newsletters and reports: online/digital v print

[Tamasin Cole]

Does anyone know of any research into the effectiveness of digital (pdf) publication compared with print?

Clearly there are ways of using digital communication very effectively, but I'm talking about simply turning a print document into a pdf (or emag) and sending it out, or linking to it, rather than providing a hard copy.

Many of our clients are moving towards this, so I'd be interested to read any proven conclusions that this is a waste of time and effort, what audiences prefer, or somewhere in between.

That's a bit vague, I know, but anything around the topic would be interesting.

Thanks
Tamasin
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Tamasin Cole
telephone [phone]

tamasincole.co.uk







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[Caroline Jarrett]

From Tamasin Cole
Does anyone know of any research into the effectiveness of digital
(pdf) publication compared with print?

Effectiveness for what? Which type of customers? What is the purpose of the
publication? Are customers going to be forced into one rather than another?

Example: enquirers looking at universities. In usability tests, they
typically tell me that they want all of these:
- an online prospectus, used for initial investigations
- a downloadable .pdf of the printed prospectus
- the printed prospectus itself

Each format has advantages. A few examples:
- The electronic media are searchable
- the paper one is easier to read with someone else, easier to annotate, and
(for most) easier to read for concentrated study.
- In these days of many people being environmentally sensitive, they like to
be able to preview the print as a .pdf to check whether they'll really read
it when they get it.

Best
Caroline Jarrett
Twitter @cjforms


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