#Podcast – Apple Newsstand success stories: Future, Dennis and Conde Nast

This week Future Publishing, publisher of Total Film and Future Music, reported that it has made £5 million from sales of digital magazines via Newsstand, Apple’s app retail portal which launched last October.

Future was also named Digital Publisher of the Year for consumer media at Wednesday’s PPA digital awards, where Dennis Publishing’s The Week was named Digital Edition of the Year.

And also this week Conde Nast announced that it has sold half a million apps of Wired Magazine, Vanity Fair and GQ combined since the launch of Newsstand.

In this podcast Sarah Marshall, Journalism.co.uk’s technology editor speaks to:

• Mike Goldsmith, editor-in-chief, digital editions, Future Publishing
• Alex Watson, head of app development, Dennis Publishing
• Albert Read, deputy managing director, Conde Nast

They share success stories, including insight into the type of apps that Apple selects for the ‘featured story’ carousel, which can dramatically increase sales.

Podcast: Download

The podcast updates one from last November, a month after the launch of Apple’s Newsstand. Hear: How Apple’s Newsstand is revolutionising the publishing industry.

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

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#mms12: Apple Newsstand advice from Future Publishing and Dennis Publishing

It is almost a year since the launch of Apple’s Newsstand. After success stories for Future Publishing, which reported 6 million downloads in the first six weeks, and talk of it “revolutionising” the publishing industry, the question Mike Goldsmith, editor-in-chief, digital editions at Future Publishing, now gets asked is “how do I get on the Apple carousel?”

After Future’s success in regularly being featured in the carousel, publishers are keen to find out from Goldsmith how they too get in the ‘featured app list. Goldsmith shared his advice with delegates of today’s Mobile Media Strategies conference.

Another conference case study came from The Week, Dennis Publishing’s title which launched in 1995 and had an average monthly circulation of more than 190,000 in the first six months of 2012, according to recent Audit Bureau of Circulation results.

The Week’s iPad app has also been positioned by Apple in the ‘featured’ slot, and Alex Watson, head of apps at Dennis Publishing, also talked through lessons from the title which he said is reporting that digital subscriptions are growing by 10 per cent per month.

Lessons from Future Publishing

Mike Goldsmith’s main piece of advice is to “publish a good product”.

“Make something amazing,” he said. “This is the factor that will get your magazine featured in Apple’s carousel”. He pointed out that the ‘featured apps’ slot is not the reserve of large brands and smaller publishers can take the slots.

He also advised publishers to “get your support sorted out before launch”, explaining that they could expect to receive thousands of emails from readers so to put systems in place to respond to the customers who will contact them.

He also urged publishers to “know your customers” and study the analytics. And “remember you are selling a product”, he said, and therefore work on the cover of your app.

Goldsmith also advocated “telling manufacturers about your app”. He advised building a relationship with Apple (and Amazon and Google).

Lesson from The Week

Building relationships is something Dennis Publishing did when designing and building The Week’s app, showing Apple the product and listening to feedback, Alex Watson explained.

Watson said that they decided not to opt for a PDF-type replica of the magazine.

The app is “native in terms of way the user gets it” from the App Store, Watson explained, and uses HTML5 technologies to help focus on the user experience.

The technology keeps the file size of the app down to just 15 to 20Mb, giving the user experience of a fast download speed.

The Week also built in another feature, as the publisher knew its readers would opt for iPad app bedtime reading, which was a “night-mode” option with the bright back lighting dulled.

For more from Watson listen to the following interview:

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