DCW on Zinio

[dhoggan]

Hi,

I'm hoping that someone can help with a question about the Zinio edition of DCW that I can't seem to find an answer to. I emailed Zinio direct but am still waiting for a reply.

I currently subscribe to the paper copy and was wondering what, if any differences, there are to the Zinio edition. I guess I'm thinking of the kind of featues that the National Geographic edition has - slideshows and video clips - that would really lend themselves to the electronic format, especially for a photography magazine.

I had read one of their replies to a printed letter a couple of months ago that suggested they were looking into various content options for the electronic edition but from the way the answer was worded, that may not be for Zinio. In any event, does anyone know if this has moved into something more definite.

Also, does anyone know what happens at renewal time if I subscribe are the special promotional price? Does the price go up?

Apologies for all the questions, but subscription renewal is coming up and give the more competitive pricing on Zinio at the moment, I'm considering whether moving to electronic is worth it.

Dave

[dhoggan]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this? Zinio aren't going to keep their special offer open forever, but I don't want to spend the money if it's worse/the same than the paper copy of the magazine. I've mailed Znio a second time and even Geoff Harris and no replies, but I'm hoping someone here may know...

Thanks,

Dave

[Geoff Harris]

Hi
The Zinio version is very similar to the mag, but much more interactive - you can click on links and go straight to disc content, for example. Hope you enjoy it

Geoff Harris, Editor

[Vezza]

Hi,

Just to add to Geoff's comments, the zinio version is £44 for a year subscription.

Thanks
Verity

[dhoggan]

Hi Verity.

Yes, usually, but right now it's on a special rate of £36.66, hence my urgency in having to make a decision...

Dave

[dhoggan]

Well, I finally took the plunge and subscribed to the Zinio edition of DCW. And initial thoughts are... what a disappointment!

The first edition to be downloaded in January 2011, so my comments are based on this.

The first issue is the sloppiness of the conversion. Take the Photo Advisor section on p97, for example. As is common with most digital editions of magazines, there is a 'Text' button at the bottom of the page that (for those that do not know how Zinio works) allow a text-only view. What becomes immediately apparent is that whatever automatic process that renders the text is almost blind to character case. Acronyms that should be all uppercase are a random mix of upper and lowercase and the pronoun 'I' appears in upper and lowercase in equal measure to name two issues.

Moving over to Rate My Photo on p104, it's equally poor, and worse, confusing. From the rendered page we can see the Digital Camera Verdict with the two 'plus' and two 'minus' points. However looking at the Text Only page makes no reference to the positive/negative nature of these points; indeed it does not even make it obvious that these are points as there is no bullet-point list, simply four sentences.

The other, and for me the most annoying problem is that I bought the Digital edition based on Geoff Harris' comments:

"The Zinio version is very similar to the mag, but much more interactive - you can click on links and go straight to disc content, for example." Geoff Harris.

Sorry, but this is not the case. There are no links to disc content within the magazine, certainly in the sense as other digital magazines provide, such as a 'Play Video' button What there is is a link on the bottom of p90 that takes you off to a web site where you can download the .ZIP file. At least I think that it what is does as it does not work for me. And in any case, even if I could downloed the .ZIP file, how am I to play the contents on the iPad?

So, Geoff, if you are reading this, can you please explain the 'much more interactive' and 'go straight to disc content' statements? Since you are the editor, I trusted these to be accurate and committed to the purchase based on these. I do not believe I have mis-interpreted your claims and so am pretty upset as I feel I have been misled. There is no builtin 'view disc content', there is nothing that makes use of the flexible interface a digital edition allows, there is nothing to make this a better purchase over the paper copy, which I already subscribe to.

[dhoggan]

Well, I downloaded the February issue this morning and have had a chance to have a look at some of the issues I raised over the January one.

Much of what I referred to as 'sloppiness' has been resolved. I could only find one instance of incorrect (lack of) capitalisation on 'Rate My Photo' (p94). Also, bullet points are now correctly translated and so much it's much easier to follow the flow of the article. Perhaps a small thing, but it does improve readability.

There are still a few formatting errors, mainly where there is part of the main body above the title bar with the remainder below (p63, Top Tips and p96 being two examples), or fonts change throughout an article (p87) . Neither are huge, but it does let down an otherwise very professionally put together magazine.

The big issue is still the total lack of 'interactive', or more correctly, multimedia components. Given I was explicitly informed that this formed part of the Zinio edition, I'm still very annoyed about this, simply as it is disingenuous. Also, the other selling point was the ability to go directly to the disc content. Again, untrue. There are links to .ZIP files, but all the links tested are broken, both via iPad and the Windows Zinio client.

I would be interested in knowing how many Zinio DCW subscriptions there are. I'm guessing not that many right now. Does anyone know?