Rogers Media goes digital-first with a bang in its magazine division

[This post has been updated] In a digital-first bombshell, Rogers Media today announced major changes to its magazine publishing operations that will mix wholesale divestment of titles, getting out of the French language and business-to-business market altogether and shifting several well-known titles to digital only.

It will divest itself of Châtelaine, LOULOU, and L'actualité and all of its business-to-business titles. It is discontinuing print publication of FLARE, Sportsnet, MoneySense, and Canadian Business and making them available exclusively on the web and on apps beginning in January.

Magazines that will remain in print will do so with reduced frequency: Maclean's will appear monthly, Chatelaine and Today's Parent 6 times a year. 

"We are going where our audiences are, and doubling-down on digital to grow our consumer magazine brands," said Rick Brace, president, Rogers Media. "We have already made significant investments in creating content and making it available on digital platforms, including Texture, Sportsnet NOW, and Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE, and today's announcement builds on that."

Steve Maich, senior vice president of digital content & publishing, Rogers Media, said

"It's been clear for some time now that Canadians are moving from print to digital, and our job is to keep pace with the changes our audiences are demanding.  We are so much more than a collection of magazine brands, and we've seen rapid growth on our digital platforms over the past few years.  Now is the time for us to accelerate that shift." 

Rogers says it has committed more than $35 million in capital and marketing to create and promote digital content and transition the business to a digital-first infrastructure. 
The company's release said that it has a combined digital reach of 3.8 million Canadians a month for the first half of 2016, up 30% year over year.

Print subscribers will continue to receive their magazines until the end of the year and may choose to choose among several options thereafter, including receiving a full refund on their accounts.

There was no immediate information about staff attrition at the magazines that remain or are going digital only, nor any information about the employment impact on b2b and French language publishing staff. 

[Update] Among the b2b publications now on the block: The Medical Post, Marketing, Canadian Grocer,  Benefits Canada, Canadian Insurance Broker, Advisor's Edge, Avantages, Corporate Risk and Conseiller.

Hamilton is home to thriving and competitive scene for online literary magazines

Competition is a good thing; the more the merrier. So the announcement this week that a group of authors is soon launching an online literary journal called the Hamilton Review of Books is a capital G good thing. 

It is to be published by an editorial group is comprised of writers, editors, reviewers, and academics from the Hamilton area. These include: editor-in-chief, Dana Hansen, a writer, critic and professor in the English department at Humber College, where she was editor-in-chief of the Humber Literary Review; senior editors Rhonda Dynes, a writer, reviewer and professor at Mohawk College, Sally Cooper, novelist (Tell Everything) and frequent contributor to literary magazines, Krista Foss, a novelist (Smoke River) whose essay writing has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and Jessica Rose, Director of Programming for gritLIT: Hamilton’s Readers and Writers Festival, a Living Arts blogger for the Hamilton Arts Council, and she writes "Shelf Life," Hamilton Magazine's books column.

Down the street, so to speak, there is the longer-established HA&L magazine (Hamilton Arts & Letters), founded in 2008 by Paul Lisson, Fiona Kinsella, Peter Stevens and Vikram Bondai. The biannual magazine is devoted to presenting new literary works, graphic novel excerpts, exploratory writing, poetry, literary non-fiction, and the work of visual, audio, and film artists. It is operated by a collective who are dedicated to producing a high-quality arts and letters publication, and are committed to supporting an innovative and burgeoning arts community. It is the co-founder of the Short Works Prize for Hamilton-area authors. It is sustained by a paid membership of about 100 individuals. (HA&L had the distinction of being the first digital literary magazine funded by the Ontario Arts Council. )

The unlamented demise of the Apple Newsstand and the uncertain prospects of replacement

Magazine publishers have pretty consistently been wary of, or disappointed by, the Apple Newsstand. It was created -- and sold to the industry -- as a place where readers could search out and purchase digital versions of their favourite titles. Or, their favourite digital titles. 

Sometimes the Newsstand worked and sold some subs, but more often publishers complained that, lost in the jungle of thousands of apps out there, readers couldn't find their titles either through deliberate search or serendipitously. 

