Adobe Digital Publishing

National Geographic magazine inspires people to care about planet Earth through stunning photography and unparalleled journalism. Now, the iconic and enduring print magazine has extended its legacy into the future with digital editions, created using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Enterprise Edition. National Geographic views delivery of content to multiple devices as a competitive imperative. Digital editions attract a new and very attentive readership at a rapid pace, confirming that the new formats for iPad and Kindle Fire deliver a satisfying, immersive experience.

Declan Moore, president of publishing at National Geographic Society, says, “Digital editions have become the fastest growing piece of our business. We’re on track to acquire or exceed a paid digital circulation of 300,000 by the end of 2012, and have plans to expand to other form factors and reach half a million subscribers in the near future.”

The digital editions complement the print version, both from creative and financial standpoints. How the magazine will be presented both in print and digitally is a focus from the start and the team keeps a close eye on production costs and time to achieve a solid return on investment. According to designers, as well as copy and photo editors, Digital Publishing Suite works well within the existing Adobe workflow, and enhancements such as Adaptive Design Tools in InDesign CS6, help the team efficiently publish to multiple devices.

New features help maximize digital publishing productivity and manage costs because each time a digital edition is created, the original iPad version can be easily optimized for the Kindle Fire in a fraction of the time. This ability to quickly create tablet issues for multiple devices directly affects the company’s ability to drive recurring subscriptions and advertising revenue, both of which are key to the publisher’s continued growth and success.

National Geographic: A journey to multiple devices - 

PDF Customer Success Story

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The SoDA Report, published by The Global Society for Digital Marketing Innovators (SoDA), is a popular resource for marketers who want to know what’s on the industry horizon. In 2012, SoDA decided to distribute The SoDA Report as an immersive tablet app. SoDA worked together with interactive agency Universal Mind to create editions of the report for the iPad and Kindle Fire using Adaptive Design Tools in Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Enterprise Edition.

SoDA production designers created the layout in InDesign and Universal Mind then added interactive features to the files to produce the tablet editions for iPad and Kindle Fire using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. The tablet version offers a new way to reach people who endeavor to be on the cutting edge of digital—and serves as an example for member agencies looking to rapidly create engaging apps for tablets that function across different device platforms.
Chris Buettner, director of operations for SoDA and managing editor of The SoDA Report, says “SoDA’s mission is to provide education, advocacy, and best practices for digital agencies and production companies. By using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, we have created tablet editions that mirror our mission by providing best-in-class examples of digital publishing that will only get richer with each subsequent version.”

PDF Customer Story:
The Global Society for Digital Marketing Innovators (SoDA): Walking the walk

The iPad, with its rich visual display and interactive quality, enables content publishers to create app experiences that are the next best thing to seeing something in person. This is certainly true in the case of Sotheby’s Catalogues, an iPad app created by the distinguished auction house to extend and enhance its print catalogue experience.

Every year, Sotheby’s conducts more than 300 auctions, and print catalogues published for each auction are deeply valued by Sotheby’s clients. Collectors can view items in person at an exhibition held a week prior to each auction, but those who can’t make the exhibition now have another option. Using the Sotheby’s Catalogues app, collectors can immerse themselves in an object’s beauty and rich history through video, 360‐degree views, pinch‐and‐zoom images, and other forms of tactile, emotive exploration.

For Sotheby’s, the app represents an opportunity to further engage clients. Designers leverage the print layout and use Digital Publishing Suite to layer in interactive capabilities to produce the digital edition. The app includes a host of interactive features, including the ability for collectors to take notes just as they do in the print catalogues and the opportunity to see results in real time as an auction progresses. Adobe Digital Marketing Suite helps Sotheby’s continue enhancing the client experience by showing what content drives engagement.

Josh Pullan Vice President, Worldwide Director of Digital Media Services at Sotheby’s says, “Through the combination of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and Adobe Digital Marketing Suite, we’re learning how to promote our sales and auctions in the most effective ways and deliver an elegant experience for clients.”

Read the Sotheby’s Case Study here

Watch the video on the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Enterprise page

First released in March 2012, the digital edition of Fast Company magazine is already turning heads. Created with the help of Joe Zeff Design, the companion app to the cutting-edge print magazine launched with a cover animation of the notoriously shy founder of Square and inventor of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, behind fogged glass that can be cleared with a few swipes. Since then, the agency has continued reaching new heights by enhancing the digital edition for the new iPad retina display and building animations for the digital edition using Adobe Edge.

