The eternal contradiction during the past few years has been whether print publications are dead and surpassed by digital media or whether magazines that were born online should get printed. For sure, that today this antagonism is useless because there are quite a few factors that influence both print and digital success.
In an era where digital has taken over our lives, media publications had to adapt and reconsider their strategies. There is no need to talk about a competition between digital and print, but there is an obvious need for print to survive and grow helped by the digital. Due to the new technologies and devices, readers are more interested in the online magazines, where they find all the content in the same place, making it easier to browse through in a more dynamic way.
On the other hand, this may affect publications because their revenues are considerably decreasing if their printed versions are losing their fame. The two opposing powers should now unite and work together. For big publications like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, digital is just another means through which they sell subscriptions and increase their reputation.
Digital can boost print publications
Times are changing and so is Time. It looks like the historical publishing company Time Inc. reports a new revenue decline from traditional means like magazines sales, print ads and subscriptions. However, this didn’t decrease the number of readers because they reached an equal number of readers online as well as offline. Unfortunately for them, the digital cannot keep up the pace with the revenues that used to come from the print. They definitely need to find a way to increase revenues online.
Nevertheless, promoting a publication can work both ways. In the case of eco-conscious readers, for example, the online alternative can boost the sales by offering subscriptions for certain articles or columns accessible on their websites, just like Le Monde does, for instance. They offer certain advantages if you subscribe online, at a reasonable price, making it accessible from all type of platforms.
A story of success
While more and more people shift to digital magazines, the print has become a means through which readers can be engaged. Other big publications are reaching their business goals online even in the era of crowd pleasing BuzzFeed.
Certain historical publications are winning big due to their online content. Harvard Business Review is one of those that are surprisingly successful online, considering that it will celebrate its centenary in a couple of years. Their secret is quality, not quantity. They deliver good content which is highly appreciated and they compensate the limited number of pieces per day by focusing on interactions with the readers. The devil is in the details and their success is also related to the attention they pay to data. They invest in analyzing the degree of involvement of readers depending on their articles and by knowing this they can easily interact with them. This is essential for their business because they run on subscriptions.
Harvard Business Review is definitely one of the success stories but there are others that can inspire print publications to get their lion’s share from the digital.