Off topic advice sought
Started by Stephen Zeoli
on 4/26/2019
Stephen Zeoli
4/26/2019 3:56 pm
Hi, all,
I hope you don't mind that I ask this smart and esteemed group a question unrelated to our topics.
The agency I work for is going to start a digital magazine, and I am looking for advice about what is the best way to do this. I've looked at some of the online magazine creation and hosting sites, but I feel a bit at sea on this. Does anyone produce a digital magazine (or other publication)?
We don't expect people to pay a fee to subscribe, but we want them to subscribe in order to get their contact information.
Any help and advice is welcome.
Thank you.
Steve Z
I hope you don't mind that I ask this smart and esteemed group a question unrelated to our topics.
The agency I work for is going to start a digital magazine, and I am looking for advice about what is the best way to do this. I've looked at some of the online magazine creation and hosting sites, but I feel a bit at sea on this. Does anyone produce a digital magazine (or other publication)?
We don't expect people to pay a fee to subscribe, but we want them to subscribe in order to get their contact information.
Any help and advice is welcome.
Thank you.
Steve Z
MadaboutDana
4/26/2019 4:19 pm
We translate a number of magazines, digital and otherwise, but they're mainly for large corporates with significant resources.
I subscribe to a number of digital "magazines" of various kinds myself. One of the most successful and elegantly managed is Federico Viticci's MacStories (www.macstories.net), which gives registered members privileged access to the online blog and also sends out a newsletter. And a whole lot of other stuff (as outlined here: https://club.macstories.net He's charging subscriptions, of course, which means he has to offer rather more content than you guys are presumably thinking of doing.
But there are all kinds of ways of doing digital magazines, which is why you're probably finding it a bit overwhelming! I get some magazines as e-mailers, others as PDF files, others as notifications that a new blog post for members has just been published (complete with link, of course), and so on. Podcasts are an increasingly popular format - loads of people listen to podcasts - and of course there's always YouTube, where you can find videos that could be described as "magazines" (in that they regularly cover multiple subjects under a choice of topics).
I'd guess the first thing to decide is: how much effort do you want to put into the magazine, and do you want it to reflect your agency's particular expertise/skills/creative flair etc.? Be aware that potential subscribers are more and more wary of parting with personal details in return for a "magazine", unless the latter is genuinely different and interesting (take a look at "Break the Wheel" by Jay Acunzo for more on that, or check out his agency's page at https://www.marketingshowrunners.com Just producing an also-ran magazine in a half-hearted way will definitely p*ss off precisely the people you're trying to attract. But of course you know that!
Just a few thoughts - I don't publish a magazine myself, so I'm not a primary authority.
Best of luck and above all, enjoy!
Cheers,
Bill
I subscribe to a number of digital "magazines" of various kinds myself. One of the most successful and elegantly managed is Federico Viticci's MacStories (www.macstories.net), which gives registered members privileged access to the online blog and also sends out a newsletter. And a whole lot of other stuff (as outlined here: https://club.macstories.net He's charging subscriptions, of course, which means he has to offer rather more content than you guys are presumably thinking of doing.
But there are all kinds of ways of doing digital magazines, which is why you're probably finding it a bit overwhelming! I get some magazines as e-mailers, others as PDF files, others as notifications that a new blog post for members has just been published (complete with link, of course), and so on. Podcasts are an increasingly popular format - loads of people listen to podcasts - and of course there's always YouTube, where you can find videos that could be described as "magazines" (in that they regularly cover multiple subjects under a choice of topics).
I'd guess the first thing to decide is: how much effort do you want to put into the magazine, and do you want it to reflect your agency's particular expertise/skills/creative flair etc.? Be aware that potential subscribers are more and more wary of parting with personal details in return for a "magazine", unless the latter is genuinely different and interesting (take a look at "Break the Wheel" by Jay Acunzo for more on that, or check out his agency's page at https://www.marketingshowrunners.com Just producing an also-ran magazine in a half-hearted way will definitely p*ss off precisely the people you're trying to attract. But of course you know that!
Just a few thoughts - I don't publish a magazine myself, so I'm not a primary authority.
Best of luck and above all, enjoy!
Cheers,
Bill
Stephen Zeoli
4/26/2019 4:34 pm
Thank you, Bill.
Every bit of advice is helpful.
Some additional details about what we want to do might help. First of all, we're a nonprofit publisher that has been around in one form or another for over 40 years. We have a fairly solid reputation, at least among our core customers. Our magazine would be a quarterly. My idea is that it would be a PDF, but our executive director wants to do something more flamboyant.
