Adobe Customer Story
P1 Digital Media, taking flight with
digital publishing.
Aviation publisher successfully reinvents business
using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.
“With Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, our
business has morphed into something
we never could have imagined.”
Sam Spurdens, director, P1 Digital Media
SOLUTION
Adobe Digital Publishing Suite,
Enterprise Edition
RESULTS
2x
GREATER REACH
APP DOWNLOADS
84,000+ app downloads
across portfolio, twice
the size of the publisher’s
previous print database
74%
77
41%
REVENUE GROWTH
Grew advertising and
commercial revenue 74%
year over year
AD STICKINESS
Readers spent an average
of 77 seconds with
advertisements in P1
GLOBAL FOOTPRINT
Readership base reflects
global aviation market
with 41% of readers
from North America
INCREASE
SECONDS
NORTH AMERICA
Adobe Customer Story
P1 Digital Media
Established in 2011
Employees: 13
Cambridge, United Kingdom
www.loop.aero
Click to download the apps
LOOP
P1
CHALLENGES
•Reviving specialty aviation publishing
company after global recession effectively
ends viability of print business
•Creating unique digital magazines
where advertising and editorial content
have the same level of technological
sophistication
•Providing value to advertisers with
interactive ads that engage readers
Publishing market shift
P1 Digital Media’s motto “Fresh Air for Flying” epitomizes the renewed approach the publisher takes
to both the creation and distribution of its popular aviation publications. After revising its publishing
strategy, the publisher is now flying high with digital editions of LOOP, and P1 created using Adobe
Digital Publishing Suite.
Launched in 2005, LOOP was originally a newspaper delivered directly to every registered airplane owner in
the United Kingdom. Over the next couple of years, the company added P1, which covered business
jets. The publications sought to distinguish themselves from competitors with high editorial standards and
an advertising/editorial ratio of 60/40. They also used free direct delivery to avoid the crowded and expensive
newsstand market.
After launching Flight Test, closely followed by P1 then LOOP to the iPad, it became apparent that the
high adoption of apps by readers would allow P1 Digital Media to switch off of print entirely and go for a
worldwide audience rather than just the United Kingdom audience that print offered.
“Publishing to the iPad allowed us to use all of our film and photography assets in addition to putting a
whole lot more enjoyment back into publishing,” says Spurdens. “The iPad and Adobe Digital Publishing
Suite had given us a new found passion for making our magazines that the struggles of the previous years
had sapped out of us. Publishing should be fun and now there are no borders or limits to what we can
do. Adobe Digital Publishing Suite opened up new possibilities for our business.”
Adobe Customer Story
Preparing for a new takeoff
To prove Spurden’s realization, P1 Digital Media created a one-off magazine app for the iPad called Flight
Test Annual, a collection of flight test information for various aircraft. With Adobe Digital Publishing Suite,
P1 Digital Media was able to easily create the interactive iPad app without writing code and submit it for
distribution through the Apple App Store. Encouraged by both the ease with which the app was built and
positive reader reaction to Flight Test Annual, P1 Digital Media started working on a digital edition of P1.
“Response was amazing when we launched P1 in April 2011,” says Spurdens. “Because Adobe Digital
Publishing Suite makes it so simple to build engaging, interactive, multimedia apps, we were also able to
launch a LOOP app in July. By the end of the year, we launched versions of P1 in China and Germany, as well.”
To promote the new digital publications, P1 Digital Media emailed notifications to its database of 40,000
pilots and aviation enthusiasts. At the time, most digital magazines were simply replicas of their print
counterparts with electronically flippable pages.
Creation of each of the engaging, digital editions is a family affair. Sam’s brother William is the creative
director and his brother David provides the amazing photography featured in each issues. Articles are
featured in portrait orientation, with additional photos viewable by rotating the iPad to landscape mode.
“Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
makes publishing fun again. It’s
not just about words, pictures,
and captions, it’s about creating
a holistic publishing model that’s
there to entertain people with
audio, video, and pictures.”
Sam Spurdens, director, P1 Digital Media
Designing specifically for the iPad was an advantage for P1 Digital Media that earned its apps numerous
positive reviews in the Apple App Store. Today, P1 Digital Media apps are on approximately 84,000 iPads,
double the size of the publisher’s original database, and an average of 1,700 new readers are added each
month. The publisher uses push notifications to automatically help readers know about new or updated
issues before they open the viewer app and keep them coming back.
