Digital Magazine Report NSPE Board Meeting Saturday, October 15, 2011

Transcription

1 Item 5.5 Attachment Digital Magazine Report NSPE Board Meeting Saturday, October 15, 2011 To: NSPE Board of Directors From: David Siegel, Communications Director Background: At the July 16 board meeting in Las Vegas, there was discussion about launching a digital edition of PE magazine. The board asked to the see the results of the member survey that staff had planned and asked for staff to contact other engineering associations about their experiences with digital magazines. Below are bullet-point details from three engineering associations: IEEE Jim Vick, Staff Director IEEE Media and Publisher IEEE Spectrum Group Users eyeballs are going in the direction of mobile. If you rely on advertising to support your content, you should be going in this direction too. Virtually all of IEEE Spectrum s revenue growth since 2004 has been in electronic media (mainly from a jobs Web site and Spectrum Online), not print. A digital edition of Spectrum has been available since % 30% of members said that if IEEE made a digital version available to them, they d take it. When a six-month trial was made available to all members in 2007, 11% took advantage of it at first. Today, the digital version of Spectrum has 40,000 subscribers. Digital subscribers to Spectrum are not allowed to also receive the print version. In contrast, the 60,000 members of IEEE s Communications Society automatically receive the digital edition of the society s publication and receive reduced dues. They can buy a print subscription for a nominal fee. IEEE makes $300,000 $400,000 per year on advertising that appears in the e- mail alerts for Spectrum s digital edition. Digital delivery cut $650,000 in mfg/distribution operational expense. Timely delivery of Spectrum to international members was an important reason for the launch of digital. Digital subscribers can also receive a Spectrum ipad app. The app provides a virtual library of all issues of Spectrum, which can be downloaded whenever the

2 user would like. The app interfaces with subscriber ID number so they get only those issues they re entitled to. Of Spectrum s 40,000 digital subscribers, 5,000 have downloaded the ipad app. A second generation app is in development but is 3 4 years away. The question becomes: Does IEEE have the staff resources to support everything? Spectrum currently has 17 editorial staff. Support for the second generation app would take 7 10 more staff. Marketers are realizing that if you keep print along with all these other things (digital, apps, mobile), you ll have a more effective campaign. Revenue is coming back to magazines. Magazines may not go away and will still have life for a good period of time, although they may have to reinvent themselves. A lot of people thought TV would kill radio. American Society of Mechanical Engineers John G. Falcioni, Editor-in-Chief, Mechanical Engineering magazine ASME has been looking at the possibility of launching a digital edition for a long time. Reducing overall printing costs is not the main motive. Their biggest motive is to reduce overseas costs and expedite overseas delivery. ASME publications compete against deep pocket publications. ASME wants to increase their number of readers and use digital as a member-recruitment tool. At some point ASME will try digital and will give members the option of how they want to receive the publication. ASME has considered Texterity, Nxtbook, and Qmags. (NSPE staff has had conversations with all three of these firms.) Digital provides the opportunity to up-sell advertisers. Falcioni, however, expects digital advertising may be of interest to only the more sophisticated advertisers while smaller, less sophisticated advertisers will probably still favor print. When ASME launches a digital version of Mechanical Engineering, they will also introduce a mobile app.

3 American Society of Civil Engineers Leikny Johnson, Director of Web Content ASCE was scheduled to launch a digital version of Civil Engineering magazine using Texterity near the end of September. They will also be launching an app. ASCE is also developing a Web-only content portal. ASCE plans to survey members about a mobile version of their Web site. (NSPE is researching this topic right now.) Johnson is not sure how the launch of the digital edition will affect advertising and was not familiar with the reasons for the transition to digital. ACEC ACEC has a digital version of Engineering Inc. magazine, which is published six times per year as is open to the public on their Web site. See example at ACEC did not return calls or s, asking about their experience.

4 Zoomerang Survey Results Digital Publication Survey We would like to ask you, as a recipient of PE magazine, for a minute of your time to complete this brief survey. We're constantly striving to improve the industry information we provide and your reply to this survey will help us decide how to deliver the most relevant and timely news to you. Response Status: Completes Filter: Custom Filter (1) Sep 19, :37 AM PST 1. Age % % % % 2. If you were offered the following options for receiving PE magazine at no additional cost, which would you choose? (You may view an example of a digital edition of PE magazine here.) Digital edition only 84 32% Both print and digital editions % Print edition only 64 24% Not sure 11 4% % 3. Do you subscribe to other digital publications? Yes % No 95 36% %

5 4. What features most interest you about digital publications? Ability to easily search issues for keywords 98 38% Direct links to Web sites from articles, ads % Ability to access archives % Easy to forward articles % Easy to post articles to social networking sites 21 8% Easy to use 74 29% Environmentally friendly % Less clutter than printed copy % More timely than print 34 13% Prefer reading on my computer/tablet 27 11% Read anywhere/anytime 75 29% Other, please specify 20 8% 5. How has your use of the following media changed in the past year? Top number is the count of respondents selecting the option. Bottom % is percent of the total respondents selecting the option. Trade/professional magazines in print (ex. PE magazine) Magazine/newspaper Web sites Other Web sites E-newsletters Social media (ex. Facebook, Twitter) Blogs Webcasts/Webinars Video sites (ex. YouTube, Hulu) Digital white papers decreased same increased do not use % 71% 17% 0% % 54% 36% 5% % 57% 41% 2% % 52% 37% 5% % 27% 41% 24% % 31% 12% 45% % 49% 38% 10% % 55% 26% 13% % 50% 15% 30% 6. Select the devices you currently use (whether purchased by yourself or an employer) or which you plan to purchase in the next 12 months.

