Magazine Website Design Considerations

For publishers evaluating mobile and digital magazine publishing options it’s also important to consider how the multiple magazine formats will be presented from the magazine’s brand hub -the magazine website. Magazine publishers can begin their magazine website redesign projects with consideration for how additional emedia and brand extension elements will dramatically evolve over the next few years.

For most magazine web designs, we seek to utilize the 960px grid system width to optimize the magazine website presentation for iPad and other mobile and tablet devices. This general portrait magazine website design also allows for a controlled and highly optimized homepage presentation to support brand aspects of the print magazine design.

The overall publishing business model will drive how publishers position and promote their mobile and digital brand extension elements from the magazine website. Premium and paid content elements (or apps) drive direct incremental publishing revenue but circulation and audience development digital strategies appear to build longer term integrated media advertising revenue capabilities.

We view the website as the magazine brand core for most consumer and B2B titles, even if the majority of revenue is still derived from print magazine revenue today. Increasingly the magazine audience and other visitor profile groups seek value and entertainment from their visit to the magazine publication website. Delivering a website user experience that provides a unique brand style impression and delivers value should be paramount to the revenue projection of a micro conversion (or paid content) strategy. There’s value in website visitors even if they aren’t print magazine subscribers yet.

Organizing relevant brand extension communication channels to the core magazine niche audience from the website will give your visitor the option to connect on their terms. Allowing these readers to choose how they interact with the magazine, via enewsletter, social media, website, digital edition, magazine apps, and yes, even the print magazine edition will enable the publisher to develop the magazine digital audience on engagement terms appropriate to the specific user choice and their personal technology adoption phase.

Modern Magazine Digital Publishing Tools
Here are some examples of digital magazine design tools and the modern magazine editions that are now changing they way readers receive their magazine issue.

WoodWing Tablet Publishing for iPad and Android

Adobe Digital Publishing Magazine Workflow

As we watch these and other innovative digital magazine design tools develop for the magazine publishing industry, we encourage publishers to also consider the magazine website design strategy that will be the online foundation for presenting these digital editions. We design the magazine publication website to be memorable & valuable, and position the new brand extension revenue generating elements as the next step for the visitors that have achieved this trust and value from the magazine website visit experience.

Time already has a Free magazine issues newsstand library app (similar to the Zinio newsstand and magazine reader app) allowing iPad users to contain their issues in a single updating magazine app container.

“73,000 purchases of Wired iPad app in first nine days. Should beat newsstand sales of print mag (ave. mid 80s) this month.” – Chris Anderson

As digital media publishing industry leaders work in partnership with publishing tech vendors we begin to see the not so distant future of what we can provide both readers and advertisers.  One comment by ‘handrail’ on the Wired video reads, “I would buy an ipad just for e-wired!…”

We look forward to collaboration from Adode on how to create rich media presentations throughout the print magazine design process. And we thank the the publishing pros who are sharing their progress and ideas.

This changes the media landscape for publishers. Forever.

Updated 4/4/2010 – the iPad magazines are here! Or, well, there…  Let’s just say that there are so few iPad magazines that you might have a bit of a challenge finding iPad magazines on your new magical device.  It’s a point I’ve pushed to the magazine publishing industry leaders.  We must make progress this year to establish a shelf for iPad periodicals on the iBook shelf.

It seems logical to me that the iPad magazine store should be just as prominent as the iBook store.  When you walk into a newsstand store in the airport, do you have any problem finding the magazines?  What if the magazines were hidden, only to be found in the back corner of the store on the bottom of the “I visited NY” named keychain spinner?

Finding iPad Magazines

So here’s where you will find magazines right now on the iPad.  Don’t go to the new iBook store to find your magazine apps (which seemed the logical place to start looking for the new iPad publications to me.)  Go to the existing App Store.  Next, tap the category News.

Once you enter the News category, you’ll see the available iPad formatted magazines.  This appears to be the location of where iPad publications will be listed until we earn a seat on the top shelf of the iBook store.

The iPad publication name and detail page must also be properly formatted just as Outside has “- iPad Edition” added to their title.

Perhaps we form a movement to have an iPeriodicals store established.  The only way we have a voice on this matter is to show that the industry will have a strong magazine app development culture for the next year.  Let’s just do it!

Designed and developed by Taylor and Ives, presented by Magazine Publishers of America and the American Society of Magazine Editors