Adobe Facilitates Massive Growth in Digital Content

As a prelude to their attendance at the Mobile World Congress, Adobe released some interesting data from over 600 publishers and 1500 tablet applications about the usage of their digital publishing platform.  From the press release:

The anonymous, aggregate data is derived from publications delivered using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and shows shifts in reading patterns, willingness to pay for tablet applications, accelerated purchase funnel and advertising engagement. Tablets are driving new revenue for publishers as consumers pay for digital media content. Business publishers are also using tablet applications to drive awareness of their brands as well as the purchase of goods and services. Specific data points include:

• Sixty-eight percent of readers worldwide currently pay for digital magazines and newspapers built with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. This is made up of single issue purchases (15 percent), subscriptions (26 percent) and bundles of print and digital issues (27 percent).
• Readers are highly engaged with both editorial and advertising content. Every fifth page view in a Digital Publishing Suite magazine app is an advertisement. Interactivity, which includes Web views, videos, slide shows, audio clips, image sequences, hyperlinks and other overlays can also have a profound impact on a reader’s digital content consumption and engagement, with readers interacting with nearly half (48 percent) of all interactive features in Digital Publishing Suite apps. Out of the variety of interactive overlays included in applications, Web views and videos are the two types most frequently accessed by readers.
• Over half (56 percent) of readers spend between 25 minutes to 2.5 hours a month reading their digital titles. Time spent consuming content has increased 70 percent over the last six months, which can be attributed to more sophisticated and engaging content as well as the continued adoption of tablets. Consumers tend to open a Digital Publishing Suite application up to five times per month on average, and nine percent of readers spend more than five hours per month reading digital titles, which suggests that they are frequently engaging on a tablet with the brands they love.

“We saw 16 million digital publications downloaded over the last 12 months, with no signs of fatigue,” said Zeke Koch, senior director of product management, Digital Publishing, Adobe. “As digital issues grow significantly, Adobe will continue to fuel this evolution by providing innovative features that allow publishers and corporations worldwide to drive digital revenue, accelerated readership and purchase of content.”
Publishers like Rodale Inc. and Active Interest Media and companies like Sotheby’s have recently published magazine, merchandising and customer loyalty applications. Similarly, enterprises now have the opportunity to add digital content into their mobile marketing mix by creating a broad range of digital publications using Digital Publishing Suite, including sales and marketing collateral, corporate communications, as well as brand loyalty, customer acquisition and customer retention materials.