Anyway, thanks again. Any other thoughts are definitely welcome.
Steve Z.
Every bit of advice is helpful.
Some additional details about what we want to do might help. First of all, we're a nonprofit publisher that has been around in one form or another for over 40 years. We have a fairly solid reputation, at least among our core customers. Our magazine would be a quarterly. My idea is that it would be a PDF, but our executive director wants to do something more flamboyant.
Anyway, thanks again. Any other thoughts are definitely welcome.
Steve Z.
Wojciech
4/26/2019 8:07 pm
If you are happy with simply the adequate webpage/theme, I would suggest 'Extra' for WordPress:
https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/extra/
I've just started to test it and it looks promising.
Best
https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/extra/
I've just started to test it and it looks promising.
Best
J J Weimer
4/28/2019 3:25 pm
I might comment on the notion of PDF versus something more flamboyant. As a background, I am preparing a study guide that would lead to a textbook (in the science/engineering discipline).
I've found PDF to be the most reliable to provide a consistent presentation time and time and time again. OTOH, I have discovered with tablet readers that PDF can be the most limiting in its ability to provide hyperlinked and scalable/flowable content. Finally, as one who still prefers to digest content "one page at a time", I've found the infinitely scrollable vertical pages of html and ePub can be confusing to follow. This is not solely a problem in the textbook arena (where I am beginning to think that ePub should be banned), it is also a problem in the Webpage layouts of commercial advertising (where I easily get frustrated and give up after about the second time I "scroll up" the page and am still waiting for something that gives a table of contents).
In the end, the biggest issue that I see must be tackled in reading content and in producing content to distribute is to recognize how to avoid distorting the message by abusing the format used to market it. With print copies, the workflow used to be to create the content first and then put the format last. For distributions to e-readers, one cannot wait until the end to consider the format independently of the content. This is a symbiotic development.
I guess that all I am saying that, just as PDF is not as flat as your executive director might implicitly be saying (by wanting something "more flamboyant"), other formats are not necessarily as dangerous as you may implicitly fear (by proposing to stay with the tried and true PDF). Defining where the various formats will help enhance or alternatively will only distort the message that you want to post may be the way to resolve the differences.
I'd be interested to hear what approach you finally decide to take.
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
I've found PDF to be the most reliable to provide a consistent presentation time and time and time again. OTOH, I have discovered with tablet readers that PDF can be the most limiting in its ability to provide hyperlinked and scalable/flowable content. Finally, as one who still prefers to digest content "one page at a time", I've found the infinitely scrollable vertical pages of html and ePub can be confusing to follow. This is not solely a problem in the textbook arena (where I am beginning to think that ePub should be banned), it is also a problem in the Webpage layouts of commercial advertising (where I easily get frustrated and give up after about the second time I "scroll up" the page and am still waiting for something that gives a table of contents).
In the end, the biggest issue that I see must be tackled in reading content and in producing content to distribute is to recognize how to avoid distorting the message by abusing the format used to market it. With print copies, the workflow used to be to create the content first and then put the format last. For distributions to e-readers, one cannot wait until the end to consider the format independently of the content. This is a symbiotic development.
I guess that all I am saying that, just as PDF is not as flat as your executive director might implicitly be saying (by wanting something "more flamboyant"), other formats are not necessarily as dangerous as you may implicitly fear (by proposing to stay with the tried and true PDF). Defining where the various formats will help enhance or alternatively will only distort the message that you want to post may be the way to resolve the differences.
I'd be interested to hear what approach you finally decide to take.
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Thank you, Bill.
Every bit of advice is helpful.
Some additional details about what we want to do might help. First of
all, we're a nonprofit publisher that has been around in one form or
another for over 40 years. We have a fairly solid reputation, at least
among our core customers. Our magazine would be a quarterly. My idea is
that it would be a PDF, but our executive director wants to do something
more flamboyant.
Anyway, thanks again. Any other thoughts are definitely welcome.
Steve Z.
Franz Grieser
4/28/2019 4:05 pm
A "flamboyant" e-mag? Difficult, if you want to support a wide selection of devices. Apple iBooks might be what you want - but that limits your organisation to Apple products.
I'd start with PDF (text and images). And if your boss wants more interaction, audio and/or video, you could provide that through a website.
For more flamboyance from the beginning, you might want to consider HTML5 (text, image, multimedia, interaction). There are WYSIWYG editors such as Adobe Dreamweaver C6 or the free Aloha Editor (alohaeditor.org) or BlueGriffon (bluegriffon.org). I cannot comment on Aloha Editor or BlueGriffon, Dreamweaver would certainly do the job - provided you have a multimedia developer who is proficient in the software. Probably not the cheapest solution, though.
