishing has pioneered online publishing with the launch of several online only e-zines
• Some publishers offer the most basic of digital editions, which are simply a replication of the print edition. The only benefit being that the magazine can be delivered electronically to your desktop.
• The concept of trying to charge for digital editions is flawed. We are already seeing approaches to get around this, such as the offering from Mygazines.com
• The print industry should view digital editions as an opportunity rather than a threat, taking the lead from companies such as Pensord, which offers digital versioning as an added value service to its publishing clients