Background

Initially conceived as an idea scribbled on a bar napkin in 1999, Rapid Media foudners Scott MacGregor wanted to bring his passion and real life experiences for kayaking and canoeing to the outdoor reader.

He is the brainchild behind today’s popular niche outdoor “paddling” titles Rapid, Adventure Kaya, Canoe Roots and Kayak Angler.

The challenge

Rapid are one of YUDU’s oldest clients, and over the years they have faced many challenges that our publishing technology has helped to solve as it became more advanced.

The first challenge when Rapid were first looking for a digital vendor was simply a way to leverage the rising use of the iPad as an e-reading device. MacGregor was keen to exploit this as it had been something the readership of his print editions had been requesting ever since the launch of the iPad. However, this in of itself presented another challenge, namely managing online subscriptions effectively.

Any solution had to present options for embedding rich media further down the line and the importance of this requirement only grew as Rapid planned to develop digital specific material if the first launch was successful.

The solution

Initially YUDU was able to provide Rapid with a platform onto the iPad, this allowed them, through clever marketing and use of YUDU’s functionality to build an increasingly broad and diverse digital audience, and it also helped to build the strength of Rapid itself as a brand moving forward.

More specifically, the subscription management functionality allowed Rapid to easily import existing print subscribers and manage subscription purchases made through their website via an API, avoiding Apple’s revenue share structure.

As things have progressed since the launch of the iPad, YUDU was able to meet Rapid’s needs further. For example, the need to further establish and build upon the brand of each individual title was achieved by building individual apps for each one, giving each title greater discoverability within the Apple Newsstand.

The ability to easily embed video, audio and other interactive content was also attractive to Rapid as their subject matter provided plenty of opportunity to embed such content and as the apps became more and more successful (with both consumers and their advertisers), they met this increased demand with increased resources dedicated to building and putting together app-specific material for their publications.