Cantarus - Digital Publications for Associations

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Digital content choices for membership bodies

Rethinking traditional publications in a digital context

Digital content has become the norm for most readers, with reading now done predominantly in digital platforms – eBooks, websites, apps, blogs, email, and more. Unlike traditional print, digital publications can incorporate multimedia elements like video, audio, and interactive graphics, to enhance the reader’s experience. Digital publications are also optimised for multiple devices – desktop, tablet and mobile – ensuring members can access content anytime, anywhere.

Declining, not dying

The shift from print to digital has been steady within non-profits and membership organisations. Traditional print media firms in the US are witnessing a decline; periodical publishing revenue (from things like medical and scientific journals or scholastic magazines) has dropped from an estimated $40.2 billion in 2002, to almost half, $26.91 billion by 2021.

While this decline in revenue correlates with the rise of digital options, the enduring appeal of print media means it isn't going to disappear. However, demand for digital publications is growing steadily, with a projected annual growth rate of 3% from 2022 to 2028, according to a report by Grand View Research. This trend presents new opportunities for non-profit and associations to explore.

So, while print isn’t dead, its decline is driven by shifting user preferences. Digital content offers more flexibility, efficiency, and engagement – allowing organisations to provide richer experiences and reach wider audiences.

The problems with print

The printing industry is well aware of the challenges it faces, but despite significant efforts to mitigate its impact, there are certain limitations to how much can be done.

Environmental impact: Print production significantly impacts the environment due to the use of raw materials, energy consumption in manufacturing, printing chemicals, packaging, transport, and disposal.
High costs and inflexibility: Print production is often expensive and inflexible, making it difficult to update or modify content quickly.
Accessibility issues:Print doesn’t support assistive features like adjustable text sizes or audio descriptions, making it difficult for many individuals to consume content.
Lack of personalisation: Print cannot offer personalised, recommended content or language-switching options, which are vital for engaging diverse audiences.
Lack of analytics: Measuring engagement with print media is challenging. Unlike digital, print offers little to no insight into reader habits.
Difficult searchability: Finding specific content in past print issues can be tedious and time-consuming.
Limited sharing and interaction: Print is a one-way medium. Readers can’t easily share, comment, or engage in discussions about the content.

However, a complete shift to digital isn’t necessary. Associations can empower members by offering a choice between print and digital formats. This approach respects the diverse preferences of all demographics, ensuring every member’s needs are met, while also demonstrating progress toward sustainability and cost efficiency – addressing the priorities of both environmentally conscious and cost-aware stakeholders.

Benefits of digital publications for member engagement

Digital delivery is the most effective way to enhance member engagement. Unlike print, digital platforms enable two-way interaction, giving members multiple ways to connect with your organisation. With digital, you can take the high-quality content from your printed publications and weave this into your wider content ecosystem.

Member magazines, peer-reviewed journals, and other periodicals are both valuable member benefits and significant revenue drivers. Digitising these publications opens the door to new possibilities – increasing member satisfaction and retention, while driving down costs and opening new revenue streams.

There are many benefits to moving forward with digital solutions, but finding the right approach will differ from organisation to organisation.

Revenue opportunities

Better search visibility: Digital content is easier to find online, and much more effective for marketing. Publishing article summaries in search results can attract more visitors to your site, leading to increased memberships and content sales.
Flexible pricing: Rather than restricting access to annual subscriptions or memberships, digital platforms allow you to sell individual articles or issues, catering to diverse audience needs.
Monetising historic content: Older content is often valuable and a source of untapped potential revenue. AI-powered search can transform archives into a dynamic resource, offering topic-based summaries with citations to the sources.
CPD integration: Repurpose magazine content to support Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses, maximising its value.

Improved member experience

Easy access and inclusion: A unified digital platform allows members to search and access content seamlessly across devices and access points such as email.
Better accessibility: Digital formats support assistive technologies, making content more inclusive for those with different physical or cognitive needs.
Global reach: Browser-based translation tools extend your content to reach international audiences in their native languages.
Personalisation: Digital platforms generate detailed insights into reader preferences, allowing for tailored content recommendations.

Enhanced content and engagement

Dynamic content: Digitisation enables the addition of videos, podcasts, animations, and interactive elements.
Community engagement: Online community platforms foster discussions between members and authors, increasing engagement and collaboration.  
Stronger brand integration: Digital platforms maintain the unique identity of member publications, while integrating them within your organisation’s broader digital ecosystem.

