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Friday: April 4, 2014 |
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101communications LLC 101communications Offers Digital Magazine Delivery Chatsworth, CA. February 3, 2003--Acknowledging the interest and growing demand from subscribers, B-to-B IT publisher 101communications has introduced digital versions of four of its high technology publications—Federal Computer Week, Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine, Application Development Trends and Syllabus. The digital publications, launched with the October 2002 issues, are delivered via Adobe Acrobat in PDF format. “After exploring the many ways to handle digital delivery, we decided to offer our magazines in PDF format since it is so familiar to our audience,” said Brad Stauffer, Senior Vice President of Operations. “Also, we had a unique advantage in that we have a 100% digital production workflow. Because of this, our printer, Cadmus Specialty Publications, is able to convert our high resolution PDFs into lower resolution downloadable PDFs, complete with bookmarks and live URLs,” he said. “With that kind of process already in place, it didn’t make sense to start the digital delivery using proprietary software.” “We are continuing to evaluate all evolving technology,” added Stauffer. “We are also putting systems in place to do the current PDF conversions in-house.” Subscribers are notified via e-mail when their digital publication is available for downloading. 101 uses SourceLink to host the website that houses the magazines. Unique downloads, as well as total downloads, are tracked. In addition, 101 offers a toll-free customer support line for readers to call for assistance if needed. “BPA doesn’t require publishers to track how many subscribers have downloaded an issue, but we wanted to put that feature in place so we can make sure our digital magazine versions are providing value to our readers,” said Stauffer. “We’ll also be ready should BPA make that a requirement someday.” 101’s digital magazines feature bookmarks to all stories and ads in that issue, including a utilities bookmark for printing. The Table of Contents is live, with headlines hyperlinked to the story. URLs in both ads and editorial content are also live, as are the advertiser and editorial indexes at the back of the magazines. Effective with the March 2003 issues, all digital publications will be available as a ZIP file. “101 is committed to delivering content to IT professionals in any way that suits their needs best,” said Jeffrey S. Klein, President and Chief Executive Officer. “With the introduction of the tablet PC, viewing of online publications will only grow, and we plan to be in the forefront of offering that to our readers and advertisers. Digital delivery provides greater flexibility, timeliness and additional enhancements that will enable our readers to stay ahead of the curve in the fast-changing IT sector.” Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine, 101’s publication targeting the networking and certification professionals, has seen tremendous interest in the digital edition. “Our publication has done a superb job in reaching the U.S.community of certified professionals,” said Dian Schaffhauser, Editor of Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine. “Yet, 50 to 60 percent of MCPs live and work outside of this country, and we’ve struggled with the question of how to meet their technical information needs. The PDF edition -- which includes exactly the same content and advertising as the print version -- provides us with an effective and inexpensive means to deliver the magazine to them as well. The whole process is translating to the development of a global community of MCPs.” 101 plans to use the notification e-mail to cross promote other 101 products and conferences, as well as offer circulation renewal forms and additional content for readers that can be downloaded at the same time the magazine is accessed. “For example,” said Schaffhauser, “MCP Magazine intends to include material from ENTmag.com, which produces in-depth articles every month on Windows in the enterprise. We believe that will be of interest to the networking professionals who read our publication.” To date, response to digital delivery from each of the publications’ readers has been enthusiastic. Federal Computer Week readers have been very favorable to the portability it offers, and Application Development Trends has had notable interest in its digital edition in just the last two months. Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine is so positive about the response that it projects it will have 30,000 digital subscribers by the end of the year. “Our June 2003 BPA statements will carry reports of 101’s digital subscribers,” said Stauffer. We are looking forward to seeing the results and will continue to get feedback from our readers and advertisers about this new product. Our goal is to improve our digital edition with new features every month.” “101’s stated mission is to ‘enable technology professionals to succeed’,” said Klein. In the end, we want to be sure the quality and quantity of news and information that our readers receive--in every form available to them--does just that.” About 101 Founded in 1998, 101communications is an integrated media company with products targeting the many specialized markets within the information technology community. 101's portfolio includes nine magazines and more than 40 worldwide conferences and 25 digital offerings in the U.S. and Europe. For more information on 101communications, visit www.101com.com. Contact: Brad Stauffer, 818-734-1520 x 117, [email protected] Kay Heitzman, 818-734-1520 x 158, [email protected] |