Sarah Clegg, MD, John Menzies Digital
John Menzies Digital is currently based in a quiet west London terrace, but the five-strong team, headed by MD Sarah Clegg, will soon be moved to more familiar magazine territory - round the corner from Dennis publishing.

Dennis is part of the reason that the digital publishing industry and more specifically, John Menzies Digital - which runs Menzies' Magazines On Demand service and reader software and offers digital editions of 140 magazine titles - find themselves in the position they're in today, Sarah Clegg tells Journalism.co.uk.

"While Monkey had a great effect on the digital space it has kind of been a double-edged sword. NatMags rushed into the Jellyfish launch, which failed dismally. It was rushed and there was huge excitement, because of Monkey magazine, but it did encourage people to jump on that bandwagon and perhaps not consider what would work and could work in their space," Clegg says.

"There are so many factors that fitted very well for Dennis that you couldn't just lift up and put into another publisher."

Dennis knew it couldn't compete in the print space with titles like Zoo and Nuts, so came up with a well-resourced, viable proposition for digital, she explains.

Many publishers have had their fingers burnt when it comes to launching digital magazines - putting them off new launches, she says.

"I haven't ever understood why publishers haven't adopted it but there has been resistance in the past. I don't think it's been helped by the huge number of digital edition providers who have flooded the market, many of which don't understand what they're talking about, don't understand the publishing model and haven't embraced it in the way that we have," says Clegg.

"There's been a lot of people who've crashed and burned through that and withdrawn. Unfortunately people remember that and not the successes."

But attitudes to digital editions have changed hugely - for the better - in the last year, says Clegg, citing John Menzies' recent deal with the Telegraph and NatMags.

Publishers are slowly realising that digital editions are not an attempt to replace print magazines, which is helping to remove 'the fear factor'.

"There's a recognition now that print is in decline and we're not going to accelerate that - if anything we're going to offer an alternative, an opportunity for the huge investment the publishers put into the great magazines we have in this country, the great editorial we produce and the great brands we have, to be extended onto another platform to reach the consumer," she says.

"There's a realisation that saying no isn't going to achieve anything. Putting the barriers up and protecting what has traditionally been the market isn't going to allow any future expansion and profitability. They have to open up."

While individuals in the magazine industry have been innovating digitally, this acceptance is now coming from the 'boardroom level - where it needs to come from, says Clegg.

According to Clegg, working digital editions into the business and production model of a publisher is crucial to removing the stigma that is often attached to them.

Menzies asks what 'success' means in terms for each publisher and considers that this could differ from the traditional measurement of success - volume of downloads.

Digital editions are different from magazine websites, Clegg says, but they work alongside the sites and print editions.

"I think that there's a place for everything and I think magazines are in decline but that will stop and you'll get almost like a premium purchase, but you might buy 10 more digital editions. I think we have an opportunity to increase reach or spend for digital magazines that print is not offering right now," she says, adding that business titles such as the Economist and Spectator would be top of her wishlist.

The same goes for advertising opportunities around digital editions. Links from ads to the clients website in the digital versions is just a starting point, but publishers can also use them to bolster their media packs and increase the package they are offering to advertisers, says Clegg.

"Publishers need to use it so the advertisers get used to it, so that when the market bursts they're ready," she says.

"There is an opportunity to be had instead of waiting for that critical mass. It's about let's take a chance, let's be a bit more dynamic, rather than we've not got 10,000 copies yet - there's lot more we can do."

Clegg isn't in a rush: she knows the industry needs time to adapt, but will help encourage it to do so.

John Menzies is very interested in e-paper, but innovations like this are 18-20 months away from being ready, she says.

Similarly, the company is looking at the development of rich media and the pre-loading of magazine reader content onto devices, but these developments must be carefully planned, Clegg says.

"Publishers have to think that they are creating to sell in digital not just print. At the moment we're simply taking PDFs and replicating them. If you start shoving rich media in it is shoved in and it needs to be thought out, by the editor, by the publisher, as to how this will work in digital."

Menzies has itself not waited to reach 'critical mass' - 85,000 paid-for downloads have been made of its 140 titles to date, though sales are growing between 20-30 per cent a week.

"We're not in profit yet. We didn't anticipate we'd be in profit yet, this is a long-term business plan. It doesn't mean we're not doing well, we are where we should be and I think the next 18 months is crucial for our business development," says Clegg.

"It's a three to five year plan. We've got a lot of educating to do and it's an emerging platform, but I think we are seeing the turning point now. We've never had a week where we've declined."

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).