Morning Brief: Should university bookstores hate the iPad? (no); the meaning of life and The Rockford Files

Yesterday Fortune's website posted a story from contributor John Patrick Pullen: Why universities should hate the iPad. I don't know if this is one of those cases where the editors have done a great disservice to the author, or whether the author really thinks university bookstores will be greatly effected by the launch of a tablet reader.

In any case, Pullen quotes some stats from the National Association of College Stores about the size of the textbook market, and states that some have forecast dramatic growth in the e-book versions of textbooks. But I got the feeling early in the story that Pullen doesn't actually own an iPad himself -- there was no examples of textbooks on the tablet, and no mention of how the iPad itself would be a game changer.

In fact, as I predicted months ago, textbooks will not be one of those areas dramatically effected by the iPad. It's not that students won't read books on the device, its just that textbook publishers have such a strangle hold on the pricing and availability of their products that it doesn't seem likely that there will be much price pressure arising that will force reduced pricing. The CourseSmart app for the iPad, which I looked at a month ago, has pricing around the same levels as Kindle editions from Amazon.

A far more disruptive development may be Amazon's new textbook buyback program which could directly effect university bookstores.

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Buried below the major headlines of the day, the New York Times posted a story that talks about the work of a group of scientist that are trying to answer the question "why do we exist?"

In a mathematically perfect universe, we would be less than dead; we would never have existed. According to the basic precepts of Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created in the Big Bang and then immediately annihilated each other in a blaze of lethal energy, leaving a big fat goose egg with which to make to make stars, galaxies and us. And yet we exist, and physicists (among others) would dearly like to know why.

Me, too.

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Here is another big question: NBC is considering reviving "The Rockford Files" -- why?

In the meantime, producer Dick Wolf wants to find a new home for "Law & Order" now that NBC has canceled it.

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Retweet: The Times ran a column in its Sunday edition that compares the state of the U.S. newspaper industry to that of Germany.

Depending on your perspective, either this would be your money quote:

Most German newspapers are owned by family concerns or other small companies with local roots, but the American industry is dominated by publicly traded chains. Under pressure from shareholders clamoring for short-term results, the study contends, U.S. newspapers made reckless cuts in editorial and production quality, hastening the flight of readers and advertisers to the Web.

Or this:

Instead of focusing on journalism, the report says, U.S. newspapers also made unwise investments in new media, and compounded the damage by giving away their contents free on the Internet.

Having worked in the publishing industry for the past 30 years I would tend to vote in favor on quote number one. But you can decide.

Pixel Mag's Pottery Barn app shows the dangers of developing your own iPad navigation language

Rarely do I call out a developer for a less than stellar mobile media app, but a month ago I did just that when Pixel Mags released its app for Pottery Barn. At the time I called the app "an absolute mess" and did the best I could to change the subject by talking about custom publishing and why it was an amazing accomplishment for an app developer to get Pottery Barn to work with them (and how publishers should wake up to the threat from developers).

That same day the founder of Pixel Mags contacted me and said we should talk. I agreed but he never called.

Now it is a month later and I received an e-mail informing me that the new edition of the Pottery Barn catalog is available. I reloaded the app and took a look -- and yes, it is significantly better.

But I'm afraid the reviews in iTunes will continue to be negative (right now there are 17 one-star reviews of the new edition, and only two five-star reviews) simply because the app gives users a method of navigation different than what the native Apple apps use.

When you open the app for the first time a window appears that gives some instructions for navigation. Users ignore this dialogue box at their peril!

Page turning: The new catalog/app gives readers two ways to turn a page. If you tap on the lower right hand corner the pages turn smoothly and elegantly -- its fantastic. But if you swipe the page -- the way you would in a Zinio app, for instance -- the app freezes up and the page eventually turns haltingly. My app crashed the first time I tried to swipe a page.

Zooming: you simply can not zoom the way you are used to. You can pinch all you want and nothing will happen. But if you double tap the page the app zooms in immediately. Then suddenly the multi-touch zooming works like a charm.

In other words, Pixel Mags appears to have created its own iPad navigation language. Guess what? It works -- the app is a vast improvement over the initial catalog. But I fear many users will continue to down rate the app.

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One criticism I had of the Pottery Barn app was that it contained no interactivity, no additional content (I guess that is two criticisms, isn't it?). Looking back at my original story I realize that in an effort to try and not be completely negative I edited out these thoughts. But now, here we are a month later and things are pretty much the same.

Too bad. I think catalogs could working wonderfully on a tablet.

Here is what I'd like to see incorporated into a tablet catalog: in-app purchasing, additional photographs of the merchandise, video, the ability to change the color of the product.  All these seem self-explanatory.

