E-paper, but the right way: Retaining readers with digital editions

Newspapers have focused their online activities mainly on their news websites in the past, but for some years now, more and more publishers have been turning to digital editions as reader interest grows. Unlike in the print world, however, there are different formats here. An overview.  

What is a digital edition?

Journalists have been bundling news into issues for centuries: News from the city and countryside is printed as a newspaper once a day to give readers an overview of the most important events and developments. Magazines and weekly magazines have their own rhythm, but work according to the same spending principle.

In the digital world, spending has played a subordinate role so far. Publishers focused their activities on the continuous flow of news on their website. Not least because digital editions were not technically sophisticated and exhausting to use at the beginning: 1:1 illustrations of the print pages were offered as PDF formats — leafing was often stuck, there was no mobile display. Digital editions were not very attractive for readers and publishers.

Wikipedia still adheres to this definition for a digital edition today:

“A digital edition is an online magazine or an online newspaper that is delivered in electronic form and is formatted in the same way as the print version. ”

In the meantime, however, not only has e-paper technology evolved, completely new digital edition formats have also emerged, such as newsletter or app issues. The definition of what is meant by a digital edition therefore needs an update:

“A digital edition is a self-contained journalistic product that offers readers a collection of information or entertainment via a digital channel. ”

A digital edition provides readers with information or entertainment in a self-contained digital format.

Digital editions: outdated concept or future market?

Although editorial journalism is a tradition of the print age, it is not a dying one. According to a Reuters study, a majority of digital news users prefer to obtain information once a day. These Daily Briefers are better served with an issue format than with continuous news flows on websites. The market for digital editions is therefore there.  

This is also reflected in the growing importance of e-papers. It is becoming an increasingly important income channel for newspapers: The Circulation of digital editions rose According to IVW, by 13.84 percent for daily newspapers in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the previous year, and even 24.82 percent for weekly newspapers. In total, every eighth newspaper was sold as e-paper in 2020.

In view of the falling print runs for years and the continuing difficulties faced by news companies, their online offerings are sufficient to monetize, digital editions are a growing market whose potential publishers should definitely explore for themselves.

One idea, four well-known formats

A digital edition is now not just a simple replica of the print product, but has many faces. Four formats currently dominate, with which media companies can effectively reach their readers. It remains to be seen which new formats will be created as a result of further technological development.

replica outputs

The classic digital edition is the replica edition, a 1:1 image of the print product. In the past, replicas were mostly offered as PDFs, but today editors also make their replica editions available via publishing apps so that they can be easily read not only on the desktop, but also via tablet and smartphone.

However, the editions offer few additional digital functions. They are usually limited to a reading mode for individual article views, embedding video and links to external sources.

Native digital editions

Native digital editions are an evolution of replica editions. They use the technological options to offer a more convenient user experience: Readers are shown articles optimized for mobile reading on their smartphones, for example.

There are two variants of native digital editions: those that digitally optimize the print content and those that present their own content — regardless of the print product. Examples of native digital editions in Germany include FAZ Digitec for news about the digital economy and Industry 4.0 or the FR+ app.

Newsletters

Editorial newsletters are another form of editorial journalism. For many years, editorial offices used them primarily as traffic providers for their own website: The reader received short teasers on current topics via email and had to click on the website for full information. For two or three years, newsletters have increasingly been marketed as independent digital editions. They appear at a reliable rhythm, in a fixed layout — much like traditional print products.

Some publishers include a free news overview in their newsletters, such as Spiegel Online The situation in the morning. If readers want to delve deeper into a topic, they can follow links to the website, but the newsletter also works as a completed product. Other publishers such as Der Tagesspiegel with its Checkpoint or the Handelsblatt with its Morning Briefing offer newsletters in two versions, a short free version and a detailed paid version. And some media such as Börsenzeitung rely exclusively on paid newsletters.

Story format

The latest format among digital editions is the story format. More and more media companies are experimenting with stories on Facebook or Instagram and presenting news on a topic in quickly clickable slides.

However, the format is not limited to social media platforms, but can also be integrated into apps as a feature: The Tagesschau app, for example, prepares the most important headlines of the day as stories. If you want to find out more background, you can swipe up to view the full article. News websites could also feature story formats on their homepage and thus integrate an issue into the news stream. So far, only a few publishers have been experimenting with stories, especially in German-speaking countries, so that it will only become clear on which channel the format works best.

3 arguments for using digital editions

Although the constant stream of digital news offers unprecedented opportunities for information, the volume of news is becoming a stress factor for more and more people. Here, publishers can offer psychological relief with digital editions. This is because they satisfy people's need for orientation and overview: World events, presented in a compact form, can be handled again. The reader gains the good feeling of being in the picture and is increasingly willing to pay for it. However, this is not the only reason why digital editions are economically interesting for publishers.

Reduced printing and distribution costs

The better publishers are able to motivate their existing print subscribers to take out digital subscriptions, the more they can reduce their print run and save printing and distribution costs. Although they will invest in marketing measures for the new digital offerings, success can usually be achieved here at a fraction of the costs of traditional sales.

For the majority of media, it makes sense to set up digital editions as a supplement to the existing print product, but for some it may be worthwhile to discontinue the traditional print product in the medium term and switch entirely to digital payment products.

Income from paid digital spending

The majority of news readers still expect to be able to access information on the Internet free of charge, but the willingness to pay for a curated news overview is growing: 53 percent of Germans are loud E-paper study 2020 On behalf of the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers, ready to spend money on “a trustworthy, credible source of news.”

Many German daily newspapers such as Die Zeit or Handelsblatt are already selling digital subscriptions for e-readers, apps and browsers as additional offers to their traditional print editions. Other publishers, such as PC Magazine or The Wall Street Journal, have completely digitized their offerings and charge a monthly or annual subscription fee for their content. The income from these paid offers can be an important building block for publishers in order to achieve their to monetize digital activities.

Advertising revenue and potential for cross-selling

Digital editions as an extension of the existing product range also offer publishers the opportunity to sell new and high-quality advertising space. After all, readers of digital editions are particularly receptive: they consciously choose to read, in some cases they have even paid for the edition and spend an above-average amount of time with the content. For advertisers, digital editions — whether as an app or as a newsletter — are attractive advertising environments.

Especially when publishers initially offer free digital editions, they can use the newly created advertising spaces to increase sales of their own products through cross-selling.

Key factor for monetization of digital offerings

Newspapers and magazines have more than 300 years of experience with the concept of editorial editions; because the first newspaper in the world was published in Leipzig in 1650. They can and should rely on this expertise even when switching from print to digital editions.

Not least as a result of the corona pandemic, the pace of digital innovation in newsrooms has picked up. In 2021, publishers and editors will make their digital activities a Reuters-Report According to expand: “Companies are forced to think outside the box.” Whether via app, email or browser — publishers are only gradually becoming aware of the potential of digital editions and is far from being exhausted. In any case, readers' openness to such digital news products is growing. The success of the Readly app, which works like a newspaper and magazine kiosk, also shows that the digital edition is anything but dead: In 2019 alone, 83 million digital issues retrieved via the app.

If publishers creatively breathe life into the spending concept and satisfy readers' needs for orientation in the digital information world, they could sustainably improve the profitability of their digital activities. Many media companies are still struggling to monetize their digital offerings. The spending concept could play a key role in developing models for sustainably financed digital journalism.

Would you like to reintegrate digital editions into your portfolio? Use specialized software such as Purple to easily get started with digital publishing. This allows you to control all formats, whether PDF replicas or native output, clearly and easily from one application.

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