“When the iPad was launched we knew that we had the platform to innovate and change the way our
business behaved and reach a global audience that we knew was out there,” says Spurdens. “Adobe
Digital Publishing Suite makes publishing fun again. It’s not just about words, pictures, and captions,
it’s about creating a holistic publishing model that’s there to entertain people with audio, video, and
pictures. It’s about entertainment.”
More than just advertisements
In many ways, P1 Digital Media has completely reconfigured its business model around Adobe Digital
Publishing Suite. Instead of seeking as many advertisers as possible, P1 Digital Media works very closely
with a smaller number of advertisers to build creative solutions that use the unique capabilities of digital
apps. In fact, P1 Digital Media now serves as an agency to many manufacturers, and develops and
produces in-app experiences to showcase clients’ products.
Adobe Customer Story
“If you help manufacturers
publish their own highquality material using Adobe
Digital Publishing Suite, it
benefits the industry.”
“With Adobe Digital Publishing
Suite, the indisputable readership
numbers are right in front of us.”
Sam Spurdens, director, P1 Digital Media
In its print days, P1 Digital Media had a staff of 12 sales representatives who sent 80 to 100 invoices to
advertisers each month. Now, that’s down to fewer than 20 invoices per month, all managed by one
person. A single advertiser in one of the current apps may have multiple pages of material, including
interactive product specifications, videos, and pictures. Plus, the depth of the information often rivals
what is in the editorial pages.
Some advertisers, such as Gulfstream, share large amounts of information in one place, using elaborate
digital layouts that may span several pages, in which readers can learn about an aircraft’s range, view
seating configurations, and watch flight test videos without leaving the app. Readers can learn so much
about products that they become brand advocates.
And some of the manufacturers are even becoming publishers themselves. After seeing what P1 Digital
Media was creating using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Gulfstream is building its own interactive ads
and publishing its own magazine, Nonstop, for Gulfstream aircraft owners, private jet travelers, and
aviation executives.
In 2014, P1 Digital Media projects advertising development revenue will account for 40% of its overall
revenue, which is a 6% increase from before it started creating apps for other entities. Overall, the
publisher is experiencing 74% advertising and commercial revenue growth year over year. “If you help
manufacturers publish their own high-quality material using Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, it benefits
the industry,” says Spurdens.
Adobe Customer Story
“In just a couple of years, we’ve
gone from being a U.K.-based
print publisher on the brink of
extinction to a global publisher
that also produces videos,
photos, and advertising for
major manufacturers.”
Sam Spurdens, director, P1 Digital Media
SOLUTION AT A GLANCE
Adobe Digital Publishing Suite,
Enterprise Edition
Measuring and expanding the audience
Using the built-in analytics tools in Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, P1 Digital Media can now show
advertisers how readers engage with content. For instance, one of the reasons Gulfstream became so
interested in app publishing is because readers spent an average of 77 seconds with each of its ads in P1.
Furthermore, the shelf life of past issues of P1, and LOOP is still measurable with Adobe Digital Publishing
Suite. In fact, many of the advertisers in the earliest issues of the apps are still getting good viewing
numbers for their advertisements in free back issues.
“With our print magazines, it was always challenging to prove numbers related to circulation and viewers,”
says Spurdens. “With Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, the indisputable readership numbers are right in
front of us.”
Adobe Digital Publishing Suite also allows P1 Digital Media to create and distribute versions according
to geography while maintaining complete control over editorial content. In print, international versions
could require complicated licensing agreements, local printers, and other market barriers and expenses.
When the publisher offered only print versions of its publications, 90% of subscribers were based in the
United Kingdom.
Today, 19% of readers reside in the United Kingdom, 41% are based in North America, and approximately
10% are in South America. Overall, the global readership has grown 700% since the launch of the digital
editions. The Chinese-language edition of P1 is continually adding subscribers as well.
In addition to broadening its reach globally, P1 Digital Media has seen an increase in the average income
of readers. For example, readers of the LOOP digital edition are 31% wealthier than the publication’s
previous print subscribers.
“Having a device that offers the same experience for a reader in the United States and China gave us a
springboard to compete on equal terms—at least in delivery—with local publishers or global publishing
giants,” explains Spurdens. “In a sense, we’re now local and global at the same time. What matters above
all is the content, not your relationships with local print distributors.”
For more information
www.adobe.com/products/digital-publishing-suiteenterprise.html
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
USA
www.adobe.com
“In just a couple of years, we’ve gone from being a U.K.-based print publisher on the brink of extinction
to a global publisher that also produces videos, photos, and advertising for major manufacturers,” says
Spurdens. “With Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, our business has morphed into something we never
could have imagined.”
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