Design/Publishing/Trends
Clip Happy with Issuu Clip
Issuu, a top online publishing software company, released a new feature today that has us clipping with joy! Check out this short video to see the new clipping tool in action. Issuu Clip lets you share and comment on any part of a publication that inspires you. Readers can select and share any piece of content from within a publication, dramatically extending its reach as readers distribute the content they love across their individual social networks. This means audiences will grow as new readers discover publication clips on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more. I tried it using The Modern Jewish Wedding’s 2013 e-magazine and I have to say it’s...
Read MorePrint Versus Digital – Can you have one without the other?
Do I need a digital offering for my publication? We get this question when talking with our association clients, and I happened upon a good pros and cons list on OmniPress. Daniel de la Cruz sums it up nicely. The most basic explanation to this question is this: Readers consume information differently, so having multiple options will reach across preferences, demographics and generations. Some information is better suited for print and other for digital, but have a nice mix of both. How do you determine which data is better received in print versus digital? Survey! As de la Cruz says, “Use surveys to gain understanding of how your membership prefers to consume content.”...
Read MoreMaking Infographics Memorable
While infographics are not a new way of expressing information and data, it seems that their popularity is rising among associations who previously published information in written form. We are certainly seeing this among our clients and encouraging them to do infographics in a thoughtful, memorable and meaningful way. Associations Now shared a great article titled, “Tell Your Story Visually with an Infographic,” on the use of infographics. Quoted in the article, Nicole Lampe, digital strategy director at Resource Media on NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network’s blog, says a meaningful infographic answers the questions who, what, why, and how. In addition,...
Read MorePause Before You Post: A Facebook Rule of Thumb
I think we can all agree that Facebook was created to be a personal social network more so than a business social network. That has long been reserved for LinkedIn (or so that’s what I think). But now we have business Facebook pages, Facebook ads–the need to be liked on two levels both personally and professionally. On top of that, we have the issue of what to post, who to friend, who likes us, how many likes makes our business socially accepted, etc. The list could go on and on. Andrea and I both have personal Facebook pages and we both maintain Monarch’s Facebook page. We have seen peers post politically charged comments on both their personal and professional...
Read MoreIs Readership “Buy-in” Necessary?
We’ve encountered a few companies during our growth with thoughts of publications—publications with potential and publications that needed to be rethought. So we’ve had several conversations amongst ourselves and we want to share some key thoughts that continue to surface. Do readers “buy into” your publication? By this I mean do they pay for a subscription to receive your publication? Do they place a value on your product? (I don’t want to get into the conversation regarding e-magazines. I’d rather stick with printed magazine for this post.) We’ve come up with several conclusions, but the main idea is if you ask your readers to make a monetary contribution...
Read MoreAssociation Publishing Niche Thriving
There have been numerous articles and news stories lately talking about the downward spiral of the publishing industry. Of course being in this industry, these do peak our interest, but ultimately keep us focused on our target market. If you’re a colleague of ours, you know we are looking for association publications with whom to partner. When asked why this group, the answer is simple. Associations have a built-in audience that thrives on relevant information delivered in the form of a membership publication or magazine. But there is another reason we chose this niche. It is best explained through the recent article by Katie Bascuas with Associations Now. She writes...
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