Starting a magazine resources for ISSN registration:

What is an ISSN Number?

ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an intergovernmental organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, the ISDS Register (International Serials Data System) otherwise known as the ISSN Register. source: en.wikipedia.org

Digital Publication (Online Serials) ISSN Assignment:

ISSN are assigned to electronic publications as far as they are serials or other continuing resources. However commercial web sites, personal weblogs and web pages, web pages which contain only links to other URLs are not eligible for ISSN. For more information, click here. source: Centre International de l’ISSN FRANCE

U.S. ISSN Center

The U.S. ISSN Center, part of the international ISSN Network, assigns International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN) to serials published in the U.S. The ISSN is a standard identifier for serials (e.g., journals, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, annuals) whether published in print, online or other media. Each medium version is assigned a separate ISSN. see http://www.loc.gov/issn/

 

How to obtain an ISSN number in the United States – ISSN Application

There is no cost to obtain an ISSN number is the US.  Complete the ISSN Application

An ISSN application may be completed online. Enter the required information and then email or fax the form (in the interests of conserving paper and bandwidth, please limit faxes or email attachments to no more than five pages), or mail the application by U.S. mail or private carrier. A suitable representation of the publication must accompany the application. For print serials a sample issue or photocopy of the title page, cover, or masthead should be provided. For electronic serials in a tangible form such as CD-ROM or floppy disk, an actual issue and printouts of title screens should be submitted. For online serials, provide an appropriate URL or e-mail actual issues or mock-ups which will accompany the application form to issn@loc.gov. source: www.loc.gov/issn

 

More Startup Resources:

Magazine Website CMS Software

Magazine Design

Magazine Launches

Yahoo has launched Livestand, the digital newsstand for publications.  The platform offers advertisers a dynamic digital media ads – Yahoo Living Ads.

http://www.yahoolivingads.com

Digital magazine newsstand are already giving us the feel and simplicity of accessing new magazines online or via app store channels. This process will continue to evolve as existing digital publishing vendors provides newsstand stores for accessing free and paid mobile and tablet magazine editions.

Zinio has always been a leader in the presentation of an online digital newsstand and app store newsstand. And a few of the major digital magazine edition production solutions have launched online digital magazine newsstands:

Zinio – The Zinio digital magazine newsstand for desktop-pc/mac and iPhone, iPad, Andriod reader apps makes this one of the most accessible digital newsstands available. An elegant preview capability in the reader apps plus the special magazine offers and previews make this app and newsstand a top leader.

Coverleaf – The Coverleaf digital newsstand is focused on presentation of digital magazines and allows the publisher participants to sell access. The Coverleaf Newsstand is a service of Texterity and features their clients on this newsstand platform.

Nxtstand – Nxtbook media launched a newsstand branded into their own digital magazine edition solution marketing site with again the titles or publishers producing issues within their digital publishing platform.

Qmags – Qmags newsstand and digital edition service actually launched with a focus of presenting the digital newsstand as a worldwide digital magazine newsstand but again is focused on clients of the Qmags service.

MagApps – This site was launched to focus on the core new magazine apps and tablet editions and is open for all new apps. The site will be transitioned shortly into a publisher open newsstand but again is focused on magazine apps and not all digital magazine channels.

Here’s a look at what your digital newsstand of the future will look like in the future – or probably just around the corner. I’d expect that the major magazine publisher groups will scramble to get their branded kiosks in major traditional magazine and newspaper newsstand locations in the very near future.

Cynergy – software development

More on my focus of Open Magazine Newsstands Digital Magazine Newsstands

Adobe invites designers to register for the prerelease program.

Digital publishing software for designers and production teams

As a participant in the Digital Publishing Suite prerelease program you will receive frequent updates to the Digital Publishing Suite and the ability to publish and sell branded commercial applications on the Apple App Store. By joining the prerelease program you can stay up-to-date on this exciting digital publishing solution for tablet devices.

Using the Digital Publishing Suite, professional publishers can design and deploy engaging reading experiences across mobile devices and marketplaces.

This beta release of the Digital Publishing Suite supports creation, preview and sharing of digital magazines like WIRED Reader, The New Yorker, iGizmo and Sabado Bicentenario on the Apple iPad through an Adobe branded viewer.  Adobe Site

We recently posted about magazine website CMS software.  Here’s a summary and some point on the key Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal CMS open source tools that can be used by magazine publishers.

Many of the magazine publisher CMS (content management systems) we select today are based on open source publisher web cms software. WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal open source magazine CMS software solutions have reached a level of publishing industry adoption that it’s not hard to find one of these platfoms in every magazine niche. While open source web content management systems contain “no cost” for the CMS software itself, it’s important to understand that there are still costs associated with the planning, design, development, and deployment of OS powered magazine websites. Open source solutions must also be managed, hosted and maintained.

WordPress Magazine CMS Software – WordPress as a Magazine CMS – Using wordpress for a magazine website provides a low cost and quick setup option. The design can visually rival any modern magazine website but has much fewer customizations and capabilities for meeting typical web based magazine revenue objectives.

