Finally: on-demand publishing makes headway

The Computer History Museum (CHM) announced that users will now be able to find and print their publications on-demand using Hewlett Packard's MagCloud service.

"By leveraging MagCloud's print-on-demand platform, the Museum can reach and engage a larger, global community by enabling easy access to high-quality content and providing individuals the ability to order personal printed copies on a one-off basis at an economical price," the Museum wrote in a release.

CHM publications that will be available on-demand include Core Magazine, CHM's annual publication which includes images from the Museum's Collection and articles written by curators, scholars and industry pundits, the Visibile Storage Calendar, and 1401, a commemorative booklet concering the IBM 1401 Data Processing System (1959).

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In other on-demand printing news, RPI, a company focused on personalized manufacturing and fulfillment for the consumer print-on-demand market, announced it will implement Xerox Corporation's iGen4(TM) Press into its product lines.

"With the iGen4 presses, we not only increase our flexibility in meeting on-time customer delivery -- we can do it more efficiently and cost-effectively, thanks to the automation and streamlined maintenance. Given our increased order volume produced on tighter timelines for personalized print products, the iGen4 will be instrumental in meeting consumer desires with new products and a shorter time to delivery," said Rick Bellamy, CEO of RPI.

At the intersection of branding and censorship, Apple acts to protect its brand by cleaning up the iTunes app store

Apple recently began deleting applications from its iTunes app store that the company considers objectionable -- that is, that contains "overtly sexual content".  The move has been received differently by consumers, developers and media. As one MacRumors reader said, "Good. You have to draw the line somewhere."

"It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Phil; Schiller, head of Apple marketing told the New York Times. So far Apple has removed around 5,000 apps from the iTunes store based on "objectionable material".

Developers are not happy with the move, though it should be said that developers had been increasingly unhappy with Apple app approval process.

Jon Atherton, the developer behind Wobble iBoobs, received a letter from Apple stating "Your application, Wobble iBoobs (Premium Uncensored), contains content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content, and have changed our guidelines appropriately."

Followed by the hammer: "We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application."

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Marketers RFPs increasingly include app inventory and capabilities according to AdAge

Nothing spurs action among publishers like the fear of being left off an ad schedule. Need to give away Internet advertising in order to win that quarter page schedule? Done.

But now, according to AdAge, marketers are increasing asking about a publisher's mobile capabilities. Expect this trend to continue. (It should be noted that the article provided no proof of this claim, so at this point all evidence is anecdotal.)

In an article primarily supporting the notion that readers will pay for mobile before paying for online, the author, Nat Ives, talks about how paid apps have already achieved consumer acceptance.  Time Inc,. executive John Squires states "We really believe that it's going to be immersive, it's going to be friendly to brand-building and it's going to have incredible impact against consumers, plus some really great metrics."

But if ad agencies really do begin to regularly include mobile inquiries, the floodgates will be open as publishers rush to make sure they look good on those RFPs.

Zinio follow-up: challenge of ad sales for digital magazines remains educating advertisers and publishers

Here's a quick follow-up to this story from this morning concerning the Kia Motors ad buy in Zinio's new ad network, ZPAN.

I spoke to Jeanniey Mullen, Chief Marketing Officer for Zinio, about the new ad network, and the fact that Zinio was selling advertising into digital magazines that use the Zinio digital service. Mullen confirmed that the agreement to accept advertising is separate from that of using Zinio, in general.

"Zinio doesn't necessarily have a whole team of ad reps that on the street trying to sell advertisers as much as we're showcasing the Zinio solution to advertisers and they're asking us if we can help expand our network. Its something we're very careful of about trying not to get in the way of an ad buy, or cutting down the ad rates at all. That's certainly not our intention," Mullen told me.

Mullen said the company tries to stay away from traditional categories, and that digital magazine buys are by category, not individual title.  Additionally, the ads are not sold on impressions, but are based on open magazines -- as opposed to a CPO or CPC model.  Once sold, publishers are informed of the buy and can choose to accept or decline the order.

Mullen said that because this type of advertising is a hybrid of print and digital, she would like to see advertisers take advantage of the interactive nature of digital magazines. Mullen said she'd love to hear advertisers say "I want this ad to go in print, and I want this ad to go in digital, and to come up with their own dynamic ad. That's the best thing that could come out of this, whether Zinio gets any money for it or not."

"Maybe there's a way we can help as magazines transform into this digital future, and go live on the iPad, Android, the iPhone and all these devices that are coming out," Mullen said.

New York Times execs: don't call it a paywall

It's not a paywall, it's a metered solution: at least that is what Janet Robinson, the president & CEO of the New York Times, would like readers to believe. But whatever it is, the Time is committed to implementing their new paid service.

The Times unveiled its approach at a paidContent conference in New York.



One weakness to the Times approach involves the traffic being fed into their web site from bloggers and other news sites. "For the readers who come to the NYTimes.com 60 percent of users come from the homepage. There are people who come to the NYTimes.com as a destination. There’s a broad group of people who come from the side doors. They’ll still be able to read for free. But at a certain point, they’ll hit a paywall and they’ll become subscribers," said Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.

The problem is that this does not take into account the fact that bloggers would be the one who would have to pay, then link the stories for their readers. But if experience with TimesSelect is any guide, bloggers may not only be loath to pay for a subscription, but may not directly link, either.

Nevertheless, the Times clearly wants to balance traffic, advertising with subscription revenue -- showing a sensitivity to losing ad revenue if the doors are closed tightly. Is this a pragmatic approach? Or simply a political solution that somewhat satisfies the conflicting interests at the Times? If reports of conflicts over iPad pricing are true, it may simply be a way Times management can present these new media opportunities to internal constituencies.

Kia Motors signs up for 45 digital magazine buy with Zinio; first significant sell for ZPAN, Zinio's ad network

Kia Motors announced today that they have purchased a wide reaching advertising campaign for its Sorento CUV, with ads appearing in 45 digital magazines, across 15 publishers. The buy is a first for Zinio's Publisher Advertising Network (ZPAN), Zinio's own network.

"Teaming with digital-publishing pioneer Zinio, this innovative campaign furthers Sorento's tagline – 'a departure from the expected' – by exposing the Kia brand to a wide variety of readers across iconic magazine brands," said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing, KMA, in a press release. "ZPAN enables Kia Motors to convey Sorento's impressive attributes in a new digital format, generating consumer awareness in fresh, innovative and unexpected ways."

The release does not specify, of course, whether the program was discounted, or even paid for at all -- a question to be asked with all start-ups and first "sales". Nonetheless, the buy is another demonstration of the fact that publishers are willing to surrender ad sales to new networks established by their third party vendors. The publishers involved in the first sale included Active Interest Media, Bonnier Corporation, Hachette Filipacchi Media, Hearst Magazines, Source Interlink Media, VIV Publishing and Ziff Davis Media.

"Historically, advertisers have loved what magazines provide: big, attractive, full-color ads with fixed placements," said Zinio Chief Marketing Officer, Jeanniey Mullen. "Zinio has created a way to reinvent the full-page spread, digitally and dynamically, with the introduction of ZPAN. Kia Motors' commitment to providing the most innovative reading experience made the company the perfect match for our launch."

A demo of the advertising campaign can be found on the Zinio site.