At first, printers were rightly fearful of the emerging technology, but many have since recognised the added value it can give to clients and they have started to embrace it.

Take Pensord, for example. The company prints specialist magazines, but in June it unveiled a new online magazine division designed to allow publishers to develop brands outside their traditional readership. Managing director Tony Jones reckons some might view the move as akin to “turkeys voting for Christmas”, but there is a logical reason for his company going down this route.

“It’s about offering an added-value service and the opportunity to increase the relationship with our publishing clients,” says Jones. “Digital editions will provide a small and profitable revenue stream, though the emphasis for us is on responding to publishers’ needs, extending our services and adding value to the publisher/printer relationship.”

Online publishing isn’t a new concept, but it was around two years ago that the market seemed to turn a corner in its evolution. Dennis Publishing launched Monkey, an online-only title, while NatMags unveiled Jellyfish, an internet magazine aimed at teenage girls. Although Jellyfish folded last August, the market is maturing. Monkey is still going strong and Dennis launched online gadget magazine iGizmo in March this year and an automotive title called iMotor last month. Magazine industry body the PPA has also made its move into the sector – last month, for the first time, a digital edition of its annual report was produced.

Added value
The one thing that Dennis, NatMags and the PPA all have in common is that they turned to Ceros to implement their digital publications. The company, a subsidiary of Fresh Media Group, has developed clickable page-turning technology to replicate the look of a magazine. But, in order for any online publication to work, there needs to be more than the images and text associated with a printed magazine.

“Taking a printed edition of a magazine and sticking it online does have value,” explains Dominic Duffy, co-founder of Ceros. “But that value will be pretty limited. You need to provide interactivity online to have a compelling product.”

For example, the PPA report has video footage, graphs, additional text, hyperlinks and rotating images. Monkey also uses videos. But Duffy warns that online publications could be a “challenging sell” for printers if they simply duplicate printed editions.

Pensord’s Jones recognises that there needs to be differences between the printed publication and the online version, but he feels that, in some cases, print and online can work side-by-side.

“With more and improving technologies in print and online, the two complement each other perfectly,” Jones says. “It’s not about one replacing the other – in most cases, a digital edition for publishers needs the printed product to support and drive it. And the digital edition provides an extended reader experience and added advertising opportunity.”

Allowing readers to engage with the content is what makes online mags such a draw, not only for publishers but also, and perhaps more crucially, for advertisers. Ceros’ Duffy points out that, on websites, advertising banners and skyscrapers are starting to lose their impact; less people are clicking on them and interacting with the interface. But with digital editions, this is different. In one instance, Wilkinson Sword placed an advert in an online publication and said it calculated a 23% rise in sales as a result.

“Agencies and media planners are looking for more effective online advertising,” says Duffy. “An advert displayed in a magazine becomes interactive and this has proved to be extremely powerful.”

Alternative option
For publishers and advertisers, the advantages are tangible. But what about the printers? How do they benefit from all this? Pensord believes that it will add extra revenue and can offer a different service to specialist technology partners.

“What we can offer is a one-stop shop,” adds Jones. “By adjusting your workflow, you can quickly amend the PDF structure to upload the digital edition. Therefore, there’s less work, time and effort for the publisher. Also, the publisher doesn’t have to train its staff or learn a new technology. And, by using the printer, it becomes an extension of the core printed product – there are no new relationships to build.”

He points out that having just the one account for a publisher to deal with is another plus. Also, if the printer establishes a close collaboration with the provider, it may well be able to offer “a more cost-effective solution to its customers”.

Jones recognises that the key to successful online publishing is getting the right technology partner. A company aiming to muscle in on the digital editions market has to have the capability to support customer requirements.

One print company weighing up a move into online publications is Pindar. It already has the capability to provide this service to its catalogue customers, thanks to its existing expertise in e-commerce and product information management.

“We are currently looking at page-turning software for cataloguers and have a partner relationship with an existing supplier to help customers who have a requirement right now,” explains David Jesson, group marketing director at Pindar.

While Jesson acknowledges that an online publication arm does offer a new revenue stream, it is relatively small. “The bigger sell is about added value, providing another service to the customer within the one supplier and helping them differentiate themselves in the marketplace.”

There are similarities between the magazine and catalogue models; the printer can effectively provide a one-stop shop. And Jesson adds that a printer can add something very different to specialist technology partners.

“If the printer has design and catalogue page production skills within its walls, then these skills can be used to ensure the digital page layout is maximised for off-screen selling and linking products together to up-sell and cross-sell,” he says. “Like product information management, the printer’s knowledge is critical in terms of ensuring colour accuracy, reproduction and text layout for a hard-copy publication.”

Jesson adds that a printer would also be well placed should a publisher begin with a digital edition and then want to convert it to a hard copy. “If a customer asked a standalone technology company to create a printed version of its online publication, the conversion process could be painful and fraught with difficulties.”

But any printer wanting to get involved in this sector needs to be very fleet of foot. “You need to be able to produce quickly and efficiently. Delivering anything other than the best service is not an option and could affect the printed product relationship,” cautions Jones.

And to ensure that the whole operation works effectively, Jones says that a print firm needs to build up knowledge of the market quickly and has to be willing to splash the cash. “If you want a full product offering with multimedia, then this comes at a price,” he adds.

Inevitable development
Ceros’ Duffy believes it is simply a sign of the times that printers are looking seriously at web services. “One of the business drivers for the digital editions market is that print is expensive,” he observes. “You can get to people through the web that you might not be able to get to in print. That is paradoxical for the printer.

“Printers are under increasing pressure, but in this market they are faced with challenges in conveying the concept of digital editions as a model in itself.”

He believes that online publications should not be offered or sold simply as an add-on to print, as that is likely to “misplace and dilute the value” of digital editions. “Being simply an add-on service is not where real revenue comes from,” explains Duffy. “It is about providing interactivity for the reader. But it is entirely understandable why printers are going into this market.”

Pensord’s Jones recognises that digital editions should “extend” the reader experience and enhance opportunities for advertisers. But, he says, printers need to be alive to this latest development in the market. “At Pensord, we don’t see any threat. We can only see opportunity by working more closely with publishers and responding to their needs.”

It’s another example of printers not seeing the internet as something that will take business away – quite the reverse.

It does offer an opportunity, but what they need to recognise is that digital editions of magazines and catalogues can add value if done properly; online, publishers, advertisers and, ultimately, readers want a different experience to flicking through the pages.

TOP TIPS: DIGITAL EDITIONS
• Choose the right technology partner with a robust offering and secure infrastructure
•  Have the capabilities in place to measure the online edition’s impact
• Build your knowledge base quickly to ensure that
the publication does not end up being just a worthless page-turning magazine
• Incorporate numerous interactive features, such as videos or hyperlinks
• Have a system in place to produce content as quickly and efficiently as possible
• Be prepared to spend significant amounts of money on new technology