Print V Digital

The topic of “print versus digital” is one with many angles to it and is a topic that could easily get heated depending on who you’re talking to. I first came in contact with the debate about four years ago when the magazine I worked for was exploring the options of delivering the publication in a digital format. We researched the various providers of digital editions and centered our efforts on getting to know the services of Zinio and Texterity. We knew what we hoped to gain by offering a digital version of the print magazine:

• Increase the international subscriber list by offering a reasonably priced magazine that would not include the high cost of shipping
• Connect with the active cruising audience without a snail mail address by delivering the magazine electronically
• Offer expanded multimedia services to advertisers by hot linking from their ads and/or embedding animated images or video into their ads
• Improve reader experience with the digital version’s searchability
• Reach new subscribers by allowing digital subscribers to forward an issue or article to a friend.

Our questions and fears were the same as many other print publishers. Would the cost of digitizing the magazine have a measurable return on investment and how long would it take to reach that number? Would we lose subscribers to the print publication by offering digital? Would we actually gain digital subscribers? Would all the benefits of having a digital version of the magazine be realized by those subscribers? How would customer service balance the two types of subscriptions?

source: http://chesprocon.com/marine-industry/print-digital-debate