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off the web press
New services to download exact copies of titles
By Jeff Bercovici
People have long envisioned the day when magazine and newspaper publishers would be able to distribute their periodicals over the internet just as they might appear fresh off the printing press.
Readers would be able to download a periodical's pages with text, graphics and even ads appearing as they would on the printed page.
That day appears to be here, or nearly so.
In the past two weeks, two software companies have announced deals to sell digital versions of existing periodicals over the web.
What’s more, these services will offer web readers features that are unavailable for print publications, such as searchability, archivability and instant navigation, while offering advertisers perks like hyperlinks to their sites and video/audio clips--in effect putting the best of print and the internet in one package.
Though many of the whens and hows have yet to be worked out, digital distribution promises to bring major upheaval for media companies and new opportunities for media buyers.
And with publishers already smarting from paper and postage hikes and wholesaler consolidation, these new technologies are certain to attract plenty of interest from an industry badly in need of innovation.
One of the companies, qMags, last week announced the first deal to distribute downloadable copies of a major consumer magazine, Hearst's Popular Mechanics.
QMags will sell subscriptions and single copies of the magazine beginning with the October issue. QMags is a subsidiary of Qiosk.com, whose advisory board includes former top executives from Time Inc., Hearst, McGraw-Hill and Newsweek.
The company has similar deals with Crain’s Ad Age Global and two titles from CMP and is in negotiations with 16 other publishers, says Qiosk.com president Richard Seet.
Though most people still prefer ink-on-paper to glowing screens, Seet says a generation of readers is coming of age who have either no preference or even prefer electronic media.
"If you tell them ‘the Encyclopedia Britannica,’ they’re not thinking of a leather-bound 34-volume set—they’re thinking three CD-ROMs."
Someone who buys a virtual subscription to Popular Mechanics, either through the qMags site or through the magazine’s site, will receive an email containing a hyperlink to a secure web site for downloading the magazine.
Subscribers will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the magazine, as well as the Apple QuickTime Player to see embedded video clips.
A quick download allows the reader to customize Acrobat Reader with three buttons designed for magazine navigation: two buttons that allow the reader to choose between a single- or double-page view, and a button to go back to the table of contents.
All headlines on the TOC, as well as on the cover, will serve as hyperlinks to stories.
Similarly, the magazine’s cover logo will link the reader to the magazine’s web site, while advertisers’ logos will link to web sites for companies and products.
Most intriguingly for advertisers, links on ad pages will allow readers to view and listen to video clips and other multimedia presentations.
Seet says the publishers are allowed to decide how much to charge for a qMags subscription. Popular Mechanics will cost the same as a subscription to the print magazine at the basic rate, $11.95.
Also up to the publishers will be whether they want to sell individual articles through qMags and how they will handle matters like electronic rights to stories and photographs.
QMags will make money off the arrangement by charging publishers a fee for each copy or subscription sold. It will also pass along to publishers the costs of processing each magazine into downloadable form—the equivalent of prepress processing—and transmitting it over the internet.
QMags’ chief competitor at the moment is the Austin, Texas-based Newsstand Inc.
Unlike qMags, Newsstand will serve both magazine and newspaper publishers.
Newsstand already has deals with The New York Times, the Harvard Business Review and a number of European newspapers.
Another difference is that Newsstand magazines will be viewable using proprietary software called the Newsstand Reader rather than the widely-used Acrobat.
The Harvard Business Review will be available through Newsstand beginning June 18, and The New York Times beginning mid-summer, says Newsstand president Tracey Jones.
A third company, Zinio Systems, has yet to announce a rollout date, although it counts Time Inc. among its future clients.
June 6, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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