Just over a month ago, we launched our Open Source strategy, giving anyone and everyone access to our Reports in an interactive and digital format to see how the market would react and to present a case for an intelligent and readable report without the huge impact of print, packaging and shipping.

We launched this the week before the Monaco Yacht Show, so we didn’t have to ship and distribute a couple of thousand random magazines around the dock and on various stands and to passers-by, only for them to be left in hotel rooms or piled high on stands to be left behind. During the four days of the yacht show, more than 3,500 readers downloaded the latest report – the Owner issue – with plenty of feedback as to the intelligent approach and how this makes sense, so you don’t have to carry a magazine around the show. The time, energy, packaging and logistics to deliver 3,500 copies to Monaco doesn’t bear thinking about.

This Open Source strategy will remain live for another month, until the day after METSTRADE on 21 November, a week after the publication of our annual refit edition of The Superyacht Report, issue number 223. Even after Monaco, it seems the campaign has worked and we have seen some excellent engagement with the digital reports as downloadable PDFs or using the page-turning ISSUU platform.

With more than 200 different issues available across our digital library, it is clear that our audience has browsed and explored content going back over the years, but it is more interesting to see how the market has interacted with our current issues published during 2024.

As we get closer to 2025 and our digital-first strategy expands, with better social media content, more hard-hitting news and opinions, combined with real journalism and supporting intelligence and analysis, the Open Source strategy will evolve further and allow the market to enjoy our channels without barriers or paywalls.

So far, with Issue 220, our New Build edition published in Q1, we have seen 9,169 downloads or online reads; with Issue 221, our Captains edition published in Q2, we have seen 9,306 downloads and digital reads; and for our most recent edition for Monaco Yacht Show, the Owners edition, issue number 222, we have reached 10,187 downloads and digital reads, averaging more than 2,000 digital copies a week.

Over the next four weeks, until the end of METSTRADE, we will remain Open Source and allow the market to keep consuming and exploring our digital library, especially with the imminent arrival of our Refit edition – Issue 223. Then we will analyse how the audience consumes the content and interacts with the different subjects and even the advertising, which is also interactive, with live links to websites and e.mails.

While we recognise that there are many who still want a printed copy of The Superyacht Report and enjoy the physical interaction with the pages, the feel of the paper and the smell of the ink, we do believe that as the technology improves, with digital reports the user experience will become more interesting, and we can embed more images, video content and deeper technical information behind the article, adding search functions to the library. As we get closer to 2025 and our digital-first strategy expands, with better social media content, more hard-hitting news and opinions, combined with real journalism and supporting intelligence and analysis, the Open Source strategy will evolve further and allow the market to enjoy our channels without barriers or paywalls.

If we can deliver more than 15,000 digital-first readers of The Superyacht Report, who are happy to consume and interact without the impact of paper, ink, packaging and shipping, we feel confident that we will deliver not only a smarter product to a wide audience on the exact day the Report is published, but also a smarter, more interactive media channel while, at the same time, reducing our impact on the planet.

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