I'd start with PDF (text and images). And if your boss wants more interaction, audio and/or video, you could provide that through a website.
For more flamboyance from the beginning, you might want to consider HTML5 (text, image, multimedia, interaction). There are WYSIWYG editors such as Adobe Dreamweaver C6 or the free Aloha Editor (alohaeditor.org) or BlueGriffon (bluegriffon.org). I cannot comment on Aloha Editor or BlueGriffon, Dreamweaver would certainly do the job - provided you have a multimedia developer who is proficient in the software. Probably not the cheapest solution, though.
Franz Grieser
4/28/2019 4:09 pm
Sorry, Aloha Editor is only free for non-commercial usage. But that might apply to your organisation.
MadaboutDana
4/29/2019 12:42 pm
If you're going for an HTML/web page-based solution, you need a powerful, modern editor that can generate responsive pages.
There are now some great solutions, even for non-experts. One of the more promising recent concepts is Nicepage, which has the huge advantage that it generates output as WordPress templates, Joomla templates or just straight HTML. All output is responsive, meaning you could use the HTML in e.g. responsive e-mails (i.e. e-mails that reformat themselves to suit whatever screen you're using, from smartphone to mammoth 4HD monitors). Nicepage is on www.nicepage.com; they provide a very wide variety of lego-like templates based on blocks (apps for Mac, Windows, or working directly on their server; also as embedded WordPress and Joomla editors in templates/themes).
However, if you're going to go for the responsive web page approach (whether in e-mails or in a subscriber-only website), it would be better to involve a skilled designer, so you make an optimally professional impression. Even important, well-known companies can get it horribly wrong (just see Accenture's recent fumble of Hertz's international website - seriously embarrassing!)
On the plus side, there is a plethora of advice nowadays. See Litmus, for example (e.g. https://litmus.com/blog/the-how-to-guide-to-responsive-email-design-infographic or the well-known MailChimp (https://templates.mailchimp.com/getting-started/using-mailchimp/ Here's a quick overview by Chamaileon: https://blog.chamaileon.io/900-free-responsive-email-templates-to-help-you-start-with-email-design/
Going back to MailChimp (a resource you may want to take a closer look at, because it'll probably impress your boss), here are some options: https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/best-mailchimp-responsive-templates--cms-30234
I'm a PDF person myself, I do confess ;-)
Cheers!
Bill
There are now some great solutions, even for non-experts. One of the more promising recent concepts is Nicepage, which has the huge advantage that it generates output as WordPress templates, Joomla templates or just straight HTML. All output is responsive, meaning you could use the HTML in e.g. responsive e-mails (i.e. e-mails that reformat themselves to suit whatever screen you're using, from smartphone to mammoth 4HD monitors). Nicepage is on www.nicepage.com; they provide a very wide variety of lego-like templates based on blocks (apps for Mac, Windows, or working directly on their server; also as embedded WordPress and Joomla editors in templates/themes).
However, if you're going to go for the responsive web page approach (whether in e-mails or in a subscriber-only website), it would be better to involve a skilled designer, so you make an optimally professional impression. Even important, well-known companies can get it horribly wrong (just see Accenture's recent fumble of Hertz's international website - seriously embarrassing!)
On the plus side, there is a plethora of advice nowadays. See Litmus, for example (e.g. https://litmus.com/blog/the-how-to-guide-to-responsive-email-design-infographic or the well-known MailChimp (https://templates.mailchimp.com/getting-started/using-mailchimp/ Here's a quick overview by Chamaileon: https://blog.chamaileon.io/900-free-responsive-email-templates-to-help-you-start-with-email-design/
Going back to MailChimp (a resource you may want to take a closer look at, because it'll probably impress your boss), here are some options: https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/best-mailchimp-responsive-templates--cms-30234
I'm a PDF person myself, I do confess ;-)
Cheers!
Bill
Stephen Zeoli
4/29/2019 1:48 pm
Thanks, everyone, for the input. We're at just the beginning stage of this process, so all advice is welcome and useful.
Right now I am leaning toward something like Flow Paper, which is PDF based, but allows you to create a bit more lively pages. I am not sure my boss will go for it, though.
https://flowpaper.com/
More input is welcome!!!
Steve Z
Right now I am leaning toward something like Flow Paper, which is PDF based, but allows you to create a bit more lively pages. I am not sure my boss will go for it, though.
https://flowpaper.com/
More input is welcome!!!
Steve Z