What those low iPad magazine sales numbers really mean. It is always very interesting to watch how digital media products from traditional media companies are covered in the press. The news always tends to be slightly hyperbolic, either breathless with expectation or oddly despondent. Today has not been an exception. News broke earlier this morning that magazine sales on the iPad have declined from initial highs to lower levels, levels that given the massive install base of iPads around the world are perhaps surprising. Hence the furor around the article, ‘wasn’t the iPad supposed to save the struggling world of print?’ It still might. Secondly, distribution has to handled smoothly, in such a way that buying the digital content is convenient. Ask anyone in online sales: limiting the number of steps is the key to higher conversion rates. Why have we seen the decline in sales? I am not just making this up. So today’s numbers are not surprising, if perhaps a little depressing.
INMA Transformation of Media Summit: Bundling, or how and when to get readers to pay for content. It was early in the morning when John Paton, CEO of of the Journal Register Company, had a curious statement for the assembled audience at the INMA Transformation of Media Summit Thursday here in Cambridge. “For god’s sake, stop listening to newspaper people,” Paton told the audience. The audience filled with newspaper people. He went on to say “we” have had 15 years to figure out the Internet and “we’re no good at this, folks. We’re no good at all.” His solution? Listening to the digital folks, as well as the audience, to find solutions to help better connect with readers and jumpstart declining revenues. Awkward in a room of news executives from the U.S. and around the globe? It’s something Paton is familiar with, telling the audience that the Journal Register’s digital revenue went from “negligible” less than a year ago to 11 percent of ad revenue in November.
Five ways to build Unique Value for paid digital content. What really makes people willing to pay for digital content? My answer: The product must provide Unique Value by clearly fullfilling at least one of five uniqueness attributes. Here they are. Every media company is asking the question these days: How can we make users pay for digital content? Is there a way to transform the historically succesful print subscription model online? Not many can claim to have the answer. Here are some of my own reflections on this complex issue. Main conclusion: Users will pay if they are offered products they perceive to have Unique Value to themselves. What constitutes unique value for a media product? I think for a content product to offer unique value it must fulfill at least one of the following five uniqueness attributes, all of which are strongly inter-related. 1.
If you have content nobody else has, there is a chance that you may be able to charge for it online. This means that to make readers pay for the content as such it must be really unique. 2. Zullen ipad-abo's de abonnementen op papieren versie kannibaliseren? en wat met verschillende mensen die één titel willen lezen? - Ereading. CHART OF THE DAY: iPad Magazine Sales Tank. Want to get the Chart Of The Day a day earlier? Sign up for our Chart of the Day email. Steve Jobs' magic touch isn't spreading to sales of magazine applications for the iPad, John Koblin at WWD reports. As you can see in this chart, iPad sales of Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, and Glamour are all down or flat for the last six months. Over that same stretch, Apple has sold millions more iPads.
So what's the problem? For one, as Choire Sicha points out, it makes little sense to pay $3.99 for an iPad magazine when you can get a year's subscription to the print version of the magazine for $8-$10. Another problem, in our opinion: iPad magazines are currently mixed up with all iPad apps. Imagine going into a GameStop and looking for magazines. Apple is reportedly working on a digital newsstand where magazines and newspapers could have a chance to stand out, and set up recurring subscription billing. Magazines: Why do publishers believe they can sell digital versions of their publication for higher prices. Why iPad Magazine Sales Are Not As Bad As They Seem.
According to a new report from Women's Wear Daily, digital magazine sales are on the decline. A closer look at the data, however, reveals that sales are not nearly as bad as they appear. The report, which cites numbers released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, points out that magazine sales on the iPhone and iPad are down across the board. Vanity Fair sold 8,700 digital copies of its November issue, down from an average of 10,500 between August and October, while Glamour moved 2,775 iPad issues in November, down 35% from September. GQ, meanwhile, had its second-worst digital sales months since its debut on the iPad in April, having only sold 11,000 copies on the iPad and iPhone in November.
Wired rounded out the decline with an average of 22,500 sales in October and November, down from 33,711 in September and 100,000 in June, the month of its much-applauded arrival on the iPad. Red dot marks the first release of GQ's iPad app. Men's Health did not report iPad sales data for July/August. Why are iPad magazines not selling well. Recent report of magazines sales slump for iPad Issues. Will a subscription based strategy work better.