Print/Digital Combo Strategies:
New Dynamics, New Solutions

While dual print/digital magazine strategies aren't an entirely new concept, they’re suddenly hot—particularly now that highly visible U.S. News has jumped on the combo-media bandwagon.

Here's a look at how three very different publications—Crain Communications' Business Insurance, U.S. News & World Report and Outside's Go—are using variations on print/digital combo strategies.

While each publication has somewhat different tactical objectives, they share a core, underlying goal: Adding value for readers and advertisers cost-effectively at a time when publishing economics have been changed significantly by the one-two punch of rising print production/distribution costs and economy-driven declines in advertising spending.

Business Insurance: Enhancing A Paid Business Offer

Business Insurance—a newsweekly serving senior administrative, financial and insurance professionals across industries, government, educational institutions and other organizations—is finding that busy executives see real value-added in paid offers that combine its print and digital edition formats, according to circulation manager William E. O'Driscoll.

At BI, which has paid and controlled qualified circulation totaling approximately 45,000, about 2,800 qualified subscribers (or 6% of total circ) are receiving a digital edition, and more than 1,600 (about 57%) of those are paid combination print/digital subscribers. (Subscribers receiving both print and digital are counted only once on BPA publisher statements, and BI elects to report these as digital.)

For this news magazine—which relies primarily on direct mail for paid acquisition, supplemented with email efforts to Web site registrants and other prospects—the combined print/digital offer out-pulls print-only, reports O'Driscoll.

For most long-time BI readers, the print format of the 42-year-old publication is critical. At the same time, growing numbers are recognizing the convenience and immediacy value of having the option of accessing their issues in digital format for online reading or downloading.

"Many readers rely on the digital edition when they're traveling or on the go, and more and more want the ability to access their news immediately," says O'Driscoll, noting that it's not uncommon for readers to access content in a given issue by both the digital and print formats at different times. "And while we go to great lengths to make sure that subscribers receive their print issues on Monday each week, USPS delivery delays of a day or two can happen for any publication. So readers value knowing that they always have immediate access to the digital issue." Qmags, BI's digital publishing and marketing partner, email-alerts readers of the availability of the week’s new issue before 9 a.m. EST each Monday morning.

The one-year (52 issues) combo price has varied somewhat over time since BI introduced digital, from $79 to $89 to the $99 in the direct mail offer that dropped in mid-December. The combo offer on BI's Web site is currently $109 for U.S. subscribers, the same rate offered for print-only. While the site also offers a digital-only sub option at $59 per year, that option is not emphasized, and paid digital-only numbers are small.

Based on BI's circulation objectives and response patterns, direct mail and email renewal efforts to paid dual-format subscribers continue this offer, rather than attempt to convert these to paid digital-only.

On the controlled side, nearly all digital subscribers (approximately 1,200) are digital-only. Most of these digital subscribers are converted or acquired by offering the digital option during standard controlled telemarketing efforts.

This year, BI is looking to grow digital subs, including the combos, to about 3,500. While the main emphasis is on expanding the paid print/digital segment, Crain's will also continue to build controlled digital-only during requalification and acquisition telemarketing. As the audience's familiarity with and appreciation of the digital format grows, the number of controlled readers opting for digital-only is growing naturally over time, as are the cost benefits, confirms O'Driscoll. (Total per-copy costs for digital are about one-third those of print, he reports.)

Because BI also has a European edition (BI Europe, launched in 2006), development of international digital circulation for the flagship edition has not been a top-of-list priority, but this year's programs will include some targeted non-domestic efforts.

U.S. News Brand: Weekly Once Again

Just two months ago, U.S. News & World Report made its own headlines when it announced it would be reducing its frequency to monthly. The news magazine had previously cut frequency back from weekly to biweekly, and scaling back to monthly was widely reported in the media as another sign of the failing health of U.S. News, newsweeklies in general and perhaps even magazines as a whole.

Indeed, U.S. News saw its ad pages drop by 32.4% in 2008, according to Publishers Information Bureau, and it missed its 2 million rate base by nearly 171,000 in the second half, despite having added over 38,000 nonpaid/verified subscriptions during the period.

But this week, the magazine made headlines again, by announcing that it's back in the weekly game via the launch of a separate, weekly digital-only title dubbed U.S. News Weekly.

