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We attribute our success to our ability to listen. Collecting feedback from our customers is crucial because it lets us learn more about their motivations and cater our products accordingly.
So, in the spirit of customer appreciation, we’re putting the spotlight on the extremely talented and dedicated publishers who keep our business going. We sat down with one of them, PhotoWeekly Germany, to discuss their overall experience with Joomag. Here’s the full interview:
Joomag: Please give a brief description of your magazine. What should we know about you?
PhotoWeekly: PhotoWeekly started out in 2017 with the promise to be “Germany’s fastest photo magazine.” Aimed at amateur photographers, it offers about 15 topics per week, from new products to inspirational images and reviews of the latest photography gear. It is a magazine, not a website. Of course, it is faster than any printed media but still feels like a magazine.
Joomag: What challenges or needs did you face that led you to look for a solution like Joomag?
PhotoWeekly: We wanted to create something new, not just another photography website but a digital magazine that offers the best of both the online and offline worlds – a magazine that comes at a fixed day every week, with a cover page and an end, created with a sophisticated layout.
Joomag: Describe your selection process and what you found most attractive about our product.
PhotoWeekly: We were looking for a system that offered more than publishing out of a content database or just converting a print PDF. In the end, Joomag offered almost everything that we were looking for. We preferred the content to be created in InDesign and then used a PDF for the transition to the user’s screen. With many of our staff coming from the traditional print magazine production industry, we started right away with basically no training. Enriching the PDF in Joomag with links and the placement of video content was very easy.
We wanted to optimize the magazine for consumption on smartphones, so the fact that Joomag offers apps for both Android and iOS was a big plus. Also, the ability to have pages of different lengths that could then be scrolled on the user’s screen makes Joomag ideal for a truly mobile digital magazine.
Joomag: What business problems did you solve with the product? What business processes did our solution enhance? What benefits have you achieved?
PhotoWeekly: With PhotoWeekly we basically started the genre of a full-fledged digital magazine in our segment. There just wasn’t anything like it before. After the successful launch of PhotoWeekly, we quickly started planning for the next chapter and then, about two years later, started SmartWeekly – technically a very similar magazine but with completely different content and target groups. While PhotoWeekly is all about photography, SmartWeekly offers weekly insights into everything tech – smartphones, TV sets, gaming consoles, kitchen appliances, home office products, etc. Basically, everything you can find at a BestBuy in the U.S. or at a MediaMarkt in Germany.
Joomag: What were your results?
PhotoWeekly: We quickly grew our audience, offering the magazine as a free subscription and distributing it through our partners who already had email lists. And of course, to make it a financially viable project, we started selling advertisements inside the magazine.
Joomag: What did you like most about us?
PhotoWeekly: The ease of use and the fact that you can configure quite a lot of stuff yourself in the backend. And if there are questions, the support team and the local staff in Germany are always very forthcoming and helpful.
Joomag: What did you like least about our product?
PhotoWeekly: With the launch of the new Joomag Crater™ Editor instead of the Adobe Flash based editor, we now have less functionality. And sometimes something goes wrong when Joomag converts our PDFs, so we have to ask support to help us fix the problem. With the old editor we had some workarounds to trigger a re-creation of faulty pages. With support taking time to fix problems and being unavailable on weekends, we had to adjust our schedules.
Joomag: How can we improve and help you better in the future?
PhotoWeekly: Securing your custom domain with SSL would be much easier if Joomag just offered this as a service. So every year for every domain, you have to create the certificate somewhere and then submit it to Joomag to be manually put in place. Why not offer SSL for a small extra fee?
Joomag: Do you have any recommendations for others who are considering our product?
PhotoWeekly: It’s easy to get started with a free trial account and get a feel of Joomag. Just try out the main features you need and then get in touch with someone to help you tailor the best package for your business. Even if you start with just a PDF conversion of some existing magazine, you can still upgrade to something else later on – maybe have someone from your team try out new features and create a new experience utilizing what Joomag has to offer.
About PhotoWeekly
PhotoWeekly provides everything photographers love, from inspiring ideas to trends and new products. The magazine compacts useful information and is mobile-optimized so readers can enjoy it on the go and on their own time. Encouraging its readers to take pictures, the publication offers practical tips and interesting background stories. And each issue is packed with photo ideas that you can implement immediately. We are extremely proud to partner with PhotoWeekly and help bring their unique vision to life on every single page. Subscribe to their work and don’t miss out on the most beautiful hobby in the world!
If you’re interested in working with Joomag or sharing your own story with us, contact our rockstar support team and we’ll get in touch as soon as possible.
FAQ
Q1: What drove PhotoWeekly to choose Joomag?
A1: PhotoWeekly was drawn to Joomag for its robust digital publishing tools that supported their vision of blending the traditional magazine feel with digital interactivity. The platform’s integration with InDesign, ease of adding interactive elements, and mobile optimization capabilities were key factors in their decision.
Q2: How has Joomag benefited PhotoWeekly?
A2: Using Joomag, PhotoWeekly successfully launched as a pioneering digital magazine in its niche, expanding its audience rapidly with a subscription model and advertising. The platform’s distribution and interactive features allowed them to set a new standard for digital magazines in photography and tech.
Q3: What improvements does PhotoWeekly recommend for Joomag?
A3: Despite praising Joomag’s user-friendly interface and support, PhotoWeekly suggests improvements such as enhancing the functionality of the new editor and simplifying SSL certification for custom domains to better support publishers’ needs.
