Traditional Printers Diversifying

Printed content, I believe, is still the biggest revenue producer in the publishing industry --- don't know how much longer this will be the case with digital gnawing at it's heels.

But, the print portion of the industry has suffered enough to decimate many traditional printers and their peripheral support such as suppliers, etc.

Though many have gone out of business, many have survived --- and prospered to the point of actual expansion.

How did they do this? Diversification, of course. AND diversification in the direction of services complementing, what else? Digital, of course.

Here are three examples of traditional printing companies and just how they are redefining themselves.

From the May issue of Folio magazine by Ioanna Opidee and Stefanie Botelho:


The Expanding Role of Printers
 
With the race on for expanding magazine brands onto a variety of platforms, particularly the kind that don’t involve paper, printers are finding new ways to serve clients and draw in new revenue. Some of these tactics include launching multiplatform services, in addition to combining digital and print solutions for a one-stop shop for publishers.

Digital Diversification

Continuing to diversify beyond its role as a printer, RR Donnelley recently made a $2.5 million investment in catalog shopping app CoffeeTable, which allows tablet users to browse and purchase from multiple retailers’ catalogs directly within the application.

“Our core business is delivering multi-channel solutions,” says Ann Marie Bushell, president of RR Donnelley’s CustomPoint Solutions. Like cataloguers, she adds, “[Publishers] want a provider that can take content from creation to delivery, across a variety of media.”

This news follows RR Donnelley’s touting the success of its Press+ platform, now used by 323 publications to launch paid content models online.

In June 2011, the company acquired Helium.com to enhance its content creation offerings—one of a series of acquisitions it made to broaden its services. In August, it purchased LibreDigital, which provides digital magazine replicas, data analytics and content for more than 40 e-commerce sites. That same month, the company bought software company Sequence Personal to bolster its custom digital publishing services. Finally, in October, all of that build-up paid off when it struck a $550 million deal through 2020 with American Media Inc. to assist the OK! and Star publisher with its digital convergence.

Greater Reach, Smarter Solutions

Recently, Wisconsin-based printer Quad/Graphics bought a minority stake in India-based print service and business solutions provider Manipal Technologies.

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How They Track Digital Magazines' Audiences

A little insight tonight into the world of magazine publishing and what a magazine's success is ultimately measured against.

Let's begin with two definitions:

BPA Worldwide (BPA) = Business Publications Audit of Circulation, Inc. BPA Worldwide audits the circulation of business-to-business and consumer magazines. It also provides audit services for newspapers, Web sites, events, email newsletters, digital magazines and other advertiser-supported media produced by its members. Membership comes from the media owners and advertisers.

BPA Worldwide is the largest auditor of media in the world in terms of membership. BPA is similar to Audit Bureau of Circulations, providing independent, third-party verified data that media owners provide to media buyers and advertisers.

BPA Worldwide audited data provides media owners, advertisers and advertising agencies with independent assurance that they are reaching the right audiences.

Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) = is a non-profit circulation-auditing organization. It is one of several organizations, operating in different parts of the world, that audits circulation, readership, and audience information for the magazines, newspapers, and other publications produced by their members.

ABC is a forum of the magazine and newspaper publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies, similar to BPA Worldwide. As a non-profit association, ABC is funded by dues and service fees by advertisers, advertising agencies and publishers. ABC provides credible, verified information critical to the media buying and selling process by conducting independent, third-party audits of print circulation, readership and Web site activity. ABC also maintains an electronic database of audited circulation and readership media.

The measurement of a magazine's performance data is vital to both consumers and advertisers to insure they are buying or investing in the right magazine with the right content and audience.

Makes sense, right? Hell yes ... BUT, the new digital metrics are harder to follow and damn near impossible to measure.

Damn near impossible but not impossible.

Ioanna Opidee teaches us this in an article for FOLIO magazine:

BPA Issues New and Amended Rules for 2012

App reporting continues to present a challenge.

Media auditor BPA Worldwide approved a number of new and amended rules during its December 2011 meeting in New York City, including several that address the increasing difficulty of measuring a magazine’s digital audience.

Reporting app usage, specifically, has been a challenge, increasingly so as the format is moving toward “push,” rather than email, notification of a new issue’s delivery, for which there is no mechanism for tracking successful delivery.

To address this, the BPA board has approved reporting “downloaded apps” by month within a BPA Brand Report, as opposed to a standard BPA report, along with a footnote disclosing the limitations of the figures. Apps related to the brand but not serving editorial content—such as a game—must be reported as their own channel in the Brand Report and cannot be counted as a digital copy. App copies, as opposed to downloaded issues, cannot be reported as qualified circulation.

Subscriber access to digital copies will now be used to substantiate a renewal in the following cases: when a weekly publication has been accessed nine times every six months, when a monthly publication has been accessed twice every six months, when a quarterly publication has been accessed once every six months and when a semiannual publication has been accessed once per audit period.

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