Men’s Health more has more than 125,000 digital subscribers, thanks in no small part to its use of digital publishing technology to create a valuable interactive experience for readers.

When Robert Festino joined Rodale as the magazine’s Creative Director, a tablet edition of Men’s Health was being already produced in basic PDF format. “I felt like we needed to step it up” and provide readers with an experience they deserved, he said.Image of Men's Health on the iPad

So Rodale began to “think about what magazine could be and should be on a phone,” said Sean Bumgarner, Interactive Design Director at Rodale. A key goal was to enable readers to easily access Men’s Health content in brief intervals through their mobile devices.

Rodale turned to Adobe technologies to create the iPhone and tablet editions because the design staff was already well versed in products such as InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, having used them for years.

The resulting Men’s Health smartphone app enables users to quickly thumb through an issue to browse its content, and each issue’s departments offer a clear display of scrollable headlines for easy review and access on the smaller screens.

Bill Phillips, VP and Editor in Chief of Men’s Health, explained that the magazine also wanted advertisers to be able to take advantage of the tablet and smartphone formats. For example, for the September fashion issue, they worked with Armani Exchange to develop shoppable ads that users could click through to make purchases.

“Without Adobe DPS, we could not have done what we’ve done in 40 days. It was a really streamlined process because the tools are so user-friendly,” said Festino.

Watch the brief video below to learn more about Rodale’s Adobe Digital Publishing Suite efforts. And download the latest TFP case study for a more in-depth look at how a best-practices workflow initiative at Rodale helped lay the groundwork for a system that would provide editorial workflow tools and cross-media publishing capabilities.

Posted by: Gina Barrett