To create the Fast Company digital edition, Joe Zeff Design produces page layouts with Adobe InDesign, already integrated into the studio’s workflow. DPS folio sharing enables easy collaboration between the agency and publisher, while the alternate layout workflow in InDesign CS6 helps the team more easily repurpose a layout for devices with different screen sizes and aspect ratios.

Not just for new tablet readers, the direct entitlement capability enabled by Digital Publishing Suite lets Fast Company extend the digital version of its publication to print subscribers, providing an enhanced experience for its loyal customer base. Information on user behavior, gathered using Adobe SiteCatalyst and the built-in analytics in Digital Publishing Suite, helps to inform publication enhancements and customer acquisition strategies.

Noah Robischon, executive editor for digital at Fast Company, says, “Our monthly issue app is offering an enhanced experience for existing readers and helping us attract new subscribers as well. We’re very happy with the numbers we are seeing.”

Click here to view the Fast Company Success Story.

Backpacker, published by Active Interest Media, created its first digital edition in October 2011 using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Professional Edition. Since then, the magazine has embraced digital publishing with monthly, as well as special versions, and upgraded to an Enterprise Edition license with even more functionality.

Anthony Cerretani, deputy editor and digital director for Backpacker, says, “It’s a brave new world in terms of what print readers are doing and what iPad subscribers are doing. With Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Enterprise Edition, we can track click-through rates for advertisers, as well as look at the demand for special issues, enabling us to better address what appeals most to our readers.”

Readers seem to be responding, with Backpacker reaching number 16 in Apple Newsstand rankings and receiving a four-star ranking on iTunes. The new subscription base for the digital edition increased by a factor of six with the March 2012 issues and the April issue resulted in a high water mark for both app shell downloads, revenue, and subscriptions.

Advertisers also like the new format and the added opportunities for visibility. For its fall Gear Guide, REI sponsored the entire issue and created an introductory video. The issue also included 360-degree product rotations and slide shows that explained gear in visually interactive ways. Backpacker anticipates driving even more revenue from its iPad edition with added Digital Publishing Suite, Enterprise Edition functionality, such as the ability to add custom slots that let readers link out to other interesting content from within the app.

Read the Backpacker Success Story here.

Source Interlink Media (SIM) is all about fueling people’s passions, whether their interests run toward hot rod cars or home theater systems. With 78 titles, the publisher saw the opportunity to reach even more readers through tablet devices. To quickly repurpose its content, SIM turned to Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and new Adobe InDesign software script. The script automates the process of converting PDF files into InDesign files that can be easily imported into Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.

With an ambitious goal of having 40 titles live in 40 days, SIM got to work converting its titles. Dale Bryson, prepress director for SIM says, “We’ve automated the process of transforming PDF files to digital editions using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, eliminating what would otherwise be a very labor-intensive, error-prone, and repetitive process.”

Using the script, the 40 titles are all thriving, and available on Apple Newsstand. It takes minimal resources to create the digital editions, which offer SIM a new revenue stream for the company in terms of both subscriptions and advertisements. Using the InDesign script and Digital Publishing Suite, publishers can also convert back issues to digital editions in a fraction of the time it would take to re-create them from scratch.

The InDesign script that SIM used is available from the Digital Publishing Suite Developer Center, at www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalpublishingsuite.html.

A tutorial showing publishers how to use the script to automatically create InDesign documents from PDF files that are ready for Digital Publishing Suite is available here: www.adobe.com/devnet/digitalpublishingsuite/articles/dps-pdf-to-indesign.html.

Read the SIM success story here: http://adobe.ly/Jjr05v

Roland and Digital Publishing Suite, Professional Edition

After halting production of its print magazine in 2010 due to the tough economy, Roland saw an opportunity to inspire musicians and aspiring musicians through terrific articles that include audio, images, and videos that they can interact with on the iPad.

Martyn Hopkins, brand manager of Roland UK, says it like this: “Only 10% of people play a musical instrument, yet 70% say they would like to. What better way to inspire musicians and aspiring musicians than through terrific articles that include audio, images, and videos that they can interact with on the iPad?”

The Power On digital edition consolidates the best content from across Roland into an interactive publication available in multiple languages from more than 110 different app stores worldwide. The publication has been translated into German, and is now being translated into French and Dutch.

Unlike its print publication, which Roland produced with the help of third-party resources, the digital edition of Power On is created completely in-house using Adobe InDesign and Digital Publishing Suite. Leveraging existing knowledge of InDesign helps Roland avoid long development and publishing cycles and provide the rich and engaging content that readers have come to expect.

The digital edition provides musicians with compelling editorial, videos of musical performances, products that can be rotated 360 degrees, and much more.  Product features even enable viewers to virtually tweak audio settings on equipment, playing with the gear to hear the digital nuances.