Well now that's no longer an issue since Apple is quietly killing the Newsstand and replacing it this fall with a content aggregating app called Apple News, a sort of Flipboard clone. It was so indifferent to its Newsstand and thought so little of its participants that it didn't even bother to mention its demise.

A column in Publishing Executive  by Ron Matejko says that Apple's decision.amounts to a mercy killing. 

"The end of Newsstand amounts to the mama bird kicking its baby off the tree branch to see if it can fly on its own, as digital magazines will now join the general public in the iTunes App Store. 

"Discoverability was a major issue for publications in a world of a few thousand apps. Swimming in the same pool as hundreds of thousands of other choices in the App Store will push all but the top titles further into needle-in-the-haystack territory."

Apple hopes publishers will benefit from ad sales: 

“Earn 100% of the revenue from ads you sell," it says "and 70% when iAd sells ads for you. iAd provides campaign management, targeting and reporting capabilities that help drive your business.” 

One Canadian publishing insider said

"I'd like to know how Apple News's ad-supported model will pay off vs. the paid circulation (read: high engagement) model we've built with our digital magazine editions. Likely they'll run as complementary products with complementary sources of revenue, but [if] Apple News is the only place anyone is looking, that could force us away from reader-paid content altogether." 

 A story in Nieman Lab says Apple Newsstand was launched with promise but quickly turned into a ghetto where news apps went to die.

"There’s no guarantee Apple News will be a big hit; Google Currents, probably the closest analog up to now, was a flop. But the broader narrative is clear: Individual news apps and individual news brands aren’t the primary point of contact with news any more. They’re raw material, feeding into broader platforms. The loss of power for publishers in that exchange is obvious; the potential benefits remain mostly undiscovered."

Next Issue Canada launching French-language newsstand and app on April 20

For the first time, starting April 20, Rogers is launching a French version of Next Issue Canada, the digital magazine newsstand. It will feature an all-French interface with more than 20 Quebec-based French magazines and access to more than 100 English titles (the French titles will continue to be available in Next Issue in English).

The French magazine titles are 5-15, Allô Vedettes, Châtelaine, Custom Tour,Déco Réno $, Enfants Québec, Full Fille, Gabrielle, Géo Plein air, JE cuisine, JE décore, L'actualité, LOULOU, Maison & Demeure, Moto Journal, Protégez-vous, Quadnet/le monde du VTT, Québec Science, Sélection du Reader's Digest, Ricardo, Riches et célèbres, and Vélo Mag.
Brinda Luckoo, Senior Director, Next Issue Canada, Rogers Media said

"With Next Issue now available in both French and English, we're committed to reaching more content lovers across the country and continuing our investment in the digital future of the magazine industry."

The Next Issue app will now be downloaded in preferred language device setting, and for popular mobile products including Android™ tablets and smartphones, and iPad®, iPod® Touch, iPhone and Windows 8 devices (English service only for Windows 8). As with the English service, one account is shareable across five devices and the service is available at $9.99 per month for all monthly and bi-weekly magazines and $14.99, subscribers including access to all weekly publications with back issues included. Next Issue Media is a joint venture of six leading U.S. magazine publishers - Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp., Rogers Communications, and Time Inc. Next Issue Canada. launched in 2013, is a joint venture with Rogers and Next Issue Media.  

Zinio expands reach in digital media market with 1,000 new mag titles available to library patrons

Zinio, the digital magazine newsstand, has announced an aggressive move to expand by offering an additional 1,000 magazine titles to library patrons, more than doubling the number of titles available to users to 1,800 -- including international titles with non-English language content. 

The digital Zinio for Libraries service has experienced a 300% growth in registered users in the past year, according to Beth Murphy, the executive vice-president of product and chief marketing officer for Zinio. Zinio specializes in replica editions of popular magazines, readable on browsers or mobile devices using one of its apps.

While Zinio is offered in Canadian libraries, many of the best known and largest titles from Rogers Media were withdrawn from the service when Rogers launched Next Issue Canada in collaboration with the five biggest U.S. magazine publishers. Also, Magazines Canada allowed a partnership with Zinio to lapse and launched its own digital newsstand, featuring member magazines.