The new digital publication, delivered as a downloadable PDF, will be free to paid print U.S. News & World Report subscribers and cost others $19.95 per year. (A special trial offer of four digital issues for $3.95 is also currently available.)

"We consider ourselves to be a brand of information," U.S. News editor Brian Kelly told The Circulator. "We don't just see ourselves as a print magazine. We have a big digital presence, but we wanted to create something in between print and Web that would be valuable our readers. Creating a digital magazine experience allows to go back to our roots of 'newsweekly' journalism, but now we can get it in the hands of the readers just 10 minutes after writing the content."

U.S. News Weekly is not a replica of U.S. News & World Report—in fact, the flagship publication already has a digital replica edition format, produced and distributed through Zinio. The new spin-off digital magazine is designed to fit in a computer screen and has internal navigation (audio/video). Further, its weekly editorial content will focus on covering the latest news from the White House and Washington, thereby complementing the U.S. News print and Web vehicles, which will continue to focus on in-depth features on topics such as education and health.

Paid content that can lessen magazines' reliance on advertising revenue is, of course, an increasingly critical goal for publishers of all types. And while U.S. News Weekly will carry advertising, its model is more consumer or circulation-driven than the flagship's.

It remains to be seen how many consumers will ultimately prove willing to pay for the new digital weekly. However, Kelly noted that the title, which officially launches this Friday, already has a few hundred subscribers—and that the publisher obviously believes that the advantage of near-immediate news (the digital title will close on Thursday nights and be available by noon on Fridays) will attract sufficient paid subscribers to prove profitable. The plan also calls for growing the audience by making U.S. News Weekly available through Amazon’s Kindle and forming a distribution partnership with one of the digital magazine vendors.

"I don't think the newsweekly concept's outdated. I think it's the delivery method that's outdated," Kelly commented to Portfolio.com. "To produce a great report, close the magazine on Thursday night and then readers don't get it until Monday—that's insane."

"We think the brand has stood for certain values, and certain readers come to us looking for objective information," he added to The Circulator. "Our goal is to keep that audience, but also to find more people like that. What we do want to do is provide that information in whatever format is most convenient."

Go: Leveraging Digital to Add Issues

Mariah Media launched Outside's Go—an Outside spin-off billed as "the first travel and style magazine aimed exclusively at active, affluent men," in March 2007.

This year, rate base was increased to 235,000, up from 212,500. Paid circ stands at about 35,000 paid (25,000 subscribers plus 10,000 newsstand). The balance is nonpaid, including individually requested copies derived from databases of marketing partners with affluent customer bases; distribution to men pre-qualified by Experian as having minimum household income of $125,000 and active, travel lifestyle profiles; sponsored copies distributed to high-end travel and hotel destinations; and public place copies in targeted locations such as premier-membership lounges in international airports.

Go generated considerable buzz and a solid list of upscale advertisers out of the gate, and raised its frequency from quarterly to six times early last year. But like other magazines, the launch found itself squeezed as 2008 progressed. As a result, in November, Mariah announced that Go's frequency would be reduced to twice-yearly in 2009.

But a few weeks ago, the 2009 plan was again revised: Go will still publish two print issues, but will also add two digital-only issues. The two digital issues will be positioned as bonus issues for paid subscribers: Only the two print issues are included in the $18 sub price, but paid subscribers with email addresses on file will receive the digital issues, as well. The approximately 90% of nonpaid recipients with email addresses on file will also receive both the print and digital issues.

"Digital issues are a great solution: We can present our content in a magazine format, we can enhance the content and the advertisers' message with rich media, and the format is certainly more economical and environmentally friendly," Christine Salem, the magazine’s managing director, told The Circulator.

Go will also promote the digital editions through advertising in its spring issue, as well as through efforts to targeted individuals on the database of Mariah's digital publishing/marketing partner, Zinio.

Mariah believes that digital editions will become an increasingly important part of the circulation mix for consumer publishers, particularly as adaptation of wireless reader devices grows, Salem said. "It's an opportunity to get our feet wet early on and help build user and advertiser acceptance," she noted.

The publisher intends to return the magazine to bimonthly frequency, as well as file for ABC audit membership, in 2010.-- Karlene Lukovitz