Web2.0 Analysis
This is my Web2.0 Analysis for my Online Magazines course. I’ve chosen three magazine websites to review.
The online version of Vogue offers a “Style File” blog that user-readers can comment on. The purpose of the blog is to offer the user-reader bonus content that provokes discussion and doesn’t appear in the print version of the magazine. It also encourages the user-reader’s active engagement with Vogue, creating a strong read-write culture for the magazine. By following the blog regularly and commenting on the posts, user-readers feel like they are contributing to the shape of the magazine’s personality as well as dialoguing with other user-readers with similar interests and opinions. In turn, this benefits publishers, editors, marketers, and advertisers because social participatory tools can potentially strengthen the user-reader’s sense of identification with and loyalty to the magazine’s brand.
Style.com provides bookmarking tools for yahoo!buzz, digg, reddit, stumbleupon, facebook, myspace, and del.icio.us. There is also an RSS feed option, including videos and forums, and even mobile alert services. By taking advantage of these tools, user-readers can easily keep up with new content and integrate Vogue quickly and conveniently into their busy schedules, no matter where they are. User-readers create more value for themselves by being able to customize the magazine’s content to best fit their needs and wants. Publishers, editors, marketers, and advertisers might all be able to learn crucial information about who their user-readers are and what they want from the publication because the bookmarking tools and RSS feeds can track trends in content popularity.
Salon, an online news magazine, offers some truly exemplary Web2.0 tools and services. Aside from bookmarking and RSS options, the website provides a public beta feature called Open Salon, a social content site that allows members to set up a blog and interact with other user-readers. According to the description on their website, the home page for Open Salon “functions like a real-time magazine cover,” spotlighting the best member-generated content. Their tagline is “You make the headlines.” Salon is creating the ultimate user-reader by giving them an equal share of creative power, which sends a message to the user-reader that the publication values their opinions and experiences. They can become an integral, rather than just a peripheral, part of the magazine.
With these social participatory features, the Salon brand is telling its user-readers that inclusivity and collaboration are its top priorities. This message could benefit publishers, editors, marketers, and advertisers if user-readers make Open Salon their home base for sharing information. A vast community of user-readers directing and investing in the content of the magazine will only strengthen the Salon experience by ensuring its continued relevance and success. In turn, if Salon and Open Salon becomes popular online hangouts, the high traffic exchange of ideas will draw advertising dollars to the website, allowing the company to expand.
The online version of The Walrus also offers customizable RSS feed options as well as bookmarking tools to post articles and videos to your blog or social networking websites. Again, the user-reader benefits from these tools by being able to receive instant news updates, thereby staying informed in an efficient and accessible manner. User-readers can tailor the magazine’s content to fit their lives. Publishers, editors, marketers, and advertisers may also benefit by collecting statistical feedback from these Web2.0 services regarding what kinds of stories are the most in demand. In turn, they will be able to shape future articles and advertisements according to the typical user-reader’s interests.
The Walrus website also features over 30 bloggers who provide extra content for the online magazine, much quicker than they would be able to do in a monthly print publication. The blogs update the magazine’s content, making it that much more relevant to the user-read who is depending on the website to keep them clued-in to what’s going on in the news. Podcasts, which user-readers can subscribe to via iTunes, are another interesting Web2.0 feature that the online Walrus offers. Again, this service makes information that much more portable and accessible to the user-reader. In particular, iTunes benefits from the podcasts because of the added traffic they gain for their store, potentially increasing sales.
the rain in spain falls mainly on the plain.
lauramag
February 2, 2009