Magazine printer Manson is introducing its publisher customers to Digital Harmony as a service for magazines to appear in digital format for reading via a smart phone.
The St Albans printer has linked with software house Touch Tree Technology to develop the service which goes beyond a simple floppy pages version of a publication.
National sales manager Chris Ferrari-Wills says: “After considerable research we have chosen Touch Tree Technology as our digital partner as we believe their platform offers our print clients unrivalled value, support and bespoke options to increase revenue and subscriptions. Affordable, intuitive and built specifically to work alongside print, we believe this digital platform will help publishers enhance engagement while preserving the integrity of their printed editions.”
Touch Tree is an Anglo-Dutch business that is a subsidiary of media distribution and subscriptions company DLT Media from Leatherhead. It uses what is known as a Progressive Web App, which avoids the need to use the revenue sharing model of the various App stores. Start up costs are also lower than building a dedicated App.
The technology includes tools to build recurring revenue, expand readership, increase interactions and enhance data collection without the need to head to an App Store. A publisher can make back issues available on the platform as there is no limit to the archive capacity.
The technology works through a web browser, the magazine being presented in html5 rather than as a PDF. The conversion from one format to the other being automated.
This open approach means it works well on Apple iOS and Android phones and on desktops. The browser will also support interactivity including text to speech conversions and support for non text based media, podcasts, video and image galleries included. This applies to back issues as well as to forthcoming publications.
There are further connections to subscription applications. And respect for existing paywalls to link website visitors back to an on paper product.
The software will also kick out analytical data, such as page views, dwell times and click rate numbers.