Cost and flexibility

Lower costs: Digital publishing reduces long-term costs, though initial investments may be required. This can include upgrading content access platforms, reformatting materials, and integrating with eCommerce solutions.
Gradual adoption: Transitioning to digital doesn’t have to be immediate. The launch strategy can include offering digital as an option to drive down the print run and facilitate a gradual, member-friendly shift.

Mobile app benefits for associations

Mobile apps bring together multiple back-office systems into a single, unified front-end experience that is convenient, updated instantly, and always accessible while providing additional functionalities that are simply not possible with print.

Apps provide specific advantages in facilitating push notifications, prioritising content based on user interactions, and mixing richer experiences beyond text with videos, audio, and engagement options such as likes and polls.

A great example of this in practice is the Royal College of Psychiatrists BJPsych Journals app, an exclusive member benefit which brings all their journals, podcasts, and videos into one place. The app, powered by the Cantarus MemConnect platform, offers a range of features, including access to the most recent journal issues, personalisation, and the ability to save articles for offline reading where internet connectivity is unavailable. It also boasts strong accessibility features for text size adjustments, and light/dark modes.

Web and online digital publications

Digital publications aren't just limited to apps – they can also be web-based. Old-style page-turner experiences are no longer among the most compelling options:

News-centred online publications: These often contain densely packed content with multimedia elements and short-form articles.
Mixed-style online publications: These generally offer a more balanced image-to-text ratio with a cleaner, less cluttered layout.
Magazine-style online publications: These are image and video-heavy, offering a more immersive reading experience.

The caveats

While digital publications offer numerous benefits, some readers still prefer the centuries-old art of print. Additionally, digital publications have their own environmental impact, from power consumption to data storage. However, digital distribution remains far more efficient than print in the long run.

Undeniably, the ability to offer richer content, diverse user experiences, and additional functionalities, makes the transition to digital well worth considering.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital publications

While AI has been held up as the solution to many of life's challenges, its benefits for publishers and subscribers are substantial and immediately available.

Traditionally, understanding the evolution of a technology trend required extensive research and analysis. AI streamlines this process by indexing vast amounts of digital content, analysing it, and summarising key points efficiently. This has the potential to reduce hours of manual effort, while enhancing the overall content experience.

For publishers, AI introduces powerful tools like generative AI, which aids in creating compelling narratives and summaries. Where the generation of text is seen as potentially controversial, AI approaches can deliver value.

More comprehensive, accurate and relevant search results can be achieved through contextual understanding and user intent analysis. Additionally, AI enables more sophisticated tagging, significantly improving content organisation and discoverability. The integration of AI not only optimises operational efficiency but its application can also elevate the quality of interactions between content and its audience. An example is personalisation. By analysing user interactions, AI can recommend relevant content and infer interests. This might yield dynamic push notifications just to users assessed to be highly interested in a piece of new content.

Things to consider on the transition to digital

When considering a shift to digital, it's important to think through several factors to ensure a smooth and effective transition:

Purpose: Why are you transitioning to digital? Is it to reduce environmental impact, achieve cost savings, or respond to member requests? Clearly understanding your primary motivations will help guide your strategy and implementation.
Pace: Instead of an abrupt end to print, consider a phased approach. Gradual transitions allow members to adapt and provide feedback, ensuring a smoother shift.
Platform: Where are your members engaging digitally? Look at your metrics like email opens, desktop vs. mobile usage, and app adoption to help you gauge where an initial investment is going to be most appreciated, and whether a multi-platform approach makes sense.
Preferences: Sometimes the data is incomplete. Ask members if they’d value content on new platforms. When they say "yes", dive deeper and request examples of what they consider to be "content done right".
Point of editing: Most membership bodies deliver content to their members via websites and email. A single point of content management can ease the staff workload and ensure you have a canonical content source. Consider headless CMS solutions and similar for single point of editing.
Make it pop: Consider the possibilities for enhancing and expanding current offerings with multimedia elements. These enrich the user experience and make your digital publications more engaging. Generative AI can also help bring new life to old content.
Power: While digital publications require power and internet access, features like offline reading ensure members can access content regardless. Look for in-app offline features to ensure content access with no strings attached.
Personalisation: Larger organisations serve diverse member groups with varying content needs. AI tools can help by recommending, promoting, and delivering content tailored to different audience segments, enhancing engagement and relevance.

Wrapping up…

While print media still has its place, the shift toward digital is undeniable. The benefits of going digital make it the future of content consumption, and by implementing digital publications for your association, you can significantly enhance the ways you engage with your members.