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Different strategies used by magazines who are adapting to the mobile era:
Magazines are moving from the tangible print medium to the virtual space of the online world. Web 2.0 means interactivity: information sharing, collaboration and user-centred design. Users can interact, share and collaborate with each other, creating a virtual community through social media dialogue and creating user-generated content. This is the space in which we live and increasingly, other industries are moving into this realm. Indeed, the proliferation of blogs and social networks have forced print media to hop on the band wagon to keep up with the changing times and their changing audiences. This means moving online. And with a change of scenery, comes a change in mindset.
Magazines moving online need to keep engaging with their audiences. Engagement includes keeping a continuous flow of communication, interactive components embedded in the magazine and links to their other social network accounts. This way, audiences have a wide range of options when wanting to communicate with their favourite magazine.
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube are just some of the options that can be included within online magazines. People can like a certain article or the whole magazine. They can follow magazines on Twitter and retweet their articles. Pinterest can provide audiences with images that are directly or indirectly related; pinned images can extend the feel, atmosphere and design that the magazine may be trying to convey. Youtube can give audiences a behind-the-scenes look on various published articles. And users can of course, comment, debate, like and share these articles, images and videos from the very inside of the virtual magazine (or they can be redirected to these accounts from links within the magazine).
Increasingly, however is the trend for online articles to be shorter. Indeed, mobile browsers are slower to download content and the screen size is much smaller. This has resulted in articles becoming shorter in length with less images. Navigation needs to be simple. A user cannot simply turn to any page like in physical magazines, but rather will click on an article that interests them or click the next button to take them to the next page. Other stories that have a similar theme could be suggested at the end of the article to the user so that a continuous click through is created. This applies to both mobi and desktop users, however desktop magazine users will have extra features that mobi users would not have.
Online magazines also allow users the ability to create their own accounts. Users can save their favourite stories or it can even be used as part of a classified section where their online personal details can act as a CV for employers seeking potential employees. Online magazines are also more accessible to the visually impaired through the implementation of the zoom function. On a similar vein, with the increasingly popularity of fluid and flexible designs through the implementation of media queries, online magazines can be viewed on multiple devices: you can carry your magazine on your phone, tablet or computer. The size of a glossy paper magazine is no longer restricted in size. You can now carry your magazine in tiniest of bags and importantly, the content is also updating with the latest news. The immediacy, interactivity, fluidity and flexibly are important goals to have in mind when developing various strategies for online mobi magazines.
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