Quad/Graphics partners with YUDU Media to offer branded iPad apps for print customers

Wsconsin-based Quad/Graphics announced today that they will be offering their mgazines, catalogs and retail advertising customers the ability to launch branded iPad apps. The Quad/Graphics Digital Edition platform will be offering the iPad option through its partnership with YUDU Media.

Our new Quad/Graphics iPad App solution is all about creating value for our clients and helping them engage and connect with customers in new ways, as well as generate revenue by enhancing print communications,” said Joel Quadracci, Quad/Graphics Chairman, President & CEO in a company release.

Quad/Graphics became a minority shareholder in YUDU Media in October of last year.

Blogger is back (yeah); old media missed the whole thing

Google was, it appears, trying to upgrade some services on Blogger -- and the results were ugly, a major outage that effecting hundreds (thousands) of websites across the U.S. and Canada.

Trying to find news about the outage was next to impossible as only Google's own users forum seemed to have any information at all -- and that was just that others were crying out that their sites were unusable.

Had a site like Amazon gone down I'm sure the NYT would have had a story on its front page, but a Blogger outage seems to be only big news for the blogging community and community publishers (it was interesting to see so many people claim that the outage was effecting their news sites). But without that same group live and writing there was no one to document the event. A search of online news turned up zip.

Apple introduces new iPhone and OS, now called iOS4

Note: Google continues to have major problems with Blogger. All new posts are being created via mobile and e-mail methods — limiting things to plain text.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., walked onto the floor of the Moscone Center stage late this morning (Pacific time) to give the keynote for Apple’s developer conference, WWDC. For publishers the iPhone introduction would probably have only been of interest if you were an iPhone owner or really into app development. But publishers in today’s environment need to be as excited about APIs as they have been about coated paper stocks — it is the new nerdiness for publishers.

The new iPhone 4 will be released on June 24 and contains the features much discussed on tech sites: front facing camera, new 5 megapixel back facing camera with LED flash, a higher resolution display, the use of Apple’s A4 chip, etc. The new phone will now have a built-in gyroscope, meaning that this marvel will come with five different sensors built-in.

Some of the features may, in reality, prove to be less valuable in reality than they sound at introduction: the new video calling capability called FaceTime, for instance, will only work via Wi-Fi (for now), and only will work from one iPhone 4 to another iPhone 4. Jobs promises to make the protocols available so that it can become an open standard -- and like printing on the iPad, there are always developers waiting in the wings to create enhancements to the framework Apple creates.

Publishers may have found the section on iAd, Apple’s new mobile advertising platform, far more interesting. Previously previewed by Apple in April, the company will be unleashing iAd on the world starting July 1 and have already sold, Jobs told his audience, $60 million worth of ads. Companies that have already signed up include Nissan, Citi Group, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Geico, Campbell’s, Sears, J.C. Penney, Target, Best Buy, DirecTV, TBS and Disney.

Publishers who integrate iAd into their apps get 60% of the revenue generated off of their ads. For mobile publishers, knowing that Apple is going after the cream of the crop may be a good reason to chose Apple’s platform over another mobile advertising plaform such as AdMob, for instance.

If I had to guess, I would think that that the number of apps using iAd on July 1 will be small. But if some of the major third party developers who create media apps integrate iAd we could see quite a number of these new ads very soon. (To recap the merits of iAd: the ad platform creates ads that are interactive, but keep the user within the app. That is, clicking on an iAd opens up a window without shutting down the original app — definitely a better user experience.)

All-in-all, Jobs’ keynote was light on Earth-shattering news for the media world — there was nothing about AppleTV, for instance, or about expanding the iTunes store in any way that might benefit newspaper or magazine publishers. For now, it is steady as she goes. But the developer conference will continue for several days — this was only the beginning, so there may be more news ahead.

Maybe by then Blogger will be working again.
 

NYT updates its iPad app; adds video content

The New York Times updated its NYT Editors’ Choice iPad app this morning, adding a number of new features including video.

The app creates a new video section — though it must be admitted that the section is pretty poorly designed as users just scroll through a very select list of videos. While story content can be downloaded and read offline, video content must have an active Internet connection, just as the Financial Times app requires.

The updated app also now includes Twitter and Facebook sharing, some user interface enhancements and fixes some bugs. I should add that the updated app continuously crashed upon opening for me. To fix the problem I deleted the app and reinstalled it and that fixed the problem.

Whether the Times continues to update this free app, or moves towards a paid model is still unknown. The addition of video is a nice upgrade, but because content is so limited it may be that the Times continues to offer this free app while also launching a more extensive paid version — we’ll see.

(Note: no links or photos in my posts this morning until Google can fix its blogger problems. Unfortunately, the problem appears to be getting worse, not better. For most of this morning I was able to access the Dashboard but was not able to create new posts or edit old ones. Now access to Dashboard is impossible, as well. Posting has been possible only through e-mail and mobile. For those users who have not set up e-mail or mobile posting they are completely locked out.)

Six Apart buys ad network; waiting on Jobs; BP does PR

Short news reads (until blogger is back up):

• Six Apart, the blogging service behind TypePad, Movable Type and Vox announced that they have acquired NaturalPath Media, an online advertising and media network.

“NaturalPath Media is a valuable addition to the Six Apart Media network and strengthens our ability to help marketers reach highly influential green and healthy living consumers while they are engaging with content and conversations that are important to them,” said Chris Alden, CEO and Chairman of Six Apart in a release.

• Steve Jobs will be walking on the stage at Moscone Center at 10 AM PT at WWDC, Apple's developer conference. The obvious announcements revolve around a new iPhone and new iPhone OS, a new version of the Safari browser, and a mystery device that allows you to walk on water while texting.

A number of websites will be live blogging the event -- since I'm not in person you can pretty much figure that TNM will not be one of them. Interestingly (at least to me), Huffington Post will have a live blog.

• BP is about to launch a costly ($50 million) ad campaign that it hopes will makes Americans feel just peachy about the company. The new ads are being created by Purple Strategies, a Washington-based public-affairs firm owned by Republican strategist Alex Castellanos and Democratic consultant Steve McMahon. BP's regular ad agency is Ogilvy & Mather.

Blogger down since Sunday; Google working on a fix

Just in case the e-mail posting system still works, I will try and give readers an update: Google is suffering a major outage this morning, with most Blogspot owners unable to enter new posts, or edit old ones. This is not universal, however — but clearly TNM is being effected this morning.