Apple’s Newsstand is going to do for the publishing industry what iTunes did for the music industry. How much of a game changer? The week Newsstand was launched, electronic subscriptions to The New York Times increased seven times. I love my iPad, and have already realized that I will subscribe to more magazines having it. I stopped so many subscriptions over the years as I became buried under past issues, some of course, not read. No more guilt of recycling so much paper and ink – even if it is soy-based!
So why should a nonprofit take notice? One company has launched a publishing app that offers an incredibly inexpensive way to publish newsletters and journals electronically. PubsReplica offers professional associations and other nonprofit corporations the opportunity to publish in digital print replica format for a flat rate of $250.00 per issue. They say: “There is no set-up, hosting or other hidden fee. Alternatively, you can choose to publish your magazine for 15 cents per download. Again, there would be no other fees. It is completely up to you which price model you would like to adopt. We can accommodate traditional, members-only or free subscription models.”
The savings for national organizations may seem obvious, but consider the benefits to smaller, more local organizations. An electronic newsletter can reach more potential donors than the current methods that most organizations use: donate and then we start mailing to you and report past activity. How many organizations could market themselves far more effectively be providing rich content that does not get lost with other mail circulars? Emailed newsletters limit content and even the best email service cannot ensure that email is opened when most people’s email boxes are overwhelmed.
Sponsors could be treated as featured advertisers with embedded links to their websites, offering a measurement that corporate donors would appreciate. The newsletter can shift from a pretty tame donor communication to an effective stewardship tool to engage leading donors. Or this app can open up the possibility to create an entirely new publication. PubsReplica provides a sample publication, the Utah State Bar Journal.
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