To discuss anything which relates to the FLYER Airportal or the magazine
By IMCR
#1799590
I think in the present enviroment it is the only way to go and am very pleased to see Flyer embrace this route. Quite simply Ian has reacted to the change in the market place, and there is in my mind no alternative for a niche market magazine. Even those with a much larger niche market (woman's mags. etc) are finding it increasingly difficult and in times to come I doubt there will be much left in hard copy.

Well done Ian, exactly the right move.
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By AndyR
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799591
To be clear I wasn’t dismissing online publications generally and can appreciate totally the need to do so. With any luck the new online way might just attract a younger reader which can only be a good thing for FLYER.

I guess having grown up with comics, then magazines, plus having to use either an iPad mini or a laptop to read a publication, doesn’t do it for me. I’m not buying a full size tablet just to read a publication just yet. And my laptop is for admin and work, not pleasure.
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By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799598
When the magazine went digital, I found the ISSU interaction to be diabolical. I'm now getting used to turnpage-fullscreen-tap-dance the "+" -button -use the mouse to drag the now-readable portion of the page into view. Intuitive -it aint.
@EddieHeli Has it right. I'm currently using a HP 3550 laser-jet.- 15 years old, chucked out by a big company, complete with a surplus stock of toners. sadly, it's not Duplex, but, of course one could print half the pages, turn the stack over, bung into the paper-feeder and then print the other half of the pages on the obverse. Generic toners or refills are relatively cheap and the various reset-devices can be found on fleabay ( reset fuses in Epsons/ Okis are available from RS and others)
At ~4p a page- your 80-page issue costs £3.20. Postage alone must reduce the viability of hard copies. Yes I'm happy to continue my subscription and continue to read the magazine on -screen, though I'm afraid I do preview the pages to see where the ads are before enlarging the editorial, reading and skipping to the next text.

plenty of colour -lasers on the Bay,- when they die, just buy another. cheap as chips. :D
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By townleyc
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799616
I am not that unhappy reading on screen, but my problem at the moment is with issuu

The PDF is fine on a proper computer, but I can no longer read on my ipad, which is too old for their app. I cannot even get at the PDF there.

Any update on the new digital version?

KE
JAFO liked this
#1799630
I have not read it for the last couple of months and I am trying to analyse why this is?
I suppose it is the effort of scrolling and all the + and - all the time. It takes effort to read and find that I can't be bothered to be honest whereas the printed version could just be picked up and put down at will over breakfast.
The unfortunate truth is, and it is rather sad to say, that I am paying the subs but currently I just can't be bothered with it. :(
JAFO, Nick, T67M liked this
By Highland Park
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799638
I do miss the print version, but I'm used to the digital version now.

That said, I'm simply grateful that we still have Flyer to read. I suspect in months/years to come, a number of magazines will have disappeared because its no longer viable to produce them, so thanks Ian for taking the steps you have to protect Flyer.

Ian
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By CloudHound
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799651
Just realised how lucky I am!

For work, I use a 27" iMac desk top so the pages are almost full size.

I tried it on my wife's iPad - see what everybody means :(

However I am content with content. :thumright:
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By Rob P
#1799672
AndyR wrote: I’m not buying a full size tablet just to read a publication just yet.


That's funny. I was thinking just this morning that what I miss most is having a paper copy for browsing in the smallest room and that I really can't justify a full size tablet for that

Rob P
By IMCR
#1799751
I would add that in terms of presentation, it is very poor.

I havent yet caught up with it on my iPAD mini but I assume it is mucht he same as on the MAC Boook Pro.

Digital is a different medium and it shouldnt try and replicate turning the pages of a traditional magazine. This looks and feels terrible.

I read the American Flyer on my. iPad every month, and also the Times everyday. This is how digital content should be presented (each slightly different) but Flyer is terrible as it stands.
Nick liked this
#1799817
I subscribed to the digital Flyer magazine and still cannot login, it shows all of the magazines but only allows me to view older versions without having to buy them so I have cancelled my subscription.
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1799846
Lockhaven wrote:I subscribed to the digital Flyer magazine and still cannot login, it shows all of the magazines but only allows me to view older versions without having to buy them so I have cancelled my subscription.


That's disappointing and frustrating

- You don't need to login to see the magazines, all digital copies can be found here no need to log in at all. If you want to view on tablet or phone, then download the ISSUU app and search for FLYER there. As above, a better solution is being worked on.
- You do need to activate your account here in order to log into The FLYER Club and take advantage of Free Landing Fees etc.

Hope that helps

Thanks

Ian
PS The 'Only allows me to view older magazines' observation suggests that you may have been trying to log in to Pocketmags, our old digital provider?
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By rikur_
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799851
TheKentishFledgling wrote:As Ian said on the first page:

PS We are working on a better digital experience, it involves a lot of time, work and money but we are making progress.

A related observation ....
- Some digital magazines still feel very much like a magazine - i.e. publish monthly, an orchestrated set of content, and in some cases even published as a set of pages laid out for print
- At the other end of the spectrum, others have adopted a model of 'little and often', frequently publishing news and features day-to-day, in a layout designed for screen reading.

Most of the content I read digitally is from the 'little and often' model (but I'm just a sample of 1)

Genuinely interested what a publishers perspective is on the different approaches. If no longer constrained by print/delivery to have a monthly edition, what's the rationale?
(nb: I'm not disputing it, many people do it, just keen to understand)
Pete L, Miscellaneous liked this
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By G-BLEW
Boss Man  Boss Man
#1799855
Genuinely interested what a publishers perspective is on the different approaches. If no longer constrained by print/delivery to have a monthly edition, what's the rationale?
(nb: I'm not disputing it, many people do it, just keen to understand)


Huge subject, and one that many publishers debate regularly. Would take me a few thousand words to go through my thoughts – something better done over a beer one day. Not particularly secret or sensitive, just complex and requiring more time to explain than I have available today.

Precis: It's a curated collection of content that requires paying for somehow.

Ian
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By Pete L
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1799856
I'm interested in the point about whether it's better for long term readership and engagement - for example the Guardian app and New Scientist sites change slowly so there's some ennui from the checking process - which the certainty of a periodic delivery takes away (and you lose that anticipation of a package of new stuff).