Tablet catalogs can save the merchant thousands in printing and mailing -- but the apps have to be better than the print catalog. Otherwise, what's the point? With a print catalog I can rip out pages, take it to the phone when ordering, etc. The current Pottery Barn iPad catalog doesn't even give you a link to the company's website as a minimal assistance to concluding a sale.

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Who will be the Galloping Gourmet of the iPad? →

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One reason the Pottery Barn app immediately caught my attention is that I am a customer of both Pottery Barn and its parent Williams-Sonoma. When I worked at an online video company a few years ago I contacted Williams-Sonoma about the idea of incorporating online video into their website. I thought the idea having cooking demonstrations videos, using the cookware and food products they offered, would be a great way to increase sales. They weren't interested. Now we have the iPad and its ability to incorporate embedded video and the like. (This morning I posted a story on the new Financial Times app which does a great job with video.)

I guarantee you that eventually a retailer will realize the potential of the iPad in the area of catalog creation. It's only been a month so one shouldn't get too impatient, right?

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What is the lesson for publishers and others who want to see their publications or products on the iPad? I think it is that one should get as familiar with the device as possible so they can be a better partner with their developers. Knowing how the end user reads using a tablet will be important when designing not only the product itself -- layouts, sections and the like -- but also when considering the user interface.

Back before the introduction of the iPad, Bonnier posted a video to YouTube in which it's design partner BERG talked about the user experience on a then hypothetical tablet reader. Now, a month and a half after the launch of the iPad, designers and developers can work with actual tablets, test their own apps, as well as those of other developers. Publisher, too, need to be familiar with both the device itself, as well as how other publisher are using it to publish their products if they are going to avoid the problems currently being seen in many of the current crop of apps.

From single-sponsor to enhanced ads, publishers use different approaches to advertising in their iPad apps

Just over a month into the lifespan of tablet publishing and three models are being used for advertising inside iPad news apps: exact copy, single-sponsor, and enhanced content.

The exact copy approach is being used where publishers are asking third party vendors to reproduce their publications for the iPad, without changes, and rarely with added content. Zinio, for magazines, and PressReader, for newspapers, are examples of companies that are providing good services for publishers where the exact copy approach is being taken (for the most part).

The single-sponsor approach was used immediately by the New York Times when they launched their initial iPad app back on April 3rd -- in this case, Chase Sapphire.

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The iPad app from the Financial Times
uses a single-sponsor approach. →

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The solution makes sense when the publisher wants to recoup some development costs, or reward an advertiser. The advantage, of course, is that it buys the developer time, and allows the sales staff to show off the app to prospective clients.

As I wrote this morning, the Financial Times is using this approach with their app. While the app is free to download the content will eventually be accessible only to paid subscribers. The publisher, however, is allowing limited free access to content and crediting their sponsor, Hublot, for the access. After July content will be behind a paywall, but will all advertising disappear?

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The Sporting News is using Zinio to bring their previously online-only daily sports newspaper Sporting News Today to the iPad. Previously free, the daily now will cost readers 99 cents a day, or $2.99 a month. In my interview with publisher Jeff Price, he reinforced the reasons for the single-sponsor solution and said they are having excellent meetings with advertising prospects pitching the new paid product.

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← Coors Light is the single-sponsor of the Sporting News Today app.

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Because Price is using Zinio to provide iPad access, it is hard to tell what the reader response is to a paid subscription model with advertising -- even if it is a single-sponsor. Many paid apps that contain advertising have been criticized for the practice. This is probably an unreasonable expectation from readers, though. A 99 cent single copy, or $2.99 subscription is hardly enough to pay the bills -- advertising is absolutely necessary to keep reader costs down.

On the other hand, with a more expensive subscription model, like that employed by the Wall Street Journal, and soon by the Financial Times, iPad users may prove more sensitive to the combination of paid content and advertising. Currently the WSJ is getting hammered in iTunes because of problems with their app. Others, however, continue to complain about the Murdoch paper's approach to the iPad. So while the app is the third most popular free news app, users continue to question the paper's pricing policies.

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The third approach is best exemplified by the Vanity Fair app TNM looked at last week. The app actually takes two approaches at the same time: the landscape reader mode duplicates the print edition, with some added content, but no interactive advertising. Using the app in portrait mode, however, is a different experience. Not only is the editorial designed specifically for the tablet, but the advertising contains embedded links to video and the like.

For the Condé Nast book, making sure their new iPad app contained enhanced advertising took some time and effort. No wonder then that the title decided to wait until the June issue to roll out its iPad app. The result is that the sales staff has an excellent presentation tool -- the app itself -- and now use this to  convince additional advertisers of the value of adding multimedia to its advertising palette.

← Vanity Fair's iPad: Ads that appear in portrait mode have embedded video.

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When Apple implements its own mobile advertising strategy with iAd a fourth approach may be viable. This would involve advertising that has no relationship at all to the print edition and is specifically designed for the tablet. Apple will most likely unveil new details about iAd at its developer conference in early June, where it is expected to also officially unveil its newest version of the iPhone.