6 Desktop computer % Laptop computer % Cell phone % Android phone 61 23% iphone 69 26% Blackberry 68 26% Other smartphone 11 4% Tablet computer (ex. ipad) 52 20% PDA 6 2% E-reader (ex. Kindle, Nook) 30 11% None of the above 5 2% 7. How do you currently use your mobile device(s)? Read news % Read books 40 15% Read magazines 36 14% Watch video 96 36% Social media % None of the above 73 28% Other, please specify 41 15%

7 Zoomerang Survey Results Digital Publication Survey We would like to ask you, as a recipient of PE magazine, for a minute of your time to complete this brief survey. We're constantly striving to improve the industry information we provide and your reply to this survey will help us decide how to deliver the most relevant and timely news to you. Response Status: Completes Filter: No filter applied Sep 19, :04 AM PST 1. Age % % % % 2. If you were offered the following options for receiving PE magazine at no additional cost, which would you choose? (You may view an example of a digital edition of PE magazine here.) Digital edition only % Both print and digital editions % Print edition only % Not sure 47 5% % 3. Do you subscribe to other digital publications? Yes % No % % 4. What features most interest you about digital publications? Ability to easily search issues for keywords %

8 Direct links to Web sites from articles, ads % Ability to access archives % Easy to forward articles % Easy to post articles to social networking sites 42 5% Easy to use % Environmentally friendly % Less clutter than printed copy % More timely than print % Prefer reading on my computer/tablet 78 9% Read anywhere/anytime % Other, please specify 97 12% 5. How has your use of the following media changed in the past year? Top number is the count of respondents selecting the option. Bottom % is percent of the total respondents selecting the option. Trade/professional magazines in print (ex. PE magazine) Magazine/newspaper Web sites Other Web sites E-newsletters Social media (ex. Facebook, Twitter) Blogs Webcasts/Webinars Video sites (ex. YouTube, Hulu) Digital white papers decreased same increased do not use % 70% 15% 2% % 54% 33% 7% % 51% 43% 3% % 50% 38% 7% % 24% 26% 40% % 27% 9% 53% % 41% 34% 18% % 44% 21% 28% % 46% 16% 34% 6. Select the devices you currently use (whether purchased by yourself or an employer) or which you plan to purchase in the next 12 months. Desktop computer % Laptop computer % Cell phone % Android phone % iphone % Blackberry %

9 Other smartphone 43 5% Tablet computer (ex. ipad) % PDA 30 3% E-reader (ex. Kindle, Nook) % None of the above 24 3% 7. How do you currently use your mobile device(s)? Read news % Read books % Read magazines % Watch video % Social media % None of the above % Other, please specify %

10 Zoomerang Survey Results Digital Publication Survey We would like to ask you, as a recipient of PE magazine, for a minute of your time to complete this brief survey. We're constantly striving to improve the industry information we provide and your reply to this survey will help us decide how to deliver the most relevant and timely news to you. Response Status: Completes Filter: Custom Filter (1) Sep 19, :29 AM PST 1. Age % % % % 2. If you were offered the following options for receiving PE magazine at no additional cost, which would you choose? (You may view an example of a digital edition of PE magazine here.) Digital edition only 11 20% Both print and digital editions 21 38% Print edition only 22 40% Not sure 1 2% % 3. Do you subscribe to other digital publications? Yes 30 55% No 25 45% % 4. What features most interest you about digital publications? Ability to easily search issues for keywords 25 46%

11 Direct links to Web sites from articles, ads 23 43% Ability to access archives 14 26% Easy to forward articles 20 37% Easy to post articles to social networking sites 6 11% Easy to use 17 31% Environmentally friendly 25 46% Less clutter than printed copy 19 35% More timely than print 7 13% Prefer reading on my computer/tablet 3 6% Read anywhere/anytime 18 33% Other, please specify 4 7% 5. How has your use of the following media changed in the past year? Top number is the count of respondents selecting the option. Bottom % is percent of the total respondents selecting the option. Trade/professional magazines in print (ex. PE magazine) Magazine/newspaper Web sites Other Web sites E-newsletters Social media (ex. Facebook, Twitter) Blogs Webcasts/Webinars Video sites (ex. YouTube, Hulu) Digital white papers decreased same increased do not use % 64% 25% 5% % 58% 33% 4% % 58% 36% 0% % 56% 29% 4% % 42% 31% 9% % 31% 15% 42% % 40% 20% 29% % 47% 36% 13% % 43% 17% 37% 6. Select the devices you currently use (whether purchased by yourself or an employer) or which you plan to purchase in the next 12 months. Desktop computer 38 69% Laptop computer 47 85% Cell phone 34 62% Android phone 18 33% iphone 11 20% Blackberry 7 13%

12 Other smartphone 3 5% Tablet computer (ex. ipad) 9 16% PDA 1 2% E-reader (ex. Kindle, Nook) 1 2% None of the above 2 4% 7. How do you currently use your mobile device(s)? Read news 31 56% Read books 8 15% Read magazines 10 18% Watch video 25 45% Social media 36 65% None of the above 14 25% Other, please specify 4 7%