Joomla Magazine CMS Software – Joomla as a Magazine CMS – Joomla magazine websites are a comfortable medium between the simplicity of WordPress and the extreme capabilities available in the Drupal based magazine CMS. Joomla is excellent for publishers with multiple staff members who will interact with the publication website content and can handle most of the readership and advertising functions required to balance out the publisher emedia offerings.
Drupal Magazine CMS Software – Drupal as a Magazine CMS – Drupal is the most popular magazine CMS for the $20,000+ budgeted magazine re-design and development project. The custom capabilities allow for complete control of the block elements of each page and magazine content category. Technical functionality items are no longer limitations in the Drupal magazine CMS solution.

Magazine CMS Software Post

Magazine tablet editions wil be in high demand during the next few years.  Here’s a nice resources to stay on top of the top tablet devices that are worth considering for your magazine app and magazine tablet editions.

2010 was supposed to be the Year of the Tablet. That did not really happen — the flood of product was reduced to a trickle, as many manufacturers awaited a more tablet-friendly operating system from Google. So, once more, with feeling: 2011 will be the Year of the Tablet. Several new models have either been released, or are in a very advanced state of preview. This interactive guide can help sort through the latest offerings. Use the checkbox at the top of each listing to select it for comparison. And check back frequently — this page will be updated as new information or models are released.

via Tablets, Compared – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com.

Magazine advertising drives our industry.  The creativity of magazine ads and their delivery to the right audience is what makes the magazine such a great advertising channel.

And with many magazine digital and tablet editions in store for this year, we can only image what the next year of interactive advertising may bring to the magazine publishing industry.

MPA Announces the Best Magazine Advertising - Campaigns of the Year

via Magazine Publishers of America – Outstanding Magazine Ads – 2010 Kelly Awards Finalists.

I like the name.  The Slate sounds good too.  But it’s just what all the “book and newsprint” e-readers are missing that has me scratching my head.  Sure, digital magazine editions are a bit hard to curl up with or throw into a day bag but they do present color and multimedia.

Ask any iPhone user and they will tell you that they are now able to easily surf browser versions of web pages with their phone.  Give me a little larger screen and typing on a glass keyboard might actually be a reality.  A virtual drive is about the only other missing link and I’d be connected 24-7.  Now I did try the mini for a while as an at home casual workstation but the small keyboard and limited features pushed me to either the faster iPhone or back to the laptop for getting things done.  And yes, in many ways, the iPhone could be a faster tool for social media management.

Back to the Skiff.  I just don’t know how brands that are set to innovate on a quarterly basis will keep up with Apple or even the tablet competitors which we can expect to come on fast and strong.

The Skiff Reader will try to distinguish itself from the Kindle, nook, Sony eReader, QUE and other e-ink devices with size and portability. The 9 x 11-inch unit will hold an 11.5-inch (measured diagonally) display, which does out-size the large Kindle DX and the Plastic Logic QUE

via Hearst Reveals Skiff E-Reader :: MinOnline.

I welcome the eReader innovations.  Please remember the magazines if you are creating the next news and information reader.  The current readers and 16 shades of gray just don’t support the colorful and dynamic capabilities that are part of the publisher upgrade plan this year.

Digital magazine apps and editions will evolve rapidly.  We expect new features and sharing capabilities as well as some healthy competition from the digital platforms.  Share is the essence of circulation and viral growth of any brand, and most especially magazines.  If a magazine, book, blog, news site does not have something worth sharing it may also lack content worth bookmarking or saving, or even reading.

Paid content walls and barriers to sharing provide short term revenue and long term brand destruction costs as a strategy for most publishers.  It does take a lesson or two on the value of both viral marketing and cost of traffic to understand that the reader is valuable, especially for the advertising driven publication.  And don’t we want advertisers to fund the magazine?

For both consumer and trade magazines I find the advertising of equal value to the content. Magazine apps can also provide magazine advertiser value in digital formats. We must think beyond traditional web banner ads. We must also consider the magazine apps sharing capabilities that relates in realtime (as a shared tweet) to other people receiving the share that aren’t on mobile application platforms and can link directly to the shared magazine website or digital edition. Of course, this means that publishers must include magazine application social sharing capabilities when developing their magazine apps for the iPhone and Andriod mobile platforms.

There are magazines that have strong content value with subscription price points that can maintain must-have-it readers. For these publishers, it is completely understandable that they protect their digital content.

For other publishers, I recommend you find ways to share your content and track the benefits of real people consuming and sharing your content and advertising messages.

I have included some digital magazine embeds below.

In 2010 we will see more magazine apps, digital magazines, magazine widgets, and other unique ways to connect with the visual communication advantages of the magazine brand and it’s ability to carry and advertising message.

MagApps.com – Magazine Apps Directory

I received my Google Wave invite from a new twitter pal (thanks again Alice @aliceinthewater http://twitter.com/Davorado/status/5576326179) and can see that it’s probably going to help bridge people to a new method of communicating.  Not that I think it will eliminate email the way we know it today.  At least not for another 5 years.  But, it strongly supports the social networking models, streams, and posting that we are growing familiar with in most social platforms.

It will be very interesting to see how the Wave is received and what new products (widgets) are created to add more value to the Google platform.  I can already see that I’ll use it for anything internal for my company to eliminate the email mess.  Maybe this process will force in some outside participants to adopt the tool in a similar way that critical mass fueled the adoption of the fax machine.

I hope!