Controversial Arizona law gets its own iPhone app

It's pretty easy for someone to launch a new website overnight for the purpose of supporting or opposing a political cause or issue, but generally one doesn't develop a mobile application as quickly. Well, that was then and this . . .

A simply named iPhone app, AZ Immigration Law, appeared in iTunes today. The app is simple in the extreme as all it does is reproduce the actual text of the controversial legislation and provides a link that allows the user to e-mail Governor Jan Brewer's office with their own opinion of the bill. The app contains nothing else, and hence no editorial position is expressed within the app.

I Googled the name of the developer, Ken Keller, and got a few hits, but nothing that means much to a guy living far away from the fray in Chicago.

Financial Times iPad app shows advances in form and function; offline edition perfect for the business travel

The financial newspapers, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have a huge advantage both online and in mobile media in that their publishers have an easier time charging for content because of the very nature of the news they provide. Many readers can charge the cost of a subscription to their companies, or take the cost as tax write-off at year's end.

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The new iPad app from the Financial Times. →

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Both newspapers now have introduced free iPhone and iPad apps -- free, however, only in that it does not cost the user money to download the app. Accessing the content will still require a subscription of some sort.

While the WSJ launched their iPad app on April 3rd, the date Apple delivered the first tablets to buyers, the FT has been biding its time. The result is an app that is well-designed and user friendly. This is an app I enjoy using immensely -- especially since users will be able to sample the content until the end of July thanks to a single-sponsor: Hublot.

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Left: The current edition can be downloaded for offline reading;
Right: The user can also click a button to go back to the Live Edition.

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There is much to like about this FT iPad app. For instance, the reader can download the current day's edition for easy offline reading, but can then return to the live edition at the click of a button. This is a perfect option for business travelers who will be able to download their newspapers before boarding their flights, then read their newspapers without the need of an Internet connection.

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Video is only available while online,
but the window-within-a window player
approach is excellent. →

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The main advantage of designing one's app this way is that the user does not end up downloading individual copies of the newspaper, then must deal with multiple issues.

If there is a weakness in the app it is in the inability of the reader to use the multi-touch features common in other apps and the Safari browser. This may have been done on purpose -- to make the app more stable -- but there are other options that developer could have used. For instance, it might be nice to have customizable fonts or font sizes that would be used in the news articles. These are things that could be added in an app update.

The reaction from users so far has been very positive. Although one should take the reviews in iTunes as a scientific survey of user satisfaction, it does give the developer a pretty good feel for how users are feeling about your app. As of this morning, the FT app has far more five-star reviews that one-star reviews -- and the critical reviews either touch on the eventual requirement to buy a subscription, or the lack of font manipulation. But compared to the New York Times app -- which may be popular, in that many iPad users have downloaded it, but highly criticized for its simple design and lack content -- the FT is a definite hit with users.

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Left: The navigation bar at the top; Right: A typical news story layout.

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Morning Brief: Friday afternoon staff meetings rarely mean good news; can Facebook ads sell magazines?

The Guardian reports that the Sunday Times editor, John Witherow, has told his staff that they will soon be launching an iPhone app -- yippee. He also told them that, essentially, print is dead -- boo.

At a staff meeting late Friday -- you know staff meetings late in the day on a Friday are going to to bad -- that things were not looking good due to declining newspaper advertising. He also confirmed a report that the paper's budget may be cut 10 percent, and that the Murdoch owned paper would join others by constructing a paywall. (That is sure to turn things around.)

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This story has gotten a lot of play online, so I'll include it here, though I am obviously skeptical: Synapse, a Time Inc. division, will be working with Alvenda, a company that builds e-commerce applications, to introduce a system that will allow Facebook users to buy magazines online.

I don't know why The Atlantic seems to think this is such a game changer, since I've not seen any proof that Facebook users are dying to buy magazines, or newspapers, or anything else for that matter.

Another player in all this is Next Issue Media, the company created by Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp., and Time Inc. late last year. One question I had at the time was could a company that was created by a consortium move fast enough to compete in the ever changing world of New Media. Their site may give us a clue: their last press release posted was their formation release dated December 8, 2009.

(By the way, the Synapse company involved here is not to be confused with Synapse Multimedia, which I featured on this site.)

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CFE Media LLC, one of the new companies being created out of the ashes of the old Reed Business Information has a new website up -- well, sort of. Jim Langhenry's group, made up of books he once served as publisher on, Control Engineering, Plant Engineering, and Consulting Specifying Engineer, has a web page up.

Apparently, CFE Media will be working with GCN Publishing on its web efforts since the new page is a subdomain of the GCN site. (This may have been required as the new owners work to secure the old URLs from Reed.)