Roland is leveraging the built-in analytics of each edition to determine which areas of the publication are most popular to inform future publishing efforts. By gaining deeper insight into open rates, popular articles, and statistics showing where the majority of time is spent by readers within the digital magazine, the publisher will continuing to improve editorial based on the needs of its subscribers.

Roland aims to publish quarterly, and is also looking toward introducing an Android version. Hopkins concludes, “Adobe Digital Publishing Suite provides a fast, fun, and effective way for us to reach our audience on tablets—where we know they spend an increasing amount of their time.”

Read more in the Customer Showcase PDF.

Today, SoDA (Society of Digital Agencies) released the SoDA Report on the iPad using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Formerly known as the Digital Marketing Outlook, The SoDA Report is released quarterly to an eager audience of tech-savvy digital strategists and marketers. SoDA is embracing the technology that its member agencies use in order to build the app. Creative and digital agencies are using Digital Publishing Suite to drive new client revenue at a higher margin, expand their skills, and provide innovative services to current clients.

Tony Quin, SoDA Board Chair and CEO of IQ, introduces the app in an embedded video, sharing the story of this thoughtfully crafted publication replete with insights for digital marketers. SoDA has a highly exclusive membership, and the content is written by some of the most influential thinkers in the industry.

SoDA’s mission is to provide education, advocacy, and best practices for digital agencies. Open up the app, and you’ll find a mix of consumer data, agency strategy, modern marketing trends, and tech talk.  Perusing the articles, I was intrigued by a case study on Occupy Wall Street’s viral communication strategy. I also loved the article on marketing technologies that, contrary to popular belief, aren’t dead. Learn more by reading SoDA’s press release, and then download The SoDA Report from the iTunes Store today!

ASOS, an online fashion and beauty retailer based in the UK, recently launched a digital edition of its popular ASOS Magazine to help expand its reach internationally. Using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Professional Edition, ASOS was able to leverage its existing print workflow based on Adobe InDesign to create a feature-rich, interactive digital edition.

Editorial and Design Director Duncan Edwards commented on how easy using Adobe software to bring its iconic ASOS Magazine to tablets saying, “We selected Adobe Digital Publishing Suite because it let us get into digital publishing quickly, without having to create our own app from the ground up.”

The free app features celebrities modeling the latest fashions, editorial content with a modern flair, and the ability to browse and add products to online shopping carts. ASOS is seeing positive results from its digital edition, with the average basket size for online orders placed through the app ringing in at approximately 30% higher than orders placed directly through the website.

ASOS also appreciates the ability to localize text for various audiences. But most important is the ability to build brand awareness and gain exposure among affluent consumers. In the coming year, ASOS hopes to double—or even triple—the number of app downloads. To learn more about ASOS and its use of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Professional Edition, click here: http://adobe.ly/HerBaT

To show off the value of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Adobe recently worked with Hybrid Design to create the internal DPS Sales Tool iPad app. The experience benefitted both Adobe and the agency. According to Dora Drimalas, principal at Hybrid Design, “Digital Publishing Suite opens the door to create all kinds of apps and services for our clients that drive merchandising, brand loyalty, customer acquisition, and more.”

Hybrid Design easily created the feature-rich app for Adobe in just four weeks using Adobe InDesign software. Apps developed with Digital Publishing Suite can increase merchandising, brand affinity, and boost conversions. Instead of passing around tablets to showcase apps that customers have created, Adobe can simply use its own app to demonstrate the interactive feature set.

The DPS Sales Tool app gives Adobe global sales teams immediate access to content that can be updated with ease. The app lets account managers engage with customers using Adobe’s own app as an example of a direct sales use case. It also enables sales professionals to showcase customer implementations, white papers, slideshows, and videos—which makes the presentations even more visually compelling. Using the app, Adobe can illustrate to customers how app content can be distributed behind a firewall for internal groups.

Integrated analytics within the DPS Sales Tool app also provide Adobe with a way to track usage and decided on future enhancements to the app. The company can see what salespeople are showing most, and determine which interactive features and sections are gaining the most traction. For example, analytics show that up to 80% of the account managers or solution consultants who downloaded the application spent up to 30 minutes per application visit and, 55% of monthly visitors leveraged the Digital Publishing Suite Pitch folio included in the application.

Lynly-Schambers-Lenox, group product marketing manager of Digital Publishing Suite at Adobe says, “We’ve experienced it ourselves: Adobe Digital Publishing Suite can empower enterprises and publishers in a vast number of useful and productive ways.”

• Learn more about the Adobe DPS Sales Tool app.