New business mag launches digitally

4 Nov 2008

Mark is a new digital business magazine about people that has been launched on the back of marketing blog MarkLives.com. “Both the digital magazine and the blog works towards refocusing business attention on the importance of building relationships with people,” comments Herman Manson, long-time marketing and Internet journalist and editor of the new title.

“Building business organisations are no longer simply about building brand equity and loyalty - it's about building customer equity.”

Manson was the founder of popular media site media.toolbox and was, until recently, the publisher of the multi-award winning Brand magazine. Mandy de Waal joins the title as contributing editor. Art direction is managed by Candice Turvey.

Explore new platforms

MarkLives.com features South Africa's best creative talent and breaking marketing campaigns. Using social media services such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, the blog and digital magazine aim to explore new platforms to reach its core audience.

Mark, which will appear five times a year, is set to push the envelope on several fronts. First, the title uses software that allows for magazines to be published online in traditional formats. Using a browser, readers will page through the magazine on their computer screens as they would page through a printed title. While reportedly well-established in the US and elsewhere, the technology is relatively new in South Africa.

“Our research indicates that South African B2B audiences are ready for digital magazines - only about 4% of our blog readers don't access us via broadband,” notes Manson.

Turvey, meanwhile, designed the book to create a new magazine reading experience for magazine lovers. The focus has been on maximising readability and bringing in innovative features such as a mind map to replace the regular content page.

“Turbulent time”

“It's a turbulent time for the magazine industry with titles closing left, right and centre,” says Manson on the timing of the new launch. “But technology is a great enabler. Publishers agree this is the future of media - we are simply amongst the first [to] fully embrace it in this country.”

The 2008 Digital Magazine Reader Survey released in May this year and endorsed by the BPA found that digital magazine reader satisfaction rates stand at 89%. Over 61% of readers of digital magazines have read three or four of the last four issues, comparable to the rate for a typical print reader.

The launch issue of Mark explores the many facets of business identity, including the impact the emerging market is having on defining business identity, what influences people's perception of your CI and issues around employee branding.

For more, go to http://mark.marklives.com, http://twitter.com/marklives and www.youtube.com/user/marklivescom.