Publishers have always found out the hard way that getting young people to read their publications is easier said than done. So it comes as no surprise that in today’s age of RSS feeds, magazines such as Elle are sending digital versions of their offerings to students’ email IDs.
This novel project is sponsored by the Magazine Publishers of America, which is an association of magazine publishers. To start, 5 magazines and 5 universities in the United States are participating in this project. Recipients can access the digital version via a link in the message. The college demographic is a lucrative albeit difficult to address target audience. The publishers hope to ensnare tech-savvy students in this new push.
However, I think they should also go in for ad-supported RSS feeds and ad-supported RSS-readers.