As technology continues to change the way in which readers consume magazine content, it is becoming increasingly important that magazine publishers find ways of creating new revenue streams not just from newly-published issues, but also but utilising their back catalogues of content.
The demand for historical magazine content has been growing in the academic world; complete digital magazine archives with an educational relevance is increasingly valuable to institutions worldwide.
Publishers are able to meet this demand through the Exact Editions platform, which specialises in digitising and selling archival content. Over a third of magazines hosted on the Exact Editions platform have complete and fully searchable archives that have proven to be popular in both consumer and library markets, as they offers readers a full picture of a magazine’s history.
Exact Editions has deep technical expertise in assisting publishers with digitising their content and recognises some of the challenges that require overcoming to complete a magazine archive, as well providing solutions.
Some of the challenges publishers may encounter include:
- Cost of time
Digitisation can be a very labour-intensive process dependent on the size of a magazine archive. It may involve auditing existing digital files, or sourcing and scanning of print copies.
Solution: Exact Editions manages the bulk of the process and works on behalf of the publisher to database their digital files or liaise with a scanning company to scan and create the digital images along with adding the necessary metadata and OCR processing in order for them to be made usable and readable on its digital platform.
2. Uncertainty about state of digital files
Publishers may have scanned their magazine archive at a previous time and left the digital files on a hard drive or saved on a computer. After enough time has passed along with personnel changes, they may not be immediately be aware of the state of their files, have problems accessing an audit or possibly even have lost an audit and therefore become uncertain about what they have at hand that is usable.
Solution: Exact Editions can offer to review samples of digital files of a magazine and provide bespoke project management in ensuring the files are usable for its digital platform. While primarily working with PDFs, Exact Editions can review other digital files and provide digital solutions such as applying conversions, uncompressing files, text extraction, cropping files, splitting spreads, where possible. Exact Editions can also offer a full and updated audit of a full magazine archive that has been processed through its platform.
3. Lack of physical copies
Physical storage of hard copies of magazines can become a costly process over a long enough length of time and bring about several issues. Magazine issues can get lost, be taken out on loan and not returned, turn mouldy, mildewy or torn depending on where they are stored, or become stored in a less organised manner over time making it difficult to identify where there are gaps or if a complete set is currently stored.
Solution: Exact Editions understands that publishers may sometimes feel reticent regarding destructively scanning and thereby losing their hard copies of magazines. Non-destructive scanning can be an option and whilst an exception might be made for strictly rare issues of a magazine, a better and faster result will usually be achieved if a full run of back issues is sacrificed for the digital archive. Overall, a digital archive has the benefit of eliminating the need for physical storage space and the associated costs of maintaining and managing any kinds of paper-based records.
4. Limited access to content
Physical storage of hard copies of magazines may be tied up in libraries which a publisher is unable to access. Similarly, publishers may have legacy deals with other digital providers with their digital magazine archives that means that they cannot make any decisions until those deals expire.
Solution: While Exact Editions cannot intervene in such issues such as legacy archive deals, the company has a great of experience in liaising with clients with similar concerns in the past and can offer practical suggestions in how best to monetise their magazine content. Exact Editions may, where possible, liaise with libraries where magazine archives are stored to arranging scanning if possible, either in-house or at a scanning facility.
5. Existing digital archive is not user-friendly
Publishers might currently be sharing their magazine archive in a multitude of ways from using an external digital provider to advertising their magazine archive on their own site page. They may share the entirety of a magazine archive behind a login or publically to anyone who goes on their website. They may also share specific article content or archived issues as downloadable PDFs that may not be user-friendly or easy to search.
Solution: The Exact Editions digital platform sells fully searchable growing or complete archives of magazines to institutional or individual users. With an advanced search function enabling a search of any keywords, readers can easily navigate an archive through the Exact Editions user-friendly stacking interface that digitally stacks back issues in order of years and decades from the most recent issue published to the oldest issue offered on the platform. Issues can be synced for offline reading and new issue notifications alert readers to the availability of the next available new issue.
About Us
Exact Editions is the premium magazine platform for readers, libraries, and publishers. We specialise in creating, selling and streaming fully-searchable access to archival and ongoing digital editions, and work with household names including The Times Literary Supplement, DAZED, and The Spectator.
Sign up for the ‘Exact Edition’ newsletter here for a handily compiled list of articles from the digital publishing industry’s most trusted sources straight to your inbox.
Digital subscriptions are all available for individuals from the Exact Editions shop and for institutions from the Exact Editions institutional shop. Click here to request a free institutional trial to a wide range of digital magazines.”