"Library patrons are demonstrating rapid adoption of digital magazines by accessing magazine content through Zinio for Libraries, with new checkouts of online magazines averaging over 1,000,000 per month," said Rich Freese, Recorded Books President and CEO. RBdigital, partners with Zinio. "The digital media market for libraries is showing exponential growth. Every minute a new library patron is added, 13 magazines are checked out on Zinio for Libraries. We expect that the addition of international digital magazines with new language content will appeal to an even broader selection of patrons with multinational interests and diverse cultural backgrounds."

Rogers partners with big 5 U.S.publishers on digital newsstand service Next Issue Canada

A couple of years ago Brian Segal, then the president of Rogers Publishing, said on a public stage how he admired Next Issue Media  in the U.S. and thought that it was pursuing a business model that might work for mainstream magazines in this country, and Rogers in particular. 

Next Issue was a joint venture formed in 2009 by five leading U.S. publishers -- Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, NewsCorp, and Time Inc.-- a digital subscription service that offered unlimited access (only in the United States) to online magazines for a monthly flat fee. (It's sometimes called the "Netflix of magazines".) 

Now it has been announced that Rogers has joined as a partner with the U.S. enterprise and has created Next Issue Canada  . And it would seem it is so committed to the idea that Ken Whyte has been appointed president of the new venture, relinquishing his role as head of Rogers Publishing Limited and its consumer and b2b magazine portfolio. He had been named to the job in June 2011, succeeding Segal, after a steady rise.  

Whyte and Melissa Rogers (daughter of the late owner of the company Ted Rogers) will take seats on the board of Next Issue. A story in the Globe and Mail quoted Whyte as saying Rogers had made an "eight digit investment" and was an equal partner in the venture. The U.S. partners will see it as a way of gaining access to all of Rogers's digital channels through its broadcast, sports and other internet properties.

"The Next Issue platform is the future of magazine content consumption. It was the first all-you-can-read subscription digital magazine service, serving up the world's best magazines in a format that enhances what readers love about magazines: the sensory experience, the stunning visuals, in-depth content and the discovery of the unexpected," said Whyte [in a release]. "Next Issue Canada delivers added value with an all-you-can-read experience. It retains the best of print while making the content come to life vividly, giving readers a more personalized, interactive experience. As a result, the magazine of today is even more powerful than the magazine of yesterday."

Ken Whyte to head
Next Issue Canada

Which is ironic given that Rogers is one of the biggest players on Canadian newsstands and was, at one time (through its Coast to Coast division) one of the principal distributors. And given that Rogers direct mail subscription service remains one of the principal means through which physical subscriptions (both Canadian and U.S.) have been and are sold to Canadian readers. 

In the release, Rogers said the exclusive partnership with Next Issue Media would be made available free for a two-month trial exclusively to Rogers wireless and cable customers on tablets (iPads, Android devices and starting October 15; it would then be rolled out to all Canadians December 15 and give subscribers unlimited access to more than 100 Canadian and U.S. titles for one monthly payment of $9.99 for all monthly magazines ($14.99 for all weekly publications such as Maclean's). And Rogers titles will be available to U.S. Next Issue subscribers.

Initially, Next Issue Canada will be an English service, with a French version to  follow in 2014. 

It remains to be seen how quickly digital editions will be taken up by Canadian subscribers. Right now, the three leading titles are Canadian House & Home with 11,000, Readers Digest with 6,700 and Maclean's magazine with 5,600 (less than 2% of its print and newsstand sales). 

Try before buy: Time Inc. to encourage digital-only subscribers with free previews

Time Inc. is allowing readers to preview several articles in Entertainment Weekly on their iPads before committing to purchase. And Time says that, by the end of this year, all 21 of its titles offered on the Apple Newsstand will allow such previews. The initiative is intended to grow the number of digital-only subscribers, says a posting on All Things Digital.

While Time Inc. has been trailing rival Hearst, which hit one million digital subscriptions earlier this year, Time says it has been adding 10,000 paid digital subscribes a week this  year. 

More than half of those subscribers are new customers, [said George Linardos, head of digital marketing and business development for Time Inc.] And he thinks he can boost that number by giving browsers more to see: “We know we have hundreds of thousands of people downloading the app, opening it, and walking away,” he said. “We want to give them a reason to stay.”

Issuu now lets users search thematically

Issuu, the free. site based in Denmark through which many magazines offer free digital replicas, has launched a new look, one which will allow readers to browse for publications based on their interests. According to a post on 10,000 Words, this will allow readers to move magazine to magazine that cover the same or similar topics. 

Already home to digital extensions of publications like Vice and brand materials for Red Bull and Georgio Armani, Issuu is slowly becoming one of the go-to places for publications to get their brand to readers. In terms of value, smaller publications and scrappy startups looking for a foothold may benefit from this update, thanks to discovery and thematic recommendations that could drive new readership.

Among Canadian titles which use Issuu are Canadian Jeweller, Musicworks, Canadian Architect, Printaction,  Canadian Restaurant & Foodservice News, Hardware Merchandising, Wine Country Ontario Travel Guide, Home Builder Magazine Canada, The Real Estate Book, Vancouver Island, City Life (Vaughan), Kawartha Life, In the Hills, Healthy Directions, Global Brief, U of T Magazine and Canadian Author.

Texterity and Godengo merge brand to become GTxcel

Not quite a year ago, the digital content publishing company Texterity was bought by Godengo, Inc. of California and, for a time, the company was called  Godengo+Texterity. Texterity had a number of Canadian clients, providing digital editions and magazine-branded apps. Godengo did similar, plus running an online ad network.  Now the combined company has announced a new brand name -- GTxcel. 

At the same time, the company announced it was launching a number of responsive and mobile products. 

"Most of our customers tell us that the two most important things they are concerned with are growing their digital footprint and making digital profitable," said Kim Keller, EVP Sales. "We have listened and are expanding the offerings of our Monetization Strategies.”

Rivista5 is a responsive content management system that enable content to display clearly on any device. A suite of responsive mobile products allow non-replica advertising to be upsold at a premium rate.  

Zinio digital magazine provider said up for sale

[This post has been updated] Zinio, the digital magazine provider is apparently seeking a buyer, according to a story published by Fortune magazine.

The San Francisco-based company has hired investment bank Montgomery & Co. to manage the process, with one source saying that the company is seeking between $50 million and $100 million. No idea yet if there is buy-side interest at that price.

Zinio raised venture capital in the early part of the aughts, from brand-name firms like Apax Partners, New Enterprise Associates, North Bridge Venture Partners and Commonwealth Capital Ventures. But those firms all sold their stakes (for very little) more than five years ago to a real estate and hotel magnate named David Gilmour, who currently serves as the company's executive chairman.

Among its ventures, Zinio Canada partners with Magazines Canada in its Digital Newsstand, whereby dozens of member magazines make digital replica editions available, both by subscription and single copy.

[Update:  Folio: reports that Zinio put out a statement saying, indeed, that it has retained a merchant bank to "facilitate capital raising strategies and discussions."

"While the company has been engaged in similar discussions in the past," [it said] "Zinio has never had a stronger vision, strategy and roadmap to engage the right set of potential partners."]

Cardholders will access full digital magazines at their local branch library

If you think the digital tsunami is sweeping over magazine publishers, consider the way the wave is affecting public libraries. A story on Folio: reports on a new partnership between Zinio (which works with Magazines Canada already on delivering digital issues of members magazines) and Recorded Books (a leading publisher of audiobooks) that will grant library visitors access to digital magazines with the use of their library card. 

Zinio announced today its partnership with Recorded Books, making thousands of digital magazines accessible in public libraries throughout the US, Canada, Australia and UK.

“People love going to their public library to read a large selection of magazines, but printed copies can easily get damaged, lost or destroyed,” said Rich Freese, president and CEO, Recorded Books.

Library patrons can browse Zinio’s page-for-page platform of popular titles like Consumer Reports, Car & Driver, Good Housekeeping, The Economist, ESPN Magazine and Esquire.

Functional on both Mac and PC operating systems, Zinio for Libraries will feature tools that include key word article search and interactive elements such as audio and video.
Recorded Books will launch the program at the American Libraries Association conference in New Orleans, which is being held